2 Timothy 2 — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Chapter 2
Entrust and endure
Verse 2:1
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
You, then, my child, be empowered in the grace in Christ Jesus,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The emphatic you and affectionate my child introduce renewed instruction. Be empowered is a passive imperative whose sphere is grace in Christ Jesus. Reception: Chrysostom reads the command as encouragement drawn from Paul's endurance and Christ's grace (Homily 4, on 2:1). [CHR4]
Verse 2:2
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and the things you heard from me through many witnesses, entrust these to faithful people who will be able to teach others also.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Through many witnesses retains dia; in the presence of is a contextual alternative. Faithful people renders anthrōpoi, while ability to teach others is a separate qualification. Reception: Chrysostom emphasizes open transmission, fidelity and competence to teach (Homily 4, on 2:2). [CHR4]
Verse 2:3
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Share suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Share suffering preserves the compound command and its solidarity; soldier of Christ Jesus introduces an analogy of loyal endurance, not a literal enlistment order. Reception: Chrysostom presents endurance as fitting the dignity of Christ's soldier (Homily 4, on 2:3). [CHR4]
Verse 2:4
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
No one serving as a soldier entangles himself in the affairs of ordinary life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Entanglement in ordinary affairs contrasts with pleasing the one who enlisted the soldier. The illustration emphasizes allegiance and purpose rather than naming prohibited occupations. Reception: Chrysostom applies the soldier and athlete examples to teachers and disciples (Homily 4, on 2:4–5). [CHR4]
Verse 2:5
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And if someone competes as an athlete, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The crown is conditional on competing according to the rules; merely entering the contest does not satisfy the repeated condition. Reception: Chrysostom extends the athletic image to disciplined training and endurance (Homily 4, on 2:5). [CHR4]
Verse 2:6
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
The laboring farmer must be first to share in the fruits.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The farmer is characterized by labor, and must share first in the fruits. First modifies participation; the text does not specify a wage or crop percentage. Reception: Chrysostom sees the teacher's reward in the laboring farmer's share (Homily 4, on 2:6). [CHR4]
Verse 2:7
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in all things.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Consider is commanded and the Lord will give understanding is future indicative in the selected text. Reflection and divine assistance are both expressed. Reception: Chrysostom treats the images as requiring understanding, but his accessed English quotation presents the final clause as a prayer (Homily 4, on 2:7). [CHR4]
The unchained word
Verse 2:8
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, from David’s seed, according to my gospel,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Remember has Jesus Christ as its object; raised from the dead and from David's seed are both retained. The perfect participle presents the risen Christ. Reception: Chrysostom links resurrection and Davidic descent with consolation and resistance to false teaching (Homily 4, on 2:8). [CHR4]
Verse 2:9
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
for which I suffer hardship even to chains as a criminal. But the word of God has not been chained.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Paul suffers to the point of chains as a criminal; the contrast insists that God's word has not been chained, preserving the repeated bond image. Reception: Chrysostom observes that imprisonment can restrain hands without stopping proclamation (Homily 4, on 2:9). [CHR4]
Verse 2:10
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For this reason I endure all things for the chosen ones, so that they too may obtain the salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Endurance is for the chosen ones so that they too obtain salvation in Christ Jesus, accompanied by eternal glory; election does not remove the stated purpose of Paul's labor. Reception: Chrysostom emphasizes suffering for others' salvation, whose source remains Christ (Homily 4, on 2:10). [CHR4]
Verse 2:11
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
The saying is faithful: for if we died with Him, we will also live with Him;
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The faithful saying begins with shared death and promised shared life. The compound verbs preserve with Him without specifying only one occasion of dying. Reception: Chrysostom includes baptism and suffering, with particular attention to the latter in context (Homily 5, on 2:11). [CHR5]
Verse 2:12
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
if we endure, we will also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us;
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Endurance and denial introduce distinct conditional outcomes: reigning with Christ or being denied by Him. The warning remains alongside the promise. Reception: Chrysostom stresses continued endurance (Homily 5, on 2:12). Polycarp, Philippians 5, explicitly reuses reigning with Christ in an exhortation to faithful living. [CHR5] [POL5]
Verse 2:13
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
if we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Apistoumen can concern unbelief or unfaithfulness. Christ's abiding fidelity and inability to deny Himself are stated without deleting 2:12's denial warning. Reception: Chrysostom interprets this as Christ's unchanged reality despite human unbelief (Homily 5, on 2:13). [CHR5]
Text: NA28 reads ἀρνήσασθαι [γὰρ] in brackets (SBLGNT has no γάρ); the "for" in the rendering above answers to NA28's bracketed γάρ, which SBLGNT lacks; SBLGNT would read "He cannot deny Himself" without a connective.[CHR5]
An approved worker
Verse 2:14
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to battle over words, which is useful for nothing and leads to the ruin of those who hear.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Before the Lord is the selected wording. Word-battles are rejected for both their lack of usefulness and their destructive effect on hearers. Reception: Chrysostom emphasizes the harm to listeners and the solemn appeal to divine witness (Homily 5, on 2:14). [CHR5]
Text: NA28 reads ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ (SBLGNT τοῦ κυρίου); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would read "before God".[CHR5]
Verse 2:15
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker with no cause for shame, cutting a straight course for the word of truth.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Orthotomeō evokes straight cutting; cutting a straight course expresses responsible handling of the word. It does not itself name a system for partitioning biblical books. Reception: Chrysostom develops the cutting image as removal of distortions and foreign additions (Homily 5, on 2:15). [CHR5]
Verse 2:16
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But avoid profane empty talk, for they will advance into further ungodliness,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Avoid addresses profane empty talk; the following plural they points to those involved, continued by their word in 2:17. Advance here is an advance into ungodliness. Reception: Chrysostom warns that doctrinal innovation can generate further error (Homily 5, on 2:16–18). [CHR5]
Verse 2:17
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and their word will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Gangrene conveys spreading destructive injury, and the speakers Hymenaeus and Philetus are named. Their word remains distinguished from God's unchained word in 2:9. Reception: Chrysostom develops the disease comparison (Homily 5, on 2:17–18). Bunyan's hill Error explicitly reuses these teachers and their resurrection error (Pilgrim's Progress, Part I, §299). [CHR5] [BUN]
Verse 2:18
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
who missed the mark concerning truth, saying that resurrection has already happened, and overturn the faith of some.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The error is the assertion that resurrection has already happened; the perfect infinitive and already matter. Some people's faith is overturned, not everyone's. Reception: Chrysostom connects the claim with loss of future judgment and reward (Homily 5, on 2:18). Bunyan dramatizes its destructive effect at hill Error (Part I, §299). [CHR5] [BUN]
Text: NA28 reads [τὴν] ἀνάστασιν with the article in brackets (SBLGNT anarthrous); the rendering above follows SBLGNT, and NA28 would read "the resurrection".[CHR5][BUN]
Verse 2:19
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knew those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.”
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The foundation stands despite defections; its double seal joins divine recognition with departure from unrighteousness. The first saying echoes Greek Numbers 16:5; the second is an ethical summons. Reception: Chrysostom makes recognition and righteous conduct the seal's paired marks; his English presentation labels the first source Deuteronomy (Homily 5, on 2:19). [CHR5] [NUM16]
A vessel prepared for service
Verse 2:20
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Now in a great house there are vessels not only of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Gold, silver, wood and clay vessels are differentiated by material and use; honor and dishonor belong to the household image, not a fixed list of human classes. Reception: Chrysostom interprets the great house as the wider world and rejects an unchangeable moral nature (Homily 6, on 2:20–21). [CHR6]
Verse 2:21
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Therefore if someone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Cleansing from these leaves its antecedent open to dishonorable vessels or practices. Sanctified, useful to the Master and prepared for every good work describe the resulting vessel. Reception: Chrysostom emphasizes change of moral condition and readiness for service (Homily 6, on 2:20–21). [CHR6]
Verse 2:22
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But flee youthful desires, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Flee and pursue are paired commands: youthful desires give way to righteousness, faith, love and peace in company with sincere callers on the Lord. Reception: Chrysostom includes ambition and greed among youthful desires, not sexual desire alone (Homily 6, on 2:22). [CHR6]
Verse 2:23
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
And reject foolish and uneducated disputes, knowing that they give birth to fights.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Foolish and uneducated disputes are refused because they produce fights; the birth metaphor explains the consequence rather than prohibiting every question. Reception: Chrysostom distinguishes fruitless contention from useful inquiry (Homily 6, on 2:23). [CHR6]
Verse 2:24
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
But a slave of the Lord must not fight, but must be gentle toward all, able to teach, patient with wrong,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Slave preserves doulos's strong belonging metaphor; it does not establish Timothy's civil status. Gentleness toward all, teaching ability and endurance of wrong qualify the Lord's worker. Reception: Chrysostom reconciles gentle teaching with firm correction and patient persistence (Homily 6, on 2:24). [CHR6]
Verse 2:25
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
instructing opponents with gentleness, in case God may give them repentance toward the knowledge of truth,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Gentleness governs instruction of opponents; God gives the repentance that leads to knowledge of truth. In case preserves the tentative pastoral hope rather than guaranteeing conversion. Reception: Chrysostom argues that harsh contention obstructs learning and urges patient correction (Homily 6, on 2:25–26). [CHR6]
Verse 2:26
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and they may return to sobriety out of the devil’s snare, having been captured by him to do his will.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Return to sobriety, snare and capture are distinct images. This rendering takes him and his as the devil; the captor and the final will have disputed referents, including God's will. Reception: Chrysostom's accessed English exposition takes the final will as God's righteous purpose, illustrating an alternative construction (Homily 6, on 2:26). [CHR6]