Deposit

de-poz'-it (paratheke, 1 Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 1:12; 2 Tim 1:14 the Revised Version, margin, paraphrased in both the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) into "that which is committed" (see Commend)): The noun was used in the classical Greek, just as its English equivalents, for "that which is placed with another for safe keeping," a charge committed to another's hands, consisting often of money or property; compare Exod 22:7; Lev 6:2. This practice was common in days when there were no banks.

(1) In 1 Tim 6:20; also 2 Tim 1:14, the reference is to a deposit which God makes with man, and for which man is to give a reckoning. The context shows that this deposit is the Christian faith, "the pattern of sound words" (2 Tim 1:13), that which is contrasted with the "oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called" (1 Tim 6:20). "Keep the talent of the Christian faith safe and undiminished" (Vincentius Lirenensis).

(2) In 2 Tim 1:12, the deposit is one which man makes with God. The key to the meaning of this expression is found probably in Ps 31:5: "Into thy hand I commend my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me," i.e. "All that I am, with all my interests, have been entrusted to Thy safe keeping, and, therefore, I have no anxieties with respect to the future. The day of reckoning, `that day,' will show how faithful are the hands that hold this trust."

H. E. Jacobs