2 Timotius 1:4

1:4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, ¹  so that I may be filled with joy.

2 Timotius 2:11

2:11 This saying ²  is trustworthy: ³ 

If we died with him, we will also live with him.

2 Timotius 3:5

3:5 They will maintain the outward appearance ⁴  of religion but will have repudiated its power. So avoid people like these. ⁵ 

2 Timotius 3:13

3:13 But evil people and charlatans will go from bad to worse, ⁶  deceiving others and being deceived themselves. ⁷ 

2 Timotius 4:14

4:14 Alexander the coppersmith did me a great deal of harm. ⁸  The Lord will repay him in keeping with his deeds. ⁹ 

[1:4]  ¹ tn Grk “longing to see you, remembering your tears” (as a continuation of the preceding clause). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.

[2:11]  ² sn This saying (Grk “the saying”) refers to the following citation. See 1 Tim 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; Titus 3:8 for other occurrences of this phrase.

[2:11]  ³ sn The following passage has been typeset as poetry because many scholars regard this passage as poetic or hymnic. These terms are used broadly to refer to the genre of writing, not to the content. There are two broad criteria for determining if a passage is poetic or hymnic: “(a) stylistic: a certain rhythmical lilt when the passages are read aloud, the presence of parallelismus membrorum (i.e., an arrangement into couplets), the semblance of some metre, and the presence of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, chiasmus, and antithesis; and (b) linguistic: an unusual vocabulary, particularly the presence of theological terms, which is different from the surrounding context” (P. T. O’Brien, Philippians [NIGTC], 188-89). Classifying a passage as hymnic or poetic is important because understanding this genre can provide keys to interpretation. However, not all scholars agree that the above criteria are present in this passage, so the decision to typeset it as poetry should be viewed as a tentative decision about its genre.

[3:5]  ⁴ tn Or “form.”

[3:5]  sn Outward appearance. Paul’s contrast with power in 3:5b shows that he regards this “form” to be outward, one of appearance rather than reality (cf. 1 Cor 4:19-20; 1 Thess 1:5).

[3:5]  ⁵ tn Grk “and avoid these,” with the word “people” implied.

[3:13]  ⁶ tn Grk “will advance to the worse.”

[3:13]  ⁷ tn Grk “deceiving and being deceived.”

[4:14]  ⁸ tn Grk “showed me much evil.”

[4:14]  ⁹ sn An allusion to Ps 28:4.