2nd Timothy Chapter 3 verse 10 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 10. - Didst follow my teaching for hast fully known my doctrine, A.V. and T.R.; conduct for manner of life, A.V.; love for charity, A.V. Didst follow (παρηκολούθησας, which is the R.T. for παρηκολούθηκας, in the perfect, which is the T.R.). The evidence for the two readings is nicely balanced. But St. Paul uses the perfect in l Timothy 4:6 (where see note), and it seems highly improbable that he here used the aorist in order to convey a rebuff to Timothy by insinuating that he had once followed, but that he was doing so no longer. The sentence, "thou didst follow," etc., is singularly insipid. The A.V. "thou hast fully known" gives the sense fully and clearly. Timothy had fully known St. Paul's whole career, partly from what he had heard, and partly from what he had been an eyewitness cf. My teaching. How different from that of those impostors! Conduct (ἀγωγῇ); here only in the New Testament, but found in the LXX. in Esther 2:20 (τὴν ἀγωγὴν αὐτῆς, "her manner of life" - her behaviour towards Mordecai, where there is nothing to answer to it in the Hebrew text); 2 Macc. 4:16 (τὰς ἀγωγάς); 6:8; 11:24. Aristotle uses ἀγωγή for "conduct," or "mode of life" ('Ethics'), and Polybius (4:74, 14), quoted by Alford, has ἀγωγὴ and ἀγωγαὶ τοῦ βίου, "way" or "manner of life." The A.V. "manner of life" is a very good rendering. Purpose (πρόθεσιν); that which a person sets before him as the end to be attained (Acts 11:23; Acts 27:13; 2 Macc. 3:8; and in Aristotle, Polybius, and others). Used often of God's eternal purpose, as e.g., ch. 1:9; Ephesians 1:11, etc. In enumerating these and the following," faith, long suffering, charity, and patience," St. Paul doubtless had in view, not self-glorification, which was wholly alien to his earnest, self-denying character, but the mention of those qualities which he saw were most needed by Timothy. Long suffering (τῇ μακροθυμίᾳ); as 1 Timothy 1:16, of the long suffering of Jesus Christ towards himself, and elsewhere frequently of human patience and forbearance towards others. Patience (τῇ ὑπομονῇ). This is exercised in the patient endurance of afflictions for Christ's sake. It is coupled, as here, with μακροθυμίΑ, long suffering, in Colossians 1:11.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(10) But thou hast fully known my doctrine.--Literally, But thou wert a follower of my doctrine; thou followedst as a disciple, and thus hast fully known. The Greek word translated "fully known" (see 1Timothy 4:6) denotes a diligently tracing out step by step. See Luke 1:3, where the same word is rendered, in the English version: "having had perfect understanding," having traced up to their source all the events relating to the foundation of Christianity. Here St. Paul recalls to Timothy's mind what had been his--St. Paul's--life, and words, and works. No one knew the history of this life like Timothy, the pupil and the friend, who had been long trained to assist in carrying on his teacher's work after St. Paul was removed. And this appeal to Timothy's recollection of the past has two distinct purposes: (1) It was to contrast that life of St. Paul's, with which the disciple was so well acquainted, with the lives of those false men, of whom Timothy was warned so earnestly, who were poisoning the stream of Christianity at Ephesus; and (2) the memory of the master was to serve as a spur to the disciple, the heroic faith of the old man was to act as an incentive to the young teacher to suffer bravely in his turn.With this pattern of steady faith and heroic work before his eyes, Timothy would never be able to endure the wretched mock Christianity these new teachers were labouring to introduce into the communities of the believers of Asia; he would at once separate himself and his from these evil influences.My doctrine.--Or, teaching, in which the leading of a pure self-denying life was inseparably bound up with a belief in the great Christian doctrines. "This hast thou, my pupil from boyhood, known in all its details. Thou hast known how I taught others."Manner of life.--"And also how I lived myself:" "my ways which be in Christ," as he once before phrased it (1Corinthians 4:17), "my conduct."Purpose.--"My purpose--from which you know I never swerved--of remaining true to the Gospel of my Lord and to my great life's mission to the Gentiles." (See Acts 2:23, where the word is used in respect to others' purpose.) . . .