My lovely wife and I have been reading through Ecclesiastes in our devotional time. Last night we read Ec 5.13-17:

13 There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, 14 and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. 15 As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. 16 This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? 17 Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger. (Ec 5.13-17)

This reminded me of 1Ti 6.6-10:

6 Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1Ti 6.6-10)

And, to a degree, 1Ti 6.17-19:

17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1Ti 6.17-19)

Michael Gilleland, at the Laudator Temporis Acti blog, has a post on The Root of All Evil where he quotes Sophocles, Antigone 295-301, in Greek and English.

Here's the English. Be sure to check his site for the Greek.

There is no institution so ruinous for men as money; money sacks cities, money drives men from their homes! Money by its teaching perverts men's good minds so that they take to evil actions! Money has shown men how to practise villainy, and taught them impiousness in every action! (Sophocles, Antigone 295-301)

There are five "Faithful Sayings" in the Pastoral Epistles, each introduced or concluded with the phrase πιστὸς ὁ λόγος. They are: 1Ti 1.15; 1Ti 3.1; 1Ti 4.9; 2Ti 2.11; Tt 3.8. At least, those are the verses that πιστὸς ὁ λόγος occurs in.

Several times, Rev 22.6 is offered as a cross-reference, primarily because the words λόγος and πιστὸς are related:

καὶ εἶπεν μοι· οὗτοι οἱ λόγοι πιστοὶ καὶ ἀληθινοι ... , which is translated in the ESV as "And he said to me, 'These words are trustworthy and true. ... ' (Rev 22.6, ESV)

In church this past Sunday, the message was on Heb 10.19-23. Check out verse 23:

κατέχωμεν τὴν ὁμολογίαν τῆς ἐλπίδος ἀκλινῆ, πιστὸς γὰρ ὁ ἐπαγγειλάμενος, — in the ESV, this is "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful." (Heb 10.23, ESV)

As regards vocabulary, Rev 22.6 is the better cross-reference. But as regards structure and grammatical concept, wouldn't Heb 10.23 be a better cross reference? Take out the post-positive γὰρ and it is a dead-on match: πιστὸς plus ὁ plus [masc. nom. sing. substantive]. Right?

• πιστὸς ὁ λόγος
• The saying is trustworthy or Faithful is the word
• πιστὸς γὰρ ὁ ἐπαγγειλάμενος
• for he who promised is faithful or perhaps Faithful is the promiser or even The promiser is trustworthy

I haven't done much examination of commentaries relative to this exact reference (Heb 10.23), but as I recall one issue that is generally raised is the lack of use of similar vocabulary or structure in the NT but the repeated use of πιστὸς ὁ λόγος in the Pastorals. It seems fishy to many folks who posit a later date for the Pastorals. Makes me wonder if they've examined πιστὸς ὁ λόγος in light of πιστὸς γὰρ ὁ ἐπαγγειλάμενος in Heb 10.23

I'll have to check and see if Knight handles it.

In working through the Pastoral Epistles, one runs across 1Ti 4.16:

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

This sort of phrasing is also seen in some writings of the Apostolic Fathers:

I do not think that I have given trivial advice about self-restraint. And whoever takes my advice will have no regrets, but will instead save both himself and me, the one who has given the advice. There is no small reward for the one who converts a person who is going astray toward destruction, that he may be saved. (2Cl 15.1, Ehrman)

Do not be deceived, my brothers; those who corrupt their households will not inherit the kingdom of God. If then those who do such things according to the flesh die, how much more the one who corrupts the faith of God through an evil teaching, the faith for which Jesus Christ was crucified? Such a person is filthy and will depart into the unquenchable fire; so too the one who listens to him. (IEph 16.1-2, Ehrman)

There are others, of course, and they're listed in the article. What I've done is create a few very general patterns (based on morphology of portions of the phrase in 1Ti 4.16) and searched other corpora for that pattern. The PDF article simply lists semi-relevant instances that I culled from the 100+ hits located in corpora such as the Apostolic Fathers, OT Pseudepigrapha, Works of Philo and Works of Josephus.

I'm currently working through chapter 4 of First Timothy. Tonight I was in 1Ti 4.3 and came across the phrase by those who believe and know the truth.

The Greek of this is: τοῖς πιστοῖς ἐπεγνωκόσι τὴν ἀλήθειαν.

Upon hitting the phrase "know the truth", I thought immediately of 1Ti 2.4: " ... who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth".

The Greek of the phrase in 1Ti 2.4 is: ὅς πάντας ἀνθρόπους θέλει σωθῆναι και εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἀληθείας ἐλθεῖν.

First of all, I was amazed because this is one of the few times (but starting to become more frequent) where I noticed a cross-reference based on the Greek phrase instead of an English phrase. After reading 1Ti 4.3 I thought "I think there's similar language in 1Ti 2.4 ... " so I looked.

Second, could 2.4 be an echo of 4.3? Could these verses be using similar language to refer to the same group? 2.4 mentions "people to be saved", 4.3 mentions "those who believe"; 2.4 mentions "the knowledge of the truth", 4.3 mentions those who "know the truth".

I think so. I don't think the repetition is an accident. I'll have to do some searching around on variations on the phrase. I'm not proposing some sort of larger unit that runs from 2.1 through 4.5 with the phrase supplying some sort of inclusio, that wouldn't make much sense. But the similar phrasing does help indicate cohesion between sections within First Timothy. I'll also have to check Van Neste to see if he mentions it.