1 Timotius 4:1-2

Timothy’s Ministry in the Later Times

4:1 Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will desert the faith and occupy themselves ¹  with deceiving spirits and demonic teachings, ²  4:2 influenced by the hypocrisy of liars ³  whose consciences are seared. ⁴ 

1 Timotius 4:1

Timothy’s Ministry in the Later Times

4:1 Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the later times some will desert the faith and occupy themselves ⁵  with deceiving spirits and demonic teachings, ⁶ 

Kolose 1:19

1:19 For God ⁷  was pleased to have all his ⁸  fullness dwell ⁹  in the Son ¹⁰ 

Galatia 1:6-8

Occasion of the Letter

1:6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one ¹¹  who called you by the grace of Christ ¹²  and are following ¹³  a different ¹⁴  gospel – 1:7 not that there really is another gospel, ¹⁵  but ¹⁶  there are some who are disturbing you and wanting ¹⁷  to distort the gospel of Christ. 1:8 But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach ¹⁸  a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, ¹⁹  let him be condemned to hell! ²⁰ 

Galatia 5:4

5:4 You who are trying to be declared righteous ²¹  by the law have been alienated ²²  from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!

Galatia 5:2

5:2 Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all!

Titus 1:4

1:4 To Titus, my genuine son in a common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior!

Ibrani 6:4-6

6:4 For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, 6:5 tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, 6:6 and then have committed apostasy, ²³  to renew them again to repentance, since ²⁴  they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again ²⁵  and holding him up to contempt.

Ibrani 6:1

6:1 Therefore we must progress beyond ²⁶  the elementary ²⁷  instructions about Christ ²⁸  and move on ²⁹  to maturity, not laying this foundation again: repentance from dead works and faith in God,

Yohanes 2:19

2:19 Jesus replied, ³⁰  “Destroy ³¹  this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.”

[4:1]  ¹ tn Or “desert the faith by occupying themselves.”

[4:1]  ² tn Grk “teachings of demons” (speaking of the source of these doctrines).

[4:2]  ³ tn Grk “in the hypocrisy of liars.”

[4:2]  ⁴ tn Or “branded.” The Greek verb καυστηριάζω (kausthriazw) can be used to refer either to the cause (“brand”) or the effect (“seared”).

[4:2]  sn Consciences are seared. The precise meaning of this phrase is somewhat debated. Three primary interpretations are (1) the consciences of these false teachers are “branded” with Satan’s mark to indicate ownership, (2) their consciences are “branded” with a penal mark to show they are lawbreakers, or (3) their consciences have been “seared” (i.e., totally burnt and desensitized) so that they are unable to notice the difference between right and wrong. See G. W. Knight, Pastoral Epistles (NIGTC), 189.

[4:1]  ⁵ tn Or “desert the faith by occupying themselves.”

[4:1]  ⁶ tn Grk “teachings of demons” (speaking of the source of these doctrines).

[1:19]  ⁷ tn The noun “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but since God is the one who reconciles the world to himself (cf. 2 Cor 5:19), he is clearly the subject of εὐδόκησεν (eudokhsen).

[1:19]  ⁸ tn The Greek article τό (to), insofar as it relates to God, may be translated as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “his.” BDAG 404 s.v. εὐδοκέω 1 translates the phrase as “all the fullness willed to dwell in him” thus leaving the referent as impersonal. Insofar as Paul is alluding to the so-called emanations from God this is acceptable. But the fact that “the fullness” dwells in a person (i.e., “in him”) seems to argue for the translation “his fullness” where “his” refers to God.

[1:19]  ⁹ tn The aorist verb κατοικῆσαι (katoikhsai) could be taken as an ingressive, in which case it refers to the incarnation and may be translated as “begin to dwell, to take up residence.” It is perhaps better, though, to take it as a constative aorist and simply a reference to the fact that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus Christ. This is a permanent dwelling, though, not a temporary one, as the present tense in 2:9 makes clear.

[1:19]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “him”; the referent (the Son; see v. 13) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ¹¹ sn The one who called you is a reference to God the Father (note the mention of Christ in the following prepositional phrase and the mention of God the Father in 1:1).

[1:6]  ¹² tc Although the majority of witnesses, including some of the most important ones (Ì⁵¹ א A B F^c Ψ 33 1739 1881 Ï f vg sy^p bo), read “by the grace of Christ” (χάριτι Χριστοῦ, cariti Cristou) here, this reading is not without variables. Besides alternate readings such as χάριτι ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ (cariti Ihsou Cristou, “by the grace of Jesus Christ”; D 326 1241^s pc sy^h**) and χάριτι θεοῦ (cariti qeou, “by the grace of God”; 327 pc Thret^lem), a few mss (Ì^46vid F* G H^vid ar b Tert Cyp Ambst Pel) have simply χάριτι with no modifier. Internally, the reading that seems best to explain the rise of the others is the shortest reading, χάριτι. Indeed, the fact that three different adjuncts are found in the mss seems to be a natural expansion on the simple “grace.” At the same time, the witnesses for the shortest reading are not particularly impressive, being that they largely represent one textual strand (Western), and a less-than-reliable one at that. Further, nowhere else in the corpus Paulinum do we see the construction χάρις (cari", “grace”) followed by Χριστοῦ without some other name (such as κυρίου [kuriou, “Lord”] or ᾿Ιησοῦ). The construction χάρις θεοῦ is likewise frequent in Paul. Thus, upon closer inspection it seems that the original wording here was χάριτι Χριστοῦ (for it is difficult to explain how this particular reading could have arisen from the simple χάριτι, in light of Paul’s normal idioms), with the other readings intentionally or accidentally arising from it.

[1:6]  ¹³ tn Grk “deserting [turning away] to” a different gospel, implying the idea of “following.”

[1:6]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “another.”

[1:7]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “which is not another,” but this could be misunderstood to mean “which is not really different.” In fact, as Paul goes on to make clear, there is no other gospel than the one he preaches.

[1:7]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “except.”

[1:7]  ¹⁷ tn Or “trying.”

[1:8]  ¹⁸ tc ‡ Most witnesses have ὑμῖν (Jumin, “to you”) either after (א² A [D* ὑμᾶς] 6 33 326 614 945 1881 Ï Tert^pt Ambst) or before (Ì^51vid B H 0278 630 1175 [1739* ἡμῖν]) εὐαγγελίζηται (euaggelizhtai, “should preach” [or some variation on the form of this verb]). But the fact that it floats suggests its inauthenticity, especially since it appears to be a motivated reading for purposes of clarification. The following witnesses lack the pronoun: א* F G Ψ ar b g Cyp Mcion^T Tert^pt Lcf. The external evidence admittedly is not as weighty as evidence for the pronoun, but coupled with strong internal evidence the shorter reading should be considered original. Although it is possible that scribes may have deleted the pronoun to make Paul’s statement seem more universal, the fact that the pronoun floats suggests otherwise. NA²⁷ has the pronoun in brackets, indicating doubt as to its authenticity.

[1:8]  ¹⁹ tn Or “other than the one we preached to you.”

[1:8]  ²⁰ tn Grk “let him be accursed” (ἀνάθεμα, anaqema). The translation gives the outcome which is implied by this dreadful curse.

[5:4]  ²¹ tn Or “trying to be justified.” The verb δικαιοῦσθε (dikaiousqe) has been translated as a conative present (see ExSyn 534).

[5:4]  ²² tn Or “estranged”; BDAG 526 s.v. καταργέω 4 states, “Of those who aspire to righteousness through the law κ. ἀπὸ Χριστοῦ be estranged from Christ Gal 5:4.”

[6:6]  ²³ tn Or “have fallen away.”

[6:6]  ²⁴ tn Or “while”; Grk “crucifying…and holding.” The Greek participles here (“crucifying…and holding”) can be understood as either causal (“since”) or temporal (“while”).

[6:6]  ²⁵ tn Grk “recrucifying the son of God for themselves.”

[6:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “Therefore leaving behind.” The implication is not of abandoning this elementary information, but of building on it.

[6:1]  ²⁷ tn Or “basic.”

[6:1]  ²⁸ tn Grk “the message of the beginning of Christ.”

[6:1]  ²⁹ tn Grk “leaving behind…let us move on.”

[2:19]  ³⁰ tn Grk “answered and said to them.”

[2:19]  ³¹ tn The imperative here is really more than a simple conditional imperative (= “if you destroy”); its semantic force here is more like the ironical imperative found in the prophets (Amos 4:4, Isa 8:9) = “Go ahead and do this and see what happens.”