Letter 161

Isidore of PelusiumUnknown|isidore pelusium
From: Isidore of Pelusium, monk at Pelusium
To: Orion
Date: ~410 AD
Context: Isidore explains the syntax of Paul's phrase "forbidding to marry" (1 Timothy 4:3), defending Paul against critics who claimed he wrote himself into a grammatical contradiction.

Since you asked what Paul means by "forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods" [1 Timothy 4:3], know this:

Some people — pretending not to know that Paul had received the gift of knowledge and wisdom, and that he was called "Hermes" for his eloquence [Acts 14:12] — claim that the Apostle failed to control his phrase and inadvertently contradicted himself. They are wrong.

Paul is not forbidding marriage — he is describing those false teachers who do. He is naming their error, not endorsing it. The sentence describes the heretics' teaching, not the Apostle's own instruction. Read the grammar with care, and the inversion disappears.

Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.