2 Timothy 3

2 Timothy 3:1

But you are to take notice of the prediction of Christ, Matt. xxiv. 9, 12, that in these times preceding that famous coming of Christ to punish the cru-

¹⁶ Or, sheil: see note [b] 2 Cor. iv. ¹⁷ for, els. ¹⁸ for, els. ¹⁹ useful,

εὐχρηστον. ²⁰ made ready, ἡτοιμασμένον. ²¹ bearing with evil, ἀνεξίκανον. ²² whe-

ther God at length may not. ²³ Or, to come to the ackn.: for the King’s MS. adds ἐλθεῖν.

²⁴ and they awake, or, recover, καὶ ἀνανῆψωσιν. ²⁵ (having been caught by him,) to the

will of him, ἐζωγρημένοι ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ, εἰς τὸ ἐκείνον θέλημα. ¹ hard, χαλεποί.

2 Timothy 3:8

[a] Jannes and Jambres] These names of Jannes and Jambres are not to be met with in the story of the Old Testament, but are here taken out of other records of the Jews (as divers other things mentioned in the New Testament; for example, Moses’s being brought up

2 Timothy 3:10

Thou hast another pattern to follow, quite

2 Timothy 3:12

Yea, and at such times as these, when Christianity is so violently opposed by the unconverted Jews, it is to be expected by all that resolve on a true constant Christian course, that it shall infallibly bring persecution upon them.

2 Timothy 3:13

But such impious godless sorcerers (see ver. 7.) and deceivers as these shall grow every day worse and worse, and more pernicious than other, deceiving others, and themselves at last most sadly deceived and mistaken of any, when all their arts of securing shall but destroy themselves, or being delivered up to be deceived themselves, as a just judgment for their deceiving of others.

2 Timothy 3:14

But do thou hold fast that form of sound doctrine which was taught thee to teach others; and remembering from whom thou hadst it, thou wilt have no reason to doubt or suspect the truth of it.

2 Timothy 3:15

And having been instructed in the understanding of the holy scriptures of the Old Testament ever since thou wert a child, thou wilt certainly, by the help of the Christian doctrine which thou hast received, be able to discern and understand the truth, and distinguish it from their false doctrines.

2 Timothy 3:16

For all those writings which, either by God’s spirit of prophecy, or by any other afflation or incitation from God, have at any time been written by the prophets, &c. and, as such, received into the canon of the Jewish church, may by us be profitably made use of, to teach us many things that Christ hath taught us, to convince us of the grossness of many sins which are confidently practised among men, to reduce those that fall through error or ignorance, to build up those that have begun and set out in the way of righteousness:

2 Timothy 3:17

That the teacher or preacher of the gospel, sent and authorized by God, may by the study of the scripture be furnished for all turns, enabled to discharge his whole duty toward the souls of others.

2 Timothy 3:21

Which may therefore stir up every man to be emulous of the best, to be sure to rid himself from these pollutions of the Gnostics; and then, as he shall be more valued by Christ, so he shall be fitter to serve him in purity and every other Christian duty.

2 Timothy 3:22

But be sure to keep thyself from all those carnal affections which younger men are most subject to; and not only those of impurity, which the Gnostics indulge and allow to all, that they may insnare them, but also contentions, and factions, and emulations, and love of glory, &c. And on the contrary, be thou an emulous and earnest pursuer and follower of innocence, fidelity, and firm charity, conjunction and agreement with all those that in purity and sincerity adhere constantly to Christ.

2 Timothy 3:23

As for those idle and unprofitable questions that are set on foot by the Gnostics, that tend to no benefit, and have nothing of true knowledge in them, keep thyself carefully from them, for they will breed debates and quarrels, and nothing else.

2 Timothy 3:24

And there is nothing more unlike a true Christian than that; he that is such must be mild and quiet and peaceable toward all others; and being in place as thou art, must be ready and industrious to instruct others in the truth, and not apt or forward to punish those that do amiss: (see note [b] 1 Cor. xiii.) 25, 26. With great calmness and temper dealing with those that are of different opinions from us, though in opposing us they oppose the truth, as counting it not impossible or hopeless, but that by the grace of God they may be brought to repentance, and so come to acknowledge the truth at length, and recover out of Satan’s snare, by whom they have been caught, to do the will of God; that is, that being delivered out of Satan’s hands they may prove fit instruments of God’s service. ### CHAP. III. THIS know also, that in the last days ¹ perilous times shall come.

2 Timothy 3:26

[d] his will] That τὸ θέλημα, will, refers not to the devil, which is the immediate antecedent, but to God, which is the remote, ver. 25, may be conjectured by the word ἐκεῖνον joined with it; for if it belonged to the devil, the αὐτοῦ, his, immediately precedent, would have served the turn, and the addition of this other demonstrative, not ejus, but illius (though our English hath no diversity or variety of words to express it,) clearly divides it from αὐτοῦ, him. The only difficulty will be, whether εἰς τὸ θέλημα ἐκεῖνον shall be thought to denote the impulsive cause, God’s will or pleasure in giving repentance, (and so the words be rendered, according to his will,) or the terminus to which their recovering tendeth. To this latter the context seems to incline, by comparing this verse with ver. 25, for there God’s giving repentance εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν, to the acknowledgment, makes εἰς, to, a note of the term to which that repentance tended, to wit, the acknowledgment of the truth, and then by analogy, ἀνανήψωσιν εἰς θέλημα, recover to the will, will make θέλημα (the will of God) the term again to which (as the snare of the devil was the term out of which) they recover; and accordingly θέλημα Θεοῦ, the will of God, is his will to be obeyed, or practised, Ephes. vi. 6, and so our sanctification is said to be the will of God. As for a third possible rendering of it, that they should be said to be taken and caught by the devil, at or according to the will of God, permitting them so to be, that is made improbable by the punctuation, the commas before and after, ἐζωγρημένοι ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ, taken, or caught, by him, putting those words as in a parenthesis, and connecting εἰς τὸ ἐκεῖνον θέλημα, to the will of him, to the verb precedent ἀνανήψωσιν, recover, thus, whether they may not recover to his will, that is, to that state, those practices which God requires. As for the distance betwixt ἐκεῖνον, of him here, and Θεὸς God, ver. 25, which may make this interpretation less probable, it is very ordinarily to be observed, and in the very next chapter, vv. 8, 9, we have an example of it, where the ὡς καὶ ἡ ἐκείνων, as also theirs, in the end of the ninth verse, is as far distant from Jannes and Jambres in the beginning of the eighth verse, (to which it certainly refers,) as ἐκεῖνον is distant here from Θεός. Theophylact goes farther yet, and will have the phrase, caught and taken by him, refer to God also. But that cannot well be admitted, because in all reason they must be conceived to be caught by him who lays the snare, and that is the devil in the former part of the verse.