2 Timothy 3

¹But know this: in the last days difficult times will come. ²For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³without family affection, unwilling to reconcile, slanderers, without self-control, savage, not loving what is good, ⁴traitors, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵having a form of devotion to God but denying its power. Turn away from these people too. ⁶For among them are those who creep into households and take captive foolish women loaded down with sins, led by various desires, ⁷always learning and never able to come to knowledge of the truth. ⁸Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people also oppose the truth, people corrupted in mind and disqualified concerning the faith. ⁹But they will not advance much further, for their folly will become obvious to everyone, as the folly of those two did.

¹⁰But you have closely followed my teaching, my conduct, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my endurance, ¹¹my persecutions and sufferings—what happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, what persecutions I endured. And the Lord rescued me from them all. ¹²Indeed, all who want to live with devotion to God in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. ¹³But evil people and impostors will advance from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

¹⁴But you, remain in what you learned and became convinced of, knowing from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and that from infancy you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the person of God may be capable, equipped for every good deed.

Translation notes 8

3:1–5 — The last days and their character. The future description leads to a present instruction to avoid such people; the text does not supply a calendar. The repeated love language exposes the objects of their devotion. “Devotion to God” is often rendered “godliness.”

3:6–7 — “Foolish women.” The Greek uses a disparaging diminutive of “women,” not a term for all women or for physically small women. “Weak-willed women” is another defensible rendering. The captive and burden images remain; the sins and desires are not identified specifically as sexual. “Always learning” continues to describe these women.

3:8–9 — Jannes and Jambres. These are traditional names for opponents of Moses, not names given in the Exodus narrative itself. The draft retains the reference without adding details from later stories. “Disqualified” concerns their standing in relation to the faith.

3:10–13 — Following and rescue. “Closely followed” can include careful observation and imitation. Rescue does not mean that Paul avoided suffering: the preceding words explicitly say he endured it. The opponents' advance into worsening evil in verse 13 does not erase the limit placed on their advance in verse 9.

3:14 — “From whom.” The Greek base has a plural: Timothy knows the people from whom he learned. A textual variant is singular. The English pronoun can express either number.

3:15–16 — Sacred writings and Scripture. The writings known from Timothy's infancy are the Jewish Scriptures. The passage does not enumerate a later biblical canon. “Every scripture” is another way of expressing the scope of “all Scripture.”

3:16 — “God-breathed.” The wording identifies Scripture with God's breath, commonly expressed as “inspired by God,” without specifying a mechanism of composition. The Greek has no expressed “is.” A significant alternative is “Every scripture inspired by God is also useful.” The draft takes “God-breathed” and “useful” as two coordinated descriptions of Scripture.

3:17 — “The person of God.” Traditionally “the man of God.” The Greek word is the general term for a human being. Timothy is the immediate example; whether the expression specifically concerns God's commissioned workers or extends to every believer is debated. “Every good deed” repeats 2:21.