Passage

1 Timothy 4.7

Book: 1 Timothy · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

5. for it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer. 6. If thou put the brethren in mind of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which thou hast followed until now:

7. but refuse profane and old wives' fables. And exercise thyself unto godliness:

for bodily exercise is profitable for a little; but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life which now is, and of that which is to come. 9. Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation. (1 Timothy 4:5-9, ASV)

WEB

5. For it is sanctified through the word of God and prayer. 6. If you instruct the brothers of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which you have followed.

7. But refuse profane and old wives’ fables. Exercise yourself toward godliness.

For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now, and of that which is to come. 9. This saying is faithful and worthy of all acceptance. (1 Timothy 4:5-9, WEB)

KJV

5. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. 6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

7. But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. ^{little: or, for a little time} 9. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. (1 Timothy 4:5-9, KJV)

YLT

5. for it is sanctified through the word of God and intercession. 6. These things placing before the brethren, thou shalt be a good ministrant of Jesus Christ, being nourished by the words of the faith, and of the good teaching, which thou didst follow after,

7. and the profane and old women's fables reject thou, and exercise thyself unto piety,

for the bodily exercise is unto little profit, and the piety is to all things profitable, a promise having of the life that now is, and of that which is coming; 9. stedfast [is] the word, and of all acceptation worthy; (1 Timothy 4:5-9, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: Paul, who names himself in the opening line (1:1) and writes in the first person throughout. Authorship of the three Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus) is disputed. Many critical scholars hold that a later follower wrote them in Paul's name, pointing to differences of vocabulary and style from the undisputed letters and to a more settled church order. Others defend Paul's authorship, among them Luke Timothy Johnson (Anchor Bible, 2001), William Mounce (Word Biblical Commentary, 2000) and Philip Towner (NICNT, 2006), citing the letter's personal details and its acceptance in the second-century church.
Audience: Timothy, Paul's "true child in faith" (1:2), whom Paul had urged to stay on at Ephesus to stop certain men from teaching "a different doctrine" (1:3). Timothy came from Lystra, the son of a believing Jewish mother and a Greek father, and had travelled with Paul since the second missionary journey (Acts 16:1-3). The letter is addressed to him, but its directions on prayer, worship, overseers, deacons and widows are meant to order the church at Ephesus as a whole (3:14-15).
Location: not stated. Paul says he left Timothy at Ephesus "when I was going into Macedonia" (1:3) and hopes to rejoin him soon (3:14; 4:13), so Macedonia is the usual suggestion for where the letter was written.
Time period: on Pauline authorship, usually c. AD 62-65, after Paul's release from the Roman imprisonment that ends Acts, since the journey in 1:3 is hard to fit into the Acts narrative. Scholars who regard the letter as pseudonymous usually place it late in the first century or early in the second. The reading below does not depend on the choice.
Literary context: the charge to Timothy as "a good minister of Christ Jesus" (4:6-10), which follows the description of the ascetic false teaching (4:1-5).

Theological reading

"but refuse profane and old wives' fables. And exercise thyself unto godliness:" (1 Timothy 4:7, ASV)

Old wives' fables. "Fables" is mythous, the word for the false teachers' material in 1:4 and later in 2 Timothy 4:4 and Titus 1:14 ("Jewish fables"). "Old wives'" (graōdeis) was a stock expression of contempt among Greek writers for tales fit only for the gullible. "Profane" (bebēlous) means common, without holiness. Timothy is not to debate these stories on their own terms but to "refuse" them.

Training for godliness. "Exercise" is gymnaze, "train", from the language of the gymnasium. The next verse draws out the image: "bodily exercise is profitable for a little; but godliness is profitable for all things" (4:8). The contrast also answers the false teachers' rules of abstinence (4:3): Paul's discipline aims at godliness, not at refusing God's gifts.

Godliness. Eusebeia is a key word of this letter, used eight times (2:2; 3:16; 4:7, 8; 6:3, 5, 6, 11). In 3:16 the "mystery of godliness" is Christ himself, which gives the training its content. See 1 Timothy 6.6.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

G4314 - pros, pros, Strong's G4314

Quoted in

Concepts:

Virtue Ethics

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.