1 Timothy 5:6 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

But she that liveth in pleasure— The Jews had a common saying among them, "that wicked men, while they live, are to be reckoned among the dead." The Pythagoreans built empty tombs for those who had revolted from philosophy; and it was reckoned a beautiful thought in Pythagoras, and other ancient heathens, "that a worthless man is a dead man." That the same thought is not as much admired in St. Paul's writings, in which it is to be taken in a deeply spiritual sense, and is very frequentlyused, can proceed from nothing but an unreasonable partiality for what is of heathen extraction, and a most ungenerous contempt of what is Jewish or Christian, and, above all, from a total ignorance of all genuine religion, and the whole plan of redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ. But, for spiritual remarks on this passage, see the Inferences and Reflections.