2 Timothy 3: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul tells Timothy that in the last days dangerous times will come, and lists the traits of the people who bring them, including those who push into homes and mislead women already weighed down by sin. He compares such men to Jannes and Jambres, who opposed Moses, and says their folly will become obvious. He then points Timothy to his own teaching, way of life, and the persecutions he endured and was rescued from, and says all who want to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. He tells Timothy to continue in what he has learned and in the Scriptures he has known since childhood, which are God-breathed and useful for equipping God's servant for every good work.

Claim by Claim

1. 3:1
   • Paul tells Timothy to know this.
   • In the last days difficult times will arrive.
   • The coming times will be dangerous and hard to bear.
2. 3:2
   • Men will be lovers of themselves.
   • Men will be lovers of money.
   • Men will be boasters.
   • Men will be arrogant.
   • Men will be slanderers of what is sacred.
   • Men will be disobedient to their parents.
   • Men will be ungrateful.
   • Men will be unholy.
3. 3:3
   • Men will be without natural family affection.
   • Men will refuse to make or keep a truce.
   • Men will be slanderers.
   • Men will be without self-control.
   • Men will be savage.
   • Men will not love what is good.
4. 3:4
   • Men will be betrayers.
   • Men will be reckless.
   • Men will be puffed up with conceit.
   • Men will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
5. 3:5
   • They will have an outward form of godliness.
   • They will have denied the power of that godliness.
   • Paul commands Timothy to turn away from such people.
6. 3:6
   • From this group come those who slip into households.
   • These men take weak women captive.
   • These women are heaped up with sins.
   • These women are led along by various desires.
7. 3:7
   • These women are always learning.
   • These women are never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
8. 3:8
   • Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses.
   • In the same way these men oppose the truth.
   • These men are corrupted in mind.
   • These men are disqualified with regard to the faith.
9. 3:9
   • These men will not advance further.
   • Their folly will become plainly evident to everyone.
   • The folly of Jannes and Jambres also became evident.
10. 3:10
    • Timothy has closely followed Paul's teaching.
    • Timothy has closely followed Paul's manner of life.
    • Timothy has closely followed Paul's purpose.
    • Timothy has closely followed Paul's faith.
    • Timothy has closely followed Paul's longsuffering.
    • Timothy has closely followed Paul's love.
    • Timothy has closely followed Paul's endurance.
11. 3:11
    • Timothy has closely followed Paul's persecutions.
    • Timothy has closely followed Paul's sufferings.
    • Such persecutions and sufferings happened to Paul at Antioch.
    • Such persecutions and sufferings happened to Paul at Iconium.
    • Such persecutions and sufferings happened to Paul at Lystra.
    • Paul endured those persecutions.
    • The Lord rescued Paul out of all of them.
12. 3:12
    • All who want to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
13. 3:13
    • Evil men and impostors will advance to what is worse.
    • They deceive others.
    • They are themselves being deceived.
14. 3:14
    • Paul commands Timothy to remain in the things he has learned.
    • Timothy has been convinced of those things.
    • Timothy knows from whom he learned them.
15. 3:15
    • From infancy Timothy has known the holy scriptures.
    • The holy scriptures are able to make Timothy wise unto salvation.
    • That salvation comes through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16. 3:16
    • All scripture is God-breathed.
    • All scripture is profitable for teaching.
    • All scripture is profitable for reproof.
    • All scripture is profitable for correction.
    • All scripture is profitable for training in righteousness.
    • The wording can be read either as 'all scripture is God-breathed and profitable' or as 'every God-breathed scripture is also profitable', and the King James takes the first reading.
17. 3:17
    • The purpose is that the man of God may be complete.
    • The purpose is that the man of God may be fully equipped for every good work.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

3:1

"The last days" was a fixed phrase for the final stretch of history before God's decisive intervention. "Perilous" does not mean merely difficult: the Greek word means harsh or dangerous, and the only other place the King James uses it is Matthew 8:28, of two violent men who were "exceeding fierce."

3:2

"Blasphemers" has narrowed in English to mean speech against God. The Greek word covers abusive, insulting, slanderous speech aimed at anyone. "Covetous" here translates a word that means specifically money-loving, not a general desire for what belongs to others.

3:3

Four items in this list need unpacking. "Without natural affection" is one Greek word for lacking the ordinary bond of love within a family. "Trucebreakers" renders a word meaning unwilling to enter or keep an agreement; it belongs to the language of treaties. "False accusers" is the Greek word diabolos, slanderer, the same word used elsewhere as a title for the devil. "Incontinent" in 1611 English simply meant lacking self-control; the modern medical sense did not exist yet.

3:4

"Heady" meant rash or headlong, plunging ahead without thought. "Highminded" in 1611 was not a compliment: it meant swollen with self-importance, the opposite of its usual modern sense of noble-minded.

3:5

"A form of godliness" uses a Greek word for the outward shape or visible appearance of a thing. "Godliness" translates a term for religious devotion expressed in daily practice, the kind of piety a community could observe from outside.

3:6

"Creep into houses" means working their way into households. Early Christian congregations met in private homes, so a household was also a meeting place. "Silly" in 1611 meant weak, helpless or easily imposed upon, not foolish; the Greek noun is a diminutive of "women" and carries a belittling tone, which is why translators differ over how much contempt to reproduce. "Divers" is the old spelling of "diverse," meaning various.

3:7

In the Greek the description "ever learning" hangs grammatically on the women just mentioned in verse 6, which is why the rendering names them again here.

3:8

Jannes and Jambres are not named anywhere in the Old Testament. Jewish tradition gave these names to the Egyptian magicians who matched Moses trick for trick before Pharaoh in Exodus 7 and 8, and then could go no further. Paul assumes his reader knows the story. "Reprobate" translates a word from metal testing: coin or ore that has been assayed and rejected as not genuine, so "failed the test" rather than "wicked."

3:9

"Manifest" simply means made plain and out in the open, obvious to everyone looking.

3:10

"Doctrine" here just means teaching, with no sense of a formal system. "Charity" in 1611 English meant love; the narrowing to mean giving money to the poor came later. "Longsuffering" and "patience" render two different Greek words: the first is restraint with difficult people, the second is holding out under difficult circumstances. "Fully known" translates a verb meaning to follow alongside something closely, as an eyewitness or a student would.

3:11

Antioch (the one in Pisidia), Iconium and Lystra were towns in what is now central Turkey, visited on Paul's first missionary journey and described in Acts 13 and 14. He was driven out of the first two and stoned and left for dead at the third. Lystra was also Timothy's home town, so these were events he had grown up hearing about or had seen.

3:12

"Persecution" means being hurt, punished, or shut out because of what you believe.

3:13

"Wax" is the old verb meaning to grow or become, as in a waxing moon. "Seducers" translates a Greek word that originally meant a wandering sorcerer or chanter of spells, and came to mean a swindler or impostor generally.

3:14

"Of whom" is plural in the Greek, so the teachers are more than one person. Earlier in the letter Paul mentions Timothy's grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice alongside his own instruction.

3:15

"From a child" translates a word normally used of an infant or a very young child. "The holy scriptures" means the Jewish Scriptures, what Christians later came to call the Old Testament; the New Testament writings did not yet exist as a collection Timothy could have been raised on.

3:16

"Given by inspiration of God" is a single Greek adjective, theopneustos, literally God-breathed. The sentence has no verb in the Greek, so it can be read either as "All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable" or as "Every God-breathed Scripture is also profitable," and translators divide over which. "Reproof" means showing someone that they are in the wrong; "correction" means setting them straight afterward. "Righteousness" here is right conduct, living as one should.

3:17

"Perfect" in 1611 English meant complete or fully finished, not morally flawless. "Throughly" is simply the older spelling of "thoroughly." "Man of God" is a phrase carried over from the Old Testament, where it describes someone commissioned to speak and act for God, such as Moses, Elijah or Elisha.