Passage

1 Timothy 4.9

Book: 1 Timothy · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

7. but refuse profane and old wives' fables. And exercise thyself unto godliness: 8. 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.

For to this end we labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe. 11. These things command and teach. (1 Timothy 4:7-11, ASV)

WEB

7. But refuse profane and old wives’ fables. Exercise yourself toward godliness. 8. 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.

For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we have set our trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. 11. Command and teach these things. (1 Timothy 4:7-11, WEB)

KJV

7. But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. 8. 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.

For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe. 11. These things command and teach. (1 Timothy 4:7-11, KJV)

YLT

7. and the profane and old women's fables reject thou, and exercise thyself unto piety, 8. 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;

for for this we both labour and are reproached, because we hope on the living God, who is Saviour of all men, especially of those believing. 11. Charge these things, and teach; (1 Timothy 4:7-11, YLT)

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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 third of the letter's "faithful sayings" (after 1:15 and 3:1), within Paul's charge to Timothy to train himself in godliness (4:6-16).

Theological reading

"Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation." (1 Timothy 4:9, ASV)

Which saying? Readers differ on whether the formula points back to verse 8 or forward to verse 10. Verse 8 reads like a proverb: "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." Verse 10, which begins "For", reads more like the reason for accepting it. The fuller form, "worthy of all acceptation", is used elsewhere only at 1:15, where it introduces the gospel saying "that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners".

Training in godliness. The surrounding verses use the language of athletic training. Timothy is to "exercise thyself unto godliness" (4:7), and Paul says, "to this end we labor and strive" (4:10). Godliness is not a passive state but something practised, and its benefit reaches into the age to come.

The Saviour of all men. The hope behind the effort is "the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that believe" (4:10). Some read "Saviour" here in a broad sense for God's preserving care of all people and in the full saving sense for believers. Others read it as God's salvation offered to all and received by those who believe. On either reading, "specially of them that believe" rules out the view that all are saved regardless of faith. See 1 Timothy 1.15 and 1 Timothy 4.10.

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.

None of the words in this verse has its own lexicon entry yet.

Notes

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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.