Passage

2 Timothy 2.26

Book: 2 Timothy · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

24. And the Lord's servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing, 25. in meekness correcting them that oppose themselves; if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth,

26. and they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him unto his will. (2 Timothy 2:24-26, ASV)

WEB

24. The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but be gentle towards all, able to teach, patient, 25. in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth,

26. and they may recover themselves out of the devil’s snare, having been taken captive by him to his will. (2 Timothy 2:24-26, WEB)

KJV

24. And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, ^{patient: or, forbearing} 25. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;

26. And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will. ^{recover: Gr. awake} ^{taken: Gr. taken alive} (2 Timothy 2:24-26, KJV)

YLT

24. and a servant of the Lord it behoveth not to strive, but to be gentle unto all, apt to teach, patient under evil, 25. in meekness instructing those opposing, if perhaps God may give to them repentance to an acknowledging of the truth,

26. and they may awake out of the devil's snare, having been caught by him at his will. (2 Timothy 2:24-26, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul, writing under his own name
Audience: Timothy, Paul's delegate at Ephesus
Location: written from imprisonment at Rome to Timothy at Ephesus
Time period: c. AD 64-67, traditionally Paul's last letter, written from a second Roman imprisonment shortly before his execution

Theological reading

"And they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him unto his will."

The image is a hunter's trap, and the verse assigns responsibility in two directions at once without apology. The people in view are genuinely captured, taken alive by another will, which is not a description of full autonomy. And they "recover themselves," an active verb, sobering up as from drunkenness. Paul holds captivity and responsibility together rather than trading one for the other.

The Greek of the final clause is difficult and the referents of the two pronouns are debated: it may mean captured by the devil to do the devil's will, or captured by the Lord's servant to do God's will. Most translations take the first. The verse is a standard reference in discussions of spiritual bondage, and the note worth keeping is that its remedy in context is patient teaching, not confrontation with the captor._

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; see Lexicon Roadmap.

G1228 - diabolos, diabolos, Strong's G1228

Quoted in

Concepts:

Lexicon:

G1228 - diabolos

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.