2 Timotius 3:1-3

Ministry in the Last Days

3:1 But understand this, that in the last days difficult ¹  times will come. 3:2 For people ²  will be lovers of themselves, ³  lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3:3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good,

2 Timotius 4:3-4

4:3 For there will be a time when people ⁴  will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, ⁵  they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. ⁶  4:4 And they will turn away from hearing the truth, but on the other hand they will turn aside to myths. ⁷ 

[3:1]  ¹ tn Or perhaps, “dangerous,” “fierce.”

[3:2]  ² tn Grk “men”; but here ἄνθρωποι (anqrwpoi) is generic, referring to both men and women.

[3:2]  ³ tn Or “self-centered.” The first two traits in 2 Tim 3:2 and the last two in 3:4 are Greek words beginning with the root “lovers of,” and so bracket the list at beginning and end.

[4:3]  ⁴ tn Grk “they”; the referent (the people in that future time) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:3]  ⁵ tn Grk “in accord with.”

[4:3]  ⁶ tn Grk “having an itching in regard to hearing,” “having itching ears.”

[4:4]  ⁷ sn These myths were legendary tales characteristic of the false teachers in Ephesus and Crete. See parallels in 1 Tim 1:4; 4:7; and Titus 1:14.