2 Timothy 3:5 - Exposition

Holding for having , A.V.; hating denied for denyiny , A.V.; these also for such , A.V. Holding ( ἔχοντες ). There is no reason to change "having." Perhaps "indeed" after "having" would give the emphasis conveyed by ἔχοντες preceding the object. A form ( μόρφωσιν ). It should be the form ; i . e . "the outward semblance," i.q. μόρφωμα , form, shape, figure (Liddell and Scott), here in contrast with δύναμις , the reality. In Romans 2:20 , the only other place in the New Testament where μόρφωσις occurs, there is no contrast, and so it has the sense of a "true sketch" or "delineation." Having denied ( ἠρνημένοι ); possibly more correct than the A.V. "denying," though the difference, if any, is very slight. The meaning is that by their life and character and conversation they gave the lie to their Christian profession. Christianity with them was an outward form, not an inward living power of godliness. From these also does not give the sense at all clearly. The A.V. does, though it omits the καὶ , which is not wanted in English. In the Greek it marks an additional circumstance in the case of those of whom he is speaking, viz. that they are to be turned away from as hopeless. Turn away ( ἀποτρέπου ); only here in the New Testament, or, at least in the middle voice, in the LXX .; but frequent in classical Greek in different senses. St. Paul uses ἐκτρέπομενος in the same sense in 1 Timothy 6:20 . "This command shows that the apostle treats the symptoms of the last times as in some respects present" (Alford). With this catena of epithets comp. Romans 1:29-31 ; and, though of an opposite character, the string of adjectives in Wis. 7:22, 23.