Theophylact of Ohrid, on 1Tim 4:1

“Now the Spirit manifestly saith, that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error, and doctrines of devils,”

“That is, obviously, clearly, and not covertly, as the law and the prophets. Since the apostle said above that some had suffered shipwreck in the faith, do not be surprised, he says, that now some hold to Jewish errors. A time will come when those who consider themselves Christians will do works even worse. The apostle says this not about the Jews, for they existed in ancient times, as also in that time, but about the Marcionites, Encratites, Manichaeans, and all their assemblies of that sort. For, attending to these things, they condemned certain foods and marriage. However, the apostle has in mind here all other heresies as well, for they are all from the seduction of lying spirits and the teaching of demons. Yet he does not clearly mention all heresies here, so as not to sow them in the souls of people: he points to the heresy that had already begun, namely concerning foods and marriage.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.