2 Timothy 2:14

ταῦτα has special reference to the issues of life and death set out in 2 Timothy 2:11-13. There is no such prophylactic against striving about words as a serious endeavour to realise the relative importance of time and of eternity. “He to whom the eternal Word speaks is set at liberty from a multitude of opinions” (De Imitatione Christi, i. 3).

ὑπομίμνησκε : sc. αὐτους, as in Titus 3:1.

διαμαρτυρόμενος : See on 1 Timothy 5:21.

ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ : It is an argument in favour of this reading that ἐνώπιον Κυρίου only occurs once in Paul (in a quotation), in 2 Corinthians 8:21.

λογομαχεῖν : See on 1 Timothy 6:4.

ἐπʼ οὐδὲν χρήσιμον and ἐπὶ καταστροφῇ τῶν ἀκουόντων are coordinate, and describe the negative and the positive results of λογομαχία. The subject of this λογομαχία is probably identical with that of the μάχαι νομικαί of Titus 3:9, which were “unprofitable and vain”.

ἐπὶ καταστροφῇ, κ. τ. λ.: contrast λόγος … ἀγαθὸς προς οἰκοδομὴν τῆς χρείας, Ephesians 4:29; and compare the antithesis between καθαίρεσις and οἰκοδομή in 2 Corinthians 13:10.

It should be added that ἐπʼ οὐδὲν χρήσιμου is connected closely with λογομαχεῖν (or λογομάχει) by Cyr. Alex., Clem. Alex., and the Bohairic version. The Clementine Vulg. renders unambiguously, ad nihil enim utile est; so F.G. add γάρ.

In addition to the weight of adverse textual evidence against the reading λογομάχει, it is open to the objections that ταῦτα θεοῦ, disconnected with what follows, is a feeble sentence; and that μαρτύρομαι and διαμαρτύρομαι in Paul are always followed and completed by an exhortation, e.g., Ephesians 4:17; 1 Timothy 5:21; 2 Timothy 4:1.