2 Timothy 4: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul gives Timothy a solemn charge to preach the message and keep at it, warning that people will stop putting up with sound teaching and will collect teachers who tell them what they want to hear. Paul says his own life is ending: he has finished the race and expects the crown of righteousness, which he says goes to everyone who loves Christ's appearing. He then asks Timothy to come quickly, lists who has left and who remains, asks for his cloak and books, warns about Alexander the coppersmith, and tells how the Lord stood by him when no one else did. The chapter closes with greetings and a final blessing.

Claim by Claim

1. 4:1
   • The speaker charges Timothy.
   • The charge is made before God and before the Lord Jesus Christ.
   • Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead.
   • His appearing and his kingdom are named in the charge.
   • It is left unclear whether his appearing and his kingdom mark when he will judge or are further grounds invoked in the charge.
2. 4:2
   • Timothy is told to preach the word.
   • Timothy is told to be ready in season and out of season.
   • Timothy is told to reprove.
   • Timothy is told to rebuke.
   • Timothy is told to exhort.
   • This is to be done with all patience and with teaching.
3. 4:3
   • A time will come when people will not tolerate sound teaching.
   • Instead they will accumulate teachers for themselves to suit their own desires.
   • Their ears will itch for what they want to hear.
4. 4:4
   • They will turn their ears away from the truth.
   • They will be turned aside to myths.
5. 4:5
   • Timothy is told to be sober and watchful in all things.
   • Timothy is told to endure hardship.
   • Timothy is told to do the work of an evangelist.
   • Timothy is told to carry out his ministry fully.
6. 4:6
   • The speaker is already being poured out like a drink offering.
   • The time of the speaker's departure is at hand.
7. 4:7
   • The speaker has fought the good fight.
   • The speaker has finished his course.
   • The speaker has kept the faith.
8. 4:8
   • From now on a crown of righteousness is laid up for the speaker.
   • The Lord will give that crown to the speaker on that day.
   • The Lord is the righteous judge.
   • The crown is given not to the speaker only.
   • The crown is given also to all who have loved his appearing.
9. 4:9
   • Timothy is told to make every effort to come to the speaker soon.
10. 4:10
    • Demas has forsaken the speaker.
    • Demas loved this present age.
    • Demas has gone to Thessalonica.
    • Crescens has gone to Galatia.
    • Titus has gone to Dalmatia.
11. 4:11
    • Only Luke is with the speaker.
    • Timothy is told to take Mark and bring him along.
    • Mark is useful to the speaker for ministry.
12. 4:12
    • The speaker sent Tychicus to Ephesus.
13. 4:13
    • The speaker left a cloak at Troas with Carpus.
    • Timothy is told to bring that cloak when he comes.
    • Timothy is told to bring the books.
    • Timothy is told to bring especially the parchments.
14. 4:14
    • Alexander the coppersmith did the speaker much harm.
    • The speaker asks that the Lord repay Alexander according to his deeds.
15. 4:15
    • Timothy is told to be on guard against Alexander as well.
    • Alexander strongly opposed the speaker's words.
16. 4:16
    • At the speaker's first defense no one stood with him.
    • Everyone forsook the speaker.
    • The speaker asks that it not be charged against them.
17. 4:17
    • The Lord stood with the speaker.
    • The Lord strengthened the speaker.
    • This was so that through the speaker the proclamation might be fully made.
    • This was so that all the Gentiles might hear.
    • The speaker was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
18. 4:18
    • The Lord will deliver the speaker from every evil work.
    • The Lord will bring the speaker safely into his heavenly kingdom.
    • Glory is ascribed to him forever and ever.
    • Amen.
19. 4:19
    • Timothy is told to greet Prisca and Aquila.
    • Timothy is told to greet the household of Onesiphorus.
20. 4:20
    • Erastus stayed at Corinth.
    • The speaker left Trophimus sick at Miletus.
21. 4:21
    • Timothy is told to make every effort to come before winter.
    • Eubulus sends greetings to Timothy.
    • Pudens sends greetings.
    • Linus sends greetings.
    • Claudia sends greetings.
    • All the brothers send greetings.
22. 4:22
    • The Lord Jesus Christ is invoked to be with Timothy's spirit.
    • Grace is invoked to be with you all.
    • Amen.

Words Worth Explaining

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

4:1

"Quick" here is the old English word for living, as in "the quick and the dead." It has nothing to do with speed. "Appearing" translates a Greek word used of a god or a ruler showing himself in public, and of a royal visit to a city; it is the word behind English "epiphany." The word for "charge" is a solemn one, close to putting someone under oath with named witnesses present.

4:2

"Be instant" in 1611 meant be urgent and standing ready, pressing at the task; it does not mean instantaneous. "In season, out of season" means at convenient moments and inconvenient ones alike. "Longsuffering" is patience that holds up under provocation, and "doctrine" simply means teaching, with no sense of a formal creed.

4:3

"Sound" translates a Greek word meaning healthy or in good health, the root of English "hygiene," so the picture is of teaching that keeps a person well. "Lusts" in 1611 English meant desires of any kind, not sexual desire in particular. The itching ears are the hearers' own: they collect teachers who will scratch the itch by saying what they want to hear.

4:4

"Fables" translates the Greek word "mythos," meaning a tale or story as opposed to a report of fact. In this period it often carried the sense of an invented religious tale.

4:5

"Watch thou" translates a word that literally means to be sober rather than drunk, used more widely for staying clear-headed and alert. "Evangelist" is a Greek word carried over into English rather than translated; it means one who announces good news. "Make full proof of thy ministry" means carry your service through to the finish, and "ministry" here is the ordinary Greek word for service or errand-running.

4:6

"Ready to be offered" translates a verb meaning to be poured out as a drink offering: wine poured out beside or over a sacrifice, a rite familiar to both Jewish and Greek and Roman worshipers. The image is of a life being emptied out. "Departure" translates a word used for unyoking an animal, striking a tent, or loosing a ship from its mooring, and it was a common polite way of speaking of death.

4:7

All three phrases come from the world of the athletic games. "Fought a good fight" uses the noun for a contest in the arena, covering wrestling and boxing as well as racing, and "my course" is the running track or the race run on it. "Kept the faith" can mean held on to what was entrusted to him, and was also a stock phrase for keeping one's word or staying loyal.

4:8

The "crown" is not a royal crown but a wreath, usually of leaves, placed on the head of the winner at the games or given for public honor. Greek used a different word for a king's diadem. "Laid up" means stored away and reserved, as goods are kept in a strongroom. "That day" is a standing phrase for the day of judgment.

4:9

Paul is writing from prison in Rome. Timothy was far away, and the trip would take weeks by land and sea.

4:10

Thessalonica was a major port city in Macedonia, in the north of what is now Greece. Galatia was an inland region in central Asia Minor, modern Turkey. Dalmatia lay on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, in the area of modern Croatia. "This present world" translates a word meaning the present age or the current state of things, rather than the planet.

4:11

Mark is usually identified with the John Mark of Acts, who had left Paul and Barnabas partway through an earlier journey and became the cause of a sharp split between them. "Profitable to me for the ministry" means useful to me in the work, "ministry" again being the ordinary word for service.

4:12

Tychicus was one of Paul's traveling companions and carried letters for him. Ephesus was a large port city on the west coast of Asia Minor, in modern Turkey, and according to 1 Timothy 1:3 it was where Timothy was working.

4:13

The "cloke" is a heavy outer garment of thick wool, worn over everything else and used as a blanket on the road; in a cold cell before winter it would matter a great deal. Troas was a port on the northwest coast of Asia Minor. The "books" are papyrus scrolls, and "the parchments" are sheets of treated animal skin, far more durable and far more expensive, used for documents meant to last. What they contained is not stated.

4:14

A "coppersmith" worked in copper and bronze, and the word was used loosely of metalworkers in general. The line about repayment is genuinely uncertain: the Greek verb form in the best manuscripts is a plain future, "the Lord will repay him," while other manuscripts and the King James read it as a wish, "the Lord reward him." The phrase "according to his works" is drawn from the Old Testament.

4:15

"Be thou ware" is simply the older form of "beware." "Withstood our words" means set himself against the message we speak.

4:16

"My first answer" is a legal term: "answer" translates "apologia," the speech a defendant made in his own defense in court. Roman cases often ran in stages, so this is a first hearing rather than the whole trial. "No man stood with me" reflects the Roman practice by which friends and patrons appeared alongside a defendant to vouch for his character.

4:17

"Gentiles" means everyone who is not Jewish, and the same Greek word also means the nations. "Delivered out of the mouth of the lion" is deliberately open: it could mean literal lions in the arena, or be a figure of speech for deadly danger, drawn from the Psalms and from the story of Daniel, or stand for the emperor or the Roman court. The text does not say which.

4:18

"Amen" is a Hebrew word. It means "yes, that is true" or "let it be so."

4:19

Prisca is the same woman called Priscilla elsewhere in the New Testament; Prisca is the formal form of the name. She and her husband Aquila were tentmakers who worked alongside Paul. A "household" in this period meant everyone living under one roof, including relatives, servants and slaves, not just the immediate family.

4:20

"Miletum" is the King James spelling of Miletus, a port city on the coast of Asia Minor about thirty miles south of Ephesus. Corinth was a major city in southern Greece.

4:21

This is a practical deadline, not a figure of speech. Shipping across the Mediterranean largely stopped from about November to March because of storms, so anyone who missed the sailing season was stuck where he was until spring. "Brethren" is the standard term for fellow members of the group, covering women as well as men.

4:22

The two blessings differ in the Greek. "With thy spirit" is singular, addressed to Timothy alone; "grace be with you" is plural, addressed to a group, which suggests the letter was expected to be read out to a congregation. "Amen" is a Hebrew word meaning something like "so be it" or "this is firm," said to endorse what has just been spoken.