Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadLange Commentary - 2 Timothy 3:1 - 3:9
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Prophecy of grievous times, and warning against dangerous, false teachers
2Ti_3:1-9
2Ti_3:2. For men shall be, &c. Such men as the Apostle here describes, there have been at all times, and the Apostle does not say that they will be then such for the first time, nor that all men without exception shall be such, but he describes (exceptis excipiendis) the moral-spiritual physiognomy of the times which he beholds approaching, in which the beneficent influence of the gospel upon the heart, the household, and the daily life will be less seen than in the apostolic age.—Lovers of their own selves, ößëáõôïé ( ἅðáî ëåãüì .). Original cause of all wickedness, so that they make their own I the centre of their thinking, feeling, willing, and doing.—Covetous, öéëÜñãõñïé ; wholly like the Pharisees (Luk_16:14; comp. 1Ti_3:3).—Boasters, ἀëÜæïíåò ; noisy self-assertors, like criers in the markets, who rove about everywhere. Ambrose, insolentes.—Proud, ὑðåñÞöáíïé ; who not only plume themselves at all times upon their own advantages, but also look down contemptuously upon others.—Blasphemers, âëÜóöçìïé (1Ti_1:13); used specially in reference to God, employed here more generally.—Disobedient to parents (comp. Rom_1:30), where, in like manner, several of the corruptions here named are stated. The rejection of lawful authority is also, in Judges 8, a distinguishing trait of the antichristian way of doing, and is here, moreover, adduced as the source of the sins now to be mentioned.—Unthankful, ἀ÷Üñéóôïé ; men who will know nothing of thanks for heavenly or for earthly benefits (comp. 1Ti_1:9; Luk_6:35).—Unholy, ἀíüóéïé ; profane, irreligious, to whom nothing holy is holy.
2Ti_3:3. Without natural affection, ἄóôïñãïé ; not only sine affectione (Vulg.), but sine affectione naturali (comp. Rom_1:31).—Truce-breakers, ἄóðïíäïé ; “as well those who will make no compact, as those also who do not hold to a compact they have made—breakers of agreements;” Huther.—False accusers, äéÜâïëïé (1Ti_3:11; Tit_2:3).—Incontinent, ἀêñáôåῖò ; who cannot control themselves (comp. 1Co_7:5).—Fierce, ἀíÞìåñïé ; untamed, wild.—Despisers of those that are good, ἀöéëÜãáèïé ; for the opposite, see Tit_1:8. Å÷èñïὶ ðáíôὸò ἀãáèïῦ ; Theophylact.
2Ti_3:4. Traitors, ðñïäüôáé ; not openly (which would conflict with 2Ti_3:5), but men with whom neither truthfulness nor faith is found.—Heady, ðñïðåôåῖò ; rash, fickle (Act_19:36), men under the influence of their prejudices, who do not act according to high principles, but by the pressure of circumstances.—High-minded, ôåôõöùìÝíïé (comp. 1Ti_3:6; 1Ti_6:4), beclouded wholly through vain self-delusion.—Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, öéëÞäïíïé ìᾶëëïí ἤ öéëüèåïé ; who pursue pleasure more than they ask after God (comp. 1Jn_2:15; Rom_16:18; Php_3:18).
2Ti_3:5. Having a form of godliness, ἔ÷ïíôåò ìüñöùóéí åὐóåâåßáò . Ìüñöùóéò stands here as antithesis to substance (Wiesinger); and also, observing, in thorough pharisaic style, the forms of the service of God with the neglect of the essence of the thing.—But denying the power thereof (viz., ô . åὐóåâåßáò ), ôὴí äὲ äýíáìéí áὐôῆò ἠñíçìÝíïé ; so that they not only miss the power of godliness, but wilfully reject it (comp. the delineation of false prophets, Mat_7:15-20). With these last traits, in a measure the summary of all the preceding, into which they resolve themselves as into a higher unity, the Apostle ends this large register of sins.—From, such turn away, êáὶ ôïýôïõò ἀðïôñÝðïõ . He says, therefore, without any qualification, ἈðïôñÝðåóèáé ; occurring here only = ἐêôñÝðåóèáé , aversari (1Ti_6:20). When we compare this unqualified admonition with the requisition to gentleness which is given in 2Ti_2:24-26, in respect of the erring, it becomes clear that the Apostle had in his mind there entirely different men from those here. But if one ask how he could warn against such men with so great assurance, it becomes obvious, from 2Ti_3:6, that he already recognized their ðñïäñüìïé and spiritual kith in the immediate neighborhood of Timothy.
2Ti_3:6. For of this sort, &c. Such will these persons be, for that can be seen from their forerunners already at hand.—Which creep into houses, ἐíäýíïíôåò åἰò ôὰò ïἰêßáò . It is known within what narrow limits, in the East, mutual intercourse between the sexes was confined. The evil-minded persons here designated would venture, so much the less, to carry on their designs publicly, since they not only had an evil conscience, but would, besides, endeavor to preserve the appearance of godliness most carefully (2Ti_3:5).—And lead captive silly women, ãõíáéêÜñéá ; designation of a measurably contemptible class of females; the slighting expression denotes their weakness, and the ease with which they are led astray Áἰ÷ìáëùôßæåéí , strictly to make captive in war; here, to bind to one with body and soul. Calvin: “Dicit, eas captivas duci, propterea quod variis artificiis ejusmodi pseudo prophetæ eas sibi obnoxias reddunt, partim curiose omnia rimando, partim blandiendo.”—Laden with sins, óåóåõñùìÝíá ἁìáñôßáéò (comp. Rom_12:20); cumulatæ peccatis, and are thereby so inconstant that they lend an ear readily to false teachers, who promise them rest through the enticing discourse of a wisdom concealed yet from others.—Led away with divers lusts. ἀíüìåíá ἐðéèõìßáéò ðïéêßëáéò . Over against the awakened conscience stands ever the governing sinful passion, which seeks satisfaction in a system set forth and lauded by unprincipled teachers (2Ti_3:1-5). As the Lord already accused, in His day, the Pharisees, and those learned in the Scripture, of a like thinking and acting (Mat_13:14), especially in respect of widows, so also was it the business of the false teachers, in the days of Paul, to operate, before all, upon women. They were most easily led; at the same time, also, they were instruments for the gratification of the sensual desires of their corrupters; and when once they became bound, body and soul, to their cause, they could soon, in their turn, win new adherents. From different testimonies of the church-fathers, made with allusion more or less explicit to this word of the Apostle, it appears that the ancient heretics availed themselves especially of this instrumentality in the furtherance of their designs. In this respect, the passage of Jerome, in his letter to Ctesiphon, is classical: “Simon Magus hæres in condidit adjutus auxilio Helenæ meretricis; Nicolaus Antiochenus, conditor omnium immunditiarum, choros duxit fæmineos; Marcion quoque Romano præmisit mulierem ad majorem lasciviam, Apelles Philemonem comitem habuit; Montanus Priscam et Maximillam primum auro corrupit, deinde hæresi polluit; Arius, ut orbem deciperet, sororem principio ante decepit. Donatus Lucillæ opibus adjutus est, Elpidium cæcum Agape cæca duxit, Priscilliano juncta fuit Galla.”—“Simon Magus founded his heresy by the help of Helena, a prostitute; Nicolaus of Antioch, the founder of all impurities, led about troops of women; Marcion also sent in advance a woman to Rome for his greater pleasure; Apelles had Philumena for a companion; Montanus first corrupted Prisca and Maximilla with gold, and then polluted them with heresy; Arius, that he might deceive the world, deceived first the sister of his prince; Donatus was aided by the fortune of Lucilla; the blind Agape led the blind Elpidius; Galla was allied to Priscillian.”—[But Jerome himself sought and enjoyed especially the association of women. If it be true that heresiarchs have been aided by them, it is equally true that they have rendered, in all ages of the Church, valuable assistance in all good work.—E. H.]—Silly women ( ãõíáéêÜñéá = little women [perhaps, according to the modern phrase, small specimens of the sex.—E. H.]).
2Ti_3:7. Ever learning, and never able to come, &c. A fine irony, which renders the Apostle’s inward hatred of this sham-holy life all the more conspicuous. Because learning is not the actual design in the intercourse of these women with the false teachers named here, but only the means and excuse for the gratification of their sinful, bad desire, they never come to an end with it.—And never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, because moral receptivity, the disposition of the heart, which, according to Joh_7:17, is granted, fails them wholly. Calvin: “Discunt, ut sunt curiosæ, deinde animo inquieto, sed ita, ut nihil unquam certi nec veri assequantur. Hoc autem præposterum est studium, cui non respondet scientia. Quamquam videntur sibi tales egregie sapere, sed nihil est, quod sciunt, dum veritatem non tenent, quæ fundamentum est omnis scientiæ.”
2Ti_3:8. Now as Jannes and Jambres. Paul shows, by an example, still more particularly the relation in which known misguided minds had placed themselves towards Christian truth. Jannes and Jambres, according to the Jewish tradition, were the chiefs of the Egyptian magicians, who tried their arts over against the wonders of Moses, and thereby held Pharaoh back from faith in the word, and from obedience of the command of God. According to the legend, they were brothers (the names were written variously; e.g., ἸùÜííçò instead of ̓ Éáííῆò , and Ìáìâñῆò instead of ̓ Éáìâñῆò ), sons of Balaam, first the teachers, afterwards the opponents of Moses, and who perished also in the Red Sea during the pursuit of the Israelites (see Wetstein on the place). As to the question how the Apostle could have come into possession of the statements here given, Origen answered that he had derived it from a liber secretus. Theodoret, on the other hand, that he had become acquainted with it from Jewish tradition, and from revelation of the Holy Ghost. It is worthy of remark, that not only Jewish, but also heathen writers (Pliny and Numenius), mention both names; whence we may properly conclude that this tradition must have been pretty generally diffused, and from these grounds may also assume that Paul, as he elsewhere quotes Greek authors and cites proverbial expressions, so also he derived something for once out of the not always muddy source of Jewish tradition; which, moreover, he does not use, while he appeals to it, to prove anything doubtful, but only to represent his meaning more distinctly through reference to traditionary names and actions, the correctness of which may, in other respects, remain uncertain, When he says, Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, ὅí ôñüðïí , it is not indispensably necessary thence to conclude that the false teachers, who were opposing themselves, made use of the same means as Jannes and Jambres; but it can just as well signify that they did the same with like furiousness. We cannot, however, pronounce the former view utterly incredible, when we think of Simon Magus, of Elymas the sorcerer, of the vagabond devils-conjurers amongst the Jews, and of the deceiving magical art practised from of old at Ephesus (comp. Act_19:19). Amid the wide extension of Chaldæan wisdom and art in those days, and taking into account the immoral character of the false teachers here branded, it is probable à priori that they would not have been ashamed of such instrumentalities, which were eminently fitted to work upon the senses and the fantasy, and also found a powerful support in the superstition of the multitude.—Men of corrupt minds, êáôåöèáñìÝíïé ôὸí íïῦí (comp. 1Ti_6:6). The Apostle has in his mind not the darkening of the understanding, but the moral baseness of their disposition.—Reprobate concerning the faith, ἀäüêéìïé ðåñὶ ôὴí ðßóôéí ; who are not, in respect of the faith, in condition to stand the tests (Tit_1:16)—the natural result of the moral disorder which was delineated in the immediately preceding words. Over against this temporary supremacy of error and of sin, the Apostle has occasion to remind both himself and Timothy that this power will not last forever.
2Ti_3:9. But they shall proceed no farther. This positive assurance does not at all contradict the opposite warning (2Ti_2:16), and the prophecy that follows (2Ti_3:13). Here the Apostle speaks of the outward result; there, on the other hand, of the intrusive advance from bad to worse. Not without reason did Luther often apply these words to the priests of Rome. Bengel: “Non proficiunt amplius, quamquam ipsi et eorum similes proficiant in pejus.” The history of most heresies actually teaches that error constantly spreads, but that the eyes of many are thereby opened so much the quicker. Comp. Conybeare and Howson on this place. We must expect this here, no less than with the Egyptian magicians, just because absurdity and unrighteousness so often overstep all bounds.—For their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was (comp. Exo_8:18-19; Exo_9:11).
2. It is a remarkable revelation of the divine Nemesis, that they who, with the denial of the faith, begin not seldom with the beautiful phrase, that they are zealous for morality, and wish to maintain the morals of the gospel, while they reject dogma, just upon this road advance gradually to the most decided immorality. He who digs out the tree, cannot also enjoy the fruit. Emancipation from all authority theoretically, leads practically to the promulgation of the rights of the flesh.
3. It is a remark as demonstrable as it is humiliating, that as the truth, so also error and sin have found ever a powerful support in the weaker sex (comp. 1Ti_2:14). There lies in the womanly character the foundation, as for the highest development of the power of faith, so also for the highest revelation of the power of sin (comp. Rev_3:17.). Josephus also states that the Pharisees especially had found much support amongst the women (“Antiq.,” 17, 2). Compare the account, moreover, of the rich Fulvia of Rome, who was induced, by two Jewish impostors, to furnish a considerable sum of gold, under the supposition that it was for the temple at Jerusalem (18, 3).
4. The opposition of the Egyptian magicians against Moses was in no wise the fruit merely of human cunning and deception, but was the work of dæmonic powers out of the kingdom of darkness, which, as a new period for the kingdom of God began with Israel’s redemption, revealed its force in increased measure, and employed the magicians as its instruments.
5. “The battle of wickedness against the truth is from the beginning; the whole world-history is a struggle between the kingdoms of light and of darkness. Jannes and Jambres are a type of all seducers and deceivers, as Moses is a type of all faithful witnesses of the truth. How does hostility to the truth manifest itself? At first, the truth and its witnesses are rendered suspicious, and there is complaint of falsehood and error. Then, a counterpart of the truth is set up—a phantom, which is decked out with all deceiving attire. At last, the witnesses for the truth are attacked with persecution;” Heubner.
6. Just because error becomes more scandalous the longer it lasts, do its defenders find it impossible to carry it on permanently. Its triumph becomes its overthrow. Error is a palace of ice, which at last must melt and tumble down necessarily, when but one ray of the sunlight of truth penetrates it.
7. If the sins here designated be, in and of themselves, so abominable, they are still worse when they are revealed in a preacher of the gospel. The word of Baxter to his brethren is of force here: “When Satan has led you to destruction, then surely he employs you to lead others to destruction. Oh, what a victory does he think he has won, when he has made a preacher corrupt and faithless, when he has entangled him in the snares of covetousness, or of some offence. He will boast against the whole Church, and say: ‘These are your holy preachers! You see how it ends with their strictness, and whither they come with it!’ He will boast against Christ Himself, and say: ‘These are your heroes! I can make Thy best servants false to Thee—Thine own stewards deceive Thee,’ ” &c.
Starke: Spener: Self-love is twofold: (1) A proper and divinely commanded (Mat_22:39); (2) an unrighteous and sinful.—False accusers are hateful in name and deed; they are diaboli, devils, and have the devil’s trick.—To be rash, and to rush on, to the injury of another, belongs to the corrupted being of the world.—Show, pomp, and ostentation of Christianity enough, but there is dearth of what is best.—What is shell, without kernel?—One cannot get rid utterly of bad people, otherwise one must leave the world; enough that one knows their wickedness, and abstains from their scandalous ways, and avoids as much as possible their society (1Co_5:10).—Hedinger: The more dangerous it is for women in the world, so much the more must they keep watch over themselves, and implore God for assistance amid temptations (Psa_143:10).—[Comp. Monod’s famous Sermons, “La femme,” Sermons, troisième Série, Paris, 1859.—E. H.]—Let no one think, when he has carried on his rascality for a long while, that he will go forever without hindrance and punishment.—Errors and false doctrines have indeed the show of truth, but the mask is easily torn off them (1Ti_4:1-6).—Cramer: If the magicians of Pharaoh could not hinder the purpose of Moses, God will carry on His work indeed, notwithstanding the devil still blocks its way so often.
Heubner: How does the Christian judge of his own time?—The Christian understands his own age best.—Never can one vice remain alone.—The corrupt heart makes itself averse to the good.—When the most powerful agencies for improvement are at work, then, by the rejection of them, must the result be a correspondingly scandalous deterioration.—On the part of many, employment with religion is a sort of pastime and amusement; dispositions so formed always rove, and never come home.—To a true faith belongs a true upright heart.—The fate of the old enemies of the truth gives consolation to the friends of truth.
Lisco: Of the false teachers of the last days: (1) Of their moral corruption; (2) of their frightful end.—Of the tares in the Lord’s Church.—(Fastday Sermon): Of the shadow-side of life, which we recognize in the light of the gospel.
Footnotes:
2Ti_3:1—[ ãßíùóêå . ãéíþóêåôå is the reading adopted by Lachmann, after A. G. Huther inclines to this. The usual reading is retained by Tischendorf, is in the Sin., and is defended by our author.—E. H.]
2Ti_3:2.—[Cod. Sin. omits the article before ἄíèñùðïé .—E. H.]
2Ti_3:3.—[ ἄóôïñãïé ; omitted in Cod. Sin.—E. H.]
2Ti_3:6.—[ áἰ÷ìáëùôåýïíôåò . The weight of authority is in favor of áἰ÷ìáëùôßæïíôåò , adopted by Griesbach, Lach mann, Tischendorf, Huther, Wordsworth, &c—E. H.]
2Ti_3:6.—The article ôὰ of the Recepta is mot genuine.
2Ti_3:8.—[Vulg., Mambres.—E. H.]