2 Timothy 3:1-9

2 Timothy 3:1 to 2 Timothy 4:8. Charge to Timothy concerning Future Error.

(a) 2 Timothy 3:1. Future Error and Its Present Germs. Timothy must consider future as well as present dangers. As the Second Advent (never believed by the apostles to be far distant) approaches, the Church will be threatened by men of outrageous life. These also Timothy must avoid. The germs of the evil, indeed, are already present (6), and the statement of its developed results (2 Timothy 3:2) will help him to detect its first beginning. For to this type belong such teachers as privately mislead sinful women who, with fickle curiosity, merely play at seeking instruction. Their forerunners were the magicians who opposed Moses (Exodus 7:11 ff.). But their further progress shall be arrested, like theirs, by open exposure of their folly.

2 Timothy 3:2. cf. Romans 1:29 ff. money: 1 Timothy 6:10; Titus 1:11.

2 Timothy 3:5. Titus 1:16.

2 Timothy 3:8. Jannes, Jambres: Origen believed that Paul obtained these names from an apocryphal book (lamnes et Mambres liber) no longer extant. Alternatively, their source may have been unwritten tradition (see Bernard in CGT).