“fables and endless genealogies”: μυθοις
και γενεαλογιαις απεραντοις, lit., “endless myths and
genealogies.” We get glimpses of this problem in other chapters and NT books:
1Tm 6:3-4 speaks of “questions and strifes of words”; in Ti 1:14 concerning,
“Jewish fables and commandments of men”; in Ti 3:9 concerning “foolish
questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law.” Most of
the promoters of these fictional stories were Jews loosely affiliated with the
Church. Since many of the fables were based in part on the OT, naïve Christians
would be persuaded that the fables had some authority, even paying the Jews for
the information. Paul, who knew Jewish history better than anyone, tells
Timothy that the originators are merely “vain talkers and seducers: especially
they who are of the circumcision. Who must be reproved, who subvert whole
houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake” (Ti
1:10-11). Many of these corrupt teachings came from Jewish ‘midrash halakhah’
or ‘midrash aggadah,’ which were popular commentaries on OT biblical
passages, many concentrating on the genealogies (e.g., Gn 5, 11; 1Ch 1-10)
wherein names of wives and mythical tales were added profusely. The Jewish Book
of Jubilees is another example. Paul calls these “foolish and old wives
fables” (1Tm 4:7). The Jews promoted genealogies because it gave them somewhat of
a prestige among the naïve Christians of Ephesus, making it appear as if they
had a pedigree from ancient times that Christians did not have. (Robert A. Sungenis, The Epistles to Timothy and Titus [Catholic
Apologetics Study Bible 10; State Line, Pa.: Catholic Apologetics International
Publishing, Inc., 2020], 3 n. 6]
Ver. 4. Nor to give
heed to fables and endless genealogies, or disputes about pedigrees from
Abraham and David, which furnish questions rather than the edification of God,
or godly edification. In some Greek MSS. is read, dispensation, or economy; and
so the sense may be, which contribute nothing to the explaining the
dispensation of grace in the mystery of Christ’s incarnation. The construction
of this and the former verse is imperfect, when it is said, as I desired thee,
nothing being expressed corresponding to the word as. Some understand it, As I
desired before, so now in this epistle I desire it of thee again. The same
difficulty occurs in the Greek as in the Latin text. Wi.—The Jews were
accustomed to dispute and make endless questions concerning their origin from
Abraham, Isaac, and other patriarchs, and concerning their different tribes,
which their captivity had confounded together. Hence there was no end of their
questions, how, when, why? which gave rise to many fables, to the great
disturbance of the faithful. Whereas, they ought to have taken the shortest way
to edification, which was to confine themselves to what was of faith. S.
Ambrose. (George Leo Haydock, Haydock’s Catholic Bible Commentary [New
York: Edward Dunigan and Brother, 1859], Logos ed.)
4. Fables and Endless
Genealogies—Cf. 4:7; 6:20; 2 Tim 2:16, 23; Tit 3:9. Some think that these were
part of some teaching similar to that of the later Gnostics, a sort of
pre-Gnosticism, referring to successive generations of aeons or angelic beings
from the creator of the material universe. More probably Paul has in mind
Jewish speculations which added legends and spurious pedigrees to the OT
narrative. The apocryphal Book of Jubilees is an excellent example of the
futile speculation he is attacking. He is obviously not concerned here with
formal heresies which would have been denounced in sterner tones, but rather
with vain and idle questions, quibbling about the Law, all of which was either
misleading or to no purpose. (R. J. Foster, “The Pastoral Epistles,” in A
Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, ed. Bernard Orchard and Edmund F.
Sutcliffe (Toronto: Thomas Nelson, 1953], 1145)
4. “To fables,” which
word probably refers to the fabulous traditions of the Jewish Rabbins, many of
which are to be seen in the Talmud. “And endless genealogies,” which are
understood by some of the Eons of the Gnostics. They are, however, more
commonly understood to refer to the Jewish practice of enumerating their
ancestry, and claiming a descent from Abraham, as if a carnal descent from that
Patriarch were sufficient to make them heirs of his glorious promises, an error
which the Apostle ably refutes, chap. 9 of his Epistle to the Romans. St.
Chrysostom understands it to refer to the heathenish fables respecting the
origin of the Pagan divinities. “The edification of God,” i.e., true piety,
whereby our souls, which are so many temples of the Holy Ghost, are advanced in
the knowledge and love of God, and thus his glory, promoted. This piety is
founded on, and perfected by faith, animated with charity. Instead of
“edification of God,” some Greek copies have, the economy of God. According to
this reading, the Apostle refers to the economy or design of God in bringing
man to salvation through faith, and not through the observance of the
ceremonial precepts of the Mosaic law, or, by the force of human reasonings.
(John MacEvilly, An Exposition of the Epistles of St. Paul and of the
Catholic Epistles, 2 vols. (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son, 1898], 2:90)
