2 Timothy 3 - Introduction
Apostolic Life and Doctrine... [ Continue Reading ]
Apostolic Life and Doctrine... [ Continue Reading ]
_This know also_ Lit., -take notice of this," the present tense. Our Lord in Luke 12:39 has the same formula. _in the last days_ -Not only the very last days, towards the end of the world, but in general (according to the Hebrew phrase) _the days to come_, or _the future time_, whether nearer or af... [ Continue Reading ]
Appeal to Timothy for pure life in view of the worse days and lives to come The same three thoughts are still in St Paul's mind, viz. (1) his own life's work and suffering now closed, (2) Timothy's life and teaching as the pattern still for other ministers, (3) the false teachers to be shunned and... [ Continue Reading ]
_For men shall be lovers of their own selves_ -The article is generic; the men who shall live in those times," Alford. SELF-LOVERS, MONEY-LOVERS; the first pair of adjectives in the description go naturally together; the first of the words occurs only here in N.T., the second only in Luke 16:14, -th... [ Continue Reading ]
_without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers_ Or, UNLOVING, UNFORGIVING, SLANDERERS, another triad which starts from another breach of the same fifth commandment, the rending of the family ties of love, and advances to a breach of the sixth commandment in a refusal to make peace, and fu... [ Continue Reading ]
_traitors, heady, highminded_ The last triad again descending, FALSE AND FORWARD AND FULL OF CONCEIT, the spirit of one who -with a light heart" (1) betrays old friends, and (2) rushes headlong on new faiths, and (3) remains to the end impenetrably wrapped in clouds of self-esteem. The second word o... [ Continue Reading ]
_having a form of godliness_ The word for -form" is strictly -formation," its ending implying process rather than result, the producing of the form; hence in Romans 2:20 -thou hast the ideally perfect presentation of knowledge and truth." -The Jew believed that he had in the law the sole embodiment,... [ Continue Reading ]
Appeal to Timothy for pure doctrine in view of the worse doctrines to come 6. _For of this sort_ FOR OF THESE, the reason of the warning; the mischief has begun. _which creep into_ The verb occurs only here in N.T., but is classical. _lead captive_ For the primary sense cf. Luke 21:24; for the de... [ Continue Reading ]
_never able_ The negative used indicates the class of persons conceived of. _the knowledge of the truth_ THE FALL KNOWLEDGE, a -decisive and stable apprehension," Alford. See note on 1 Timothy 2:4. Cf. Lightfoot, _Revision N.T_. p. 61, where he defines our word as -the advanced or perfect knowledge... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now as Jannes and Jambres_ AND LIKE AS; the conjunction should be translated -now" only when there is more of a fresh departure; the present is only a small additional paragraph. Jannes and Jambres are nowhere else mentioned in Scripture. The Targum of Jonathan inserts their names in Exodus 7:11, M... [ Continue Reading ]
_But they shall proceed no further_ The same words as in 2 Timothy 2:16, where their advance is predicted. Here the future beyond that advance is seen. The adverbial phrase with the verb lends itself to this double meaning, being in the comparative and so capable of being rendered there -still farth... [ Continue Reading ]
_But thou hast fully known my doctrine_ The ms. authority on the whole favours the aorist, which suits also the aorists of 2 Timothy 3:14 and does not assert, as the perfect would, the certainty of Timothy's settled continuance in -following." The perfect may have come in from 1 Timothy 4:6, where i... [ Continue Reading ]
The appeal for pure life and doctrine in view both of St Paul's own past and the evil future The connexion is: -You were trained to a life the opposite of all this, in learning to copy me, in learning to rest all upon the Scriptures; see that you live the life.... [ Continue Reading ]
_afflictions, which came unto me_ It is better to make the -afflictions" go with the preceding, and make a new clause commence with the relative. So R.V. SUFFERINGS; WHAT THINGS BEFELL ME; WHAT PERSECUTIONS. The Antioch meant is that in Pisidia, originally planted by the Magnesians. Seleucus the so... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yea, and all_ The force of the two conjunctions is shewn in note on 1 Timothy 3:10. _that will live godly_ WHOSE WILL IS, compare Luke 16:26, -they whose will is to pass from hence to you." -In Christ Jesus." The whole phrase is nearly the equivalent of -to lead a godly and a Christian life" (Bapt... [ Continue Reading ]
_But evil men and seducers_ The word -seduce" in A.V. occurs nine times in Old and New Testament always in the general sense of -lead astray"; everywhere except here it is used to represent the Greek word for this cognate to the English word -planet" -the wanderer," (cf. Jude's -wandering stars") an... [ Continue Reading ]
_But continue thou_ -Thou" emphatic; -continue," better ABIDE, i.e. make no downward progress, go not astray: the construction of the next clause illustrates the brevity of the Greek use of the relative; lit. -in those things which thou didst learn, and as to which thou wert fully persuaded." The la... [ Continue Reading ]
_from a child_ Lit. FROM A BABE; the word occurs four times in St Luke's -Gospel of the Infancy," ch. 1 and 2, and again Luke 18:15; Acts 7:19. _thou hast known_ Lit. -thou knowest," the perfect having this present force, and the Greek idiom in a phrase like this using the present where we use the... [ Continue Reading ]
_All scripture_ The word for -Scripture" occurs fifty-one times in N.T., always, except 2 Peter 3:16, of the recognised Old Testament Scriptures, the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, or of one or more of them; in 2 Peter 3:16 the reference is to St Paul's epistles and to -the other Scriptures... [ Continue Reading ]
_the man of God_ As in 1 Timothy 6:11. _perfect_ In the sense in which, for example, Confirmation is sometimes said to make -a perfect Christian," i.e. one perfectly equipped and supplied with the full measure of gifts and graces through the Holy Spirit. The word for -perfect" here occurs nowhere e... [ Continue Reading ]