Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Timothy 3:13

πονηροὶ δὲ ἄνθρωποι, but (sc. in contrast with those οἱ θέλοντες ζῆν εὐσεβῶς) evil men. Cp. 2 Thessalonians 3:2.

καὶ γόητες, and impostors, lit. wizards. The word does not occur again in the Greek Bible, but we have γοητεία in 2Ma 12:24 in the sense of ‘crafty guile.’ Its use here is no doubt suggested by the comparison in 2 Timothy 3:8 of the ἑτεροδιδάσκαλοι to the Egyptian magicians, Jannes and Jambres. It would seem from its employment here that the ‘false teachers’ whom the Apostle had in his mind professed magical arts, though this is not certain, inasmuch as γόης is not necessarily equivalent to μάγος. (See Introd. p. liv.)

προκόψουσιν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον, will make advance towards the worse. This is not contradictory of 2 Timothy 3:9 (which see), for here it is the intensity, as there the diffusion, of the evil which is in question.

πλανῶντες καὶ πλανώμενοι, deceiving and being deceived. The two generally go together. Few men admit to themselves that they are deliberate impostors; the practice of deceit is intolerable unless it be partly hidden from the actor by self-deceit. And, further, πλανώμενοι is strictly passive, not middle; the deceivers may have themselves been deceived by the teachers who seduced them from the middle way of truth. Cp. Titus 3:3.

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Timothy 3:13

Old Testament

New Testament