Passage

2 Timothy 4.4

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

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

2. preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. 3. For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts;

4. and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables.

But be thou sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry. 6. For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is come. (2 Timothy 4:2-6, ASV)

WEB

2. preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching. 3. For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts;

4. and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables.

But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry. 6. For I am already being offered, and the time of my departure has come. (2 Timothy 4:2-6, WEB)

KJV

2. Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

4. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. ^{make: or, fulfil} 6. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. (2 Timothy 4:2-6, KJV)

YLT

2. preach the word; be earnest in season, out of season, convict, rebuke, exhort, in all long-suffering and teaching, 3. for there shall be a season when the sound teaching they will not suffer, but according to their own desires to themselves they shall heap up teachers, itching in the hearing,

4. and indeed, from the truth the hearing they shall turn away, and to the fables they shall be turned aside.

And thou, watch in all things; suffer evil; do the work of one proclaiming good news; of thy ministration make full assurance, 6. for I am already being poured out, and the time of my release hath arrived; (2 Timothy 4:2-6, 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 will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables." The two verbs are a matched pair and the second follows from the first: the same people who turn from truth turn toward mythoi, stories.

Verse 3 supplies the mechanism, and it is uncomfortably specific. They will not endure sound doctrine but will "heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts, having itching ears." The demand comes first and the supply follows; the teachers are accumulated by the hearers rather than imposed on them. This is a market description of doctrinal decline rather than a conspiratorial one, and it locates the initiative with the congregation.

Note the assumption underneath: a vacancy where truth was does not stay empty. Paul does not describe people turning from the faith into neutrality but into mythoi, a word he uses repeatedly in these letters (1 Timothy 1:4, 4:7, Titus 1:14) for religious storytelling that functions as a substitute._

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.

G0225 - aletheia, aletheia, Strong's G0225

Quoted in

Arguments and defeaters:

Half of Pauls Letters Are Forgeries Objection Defeater

Concepts:

Spirit of Error, via 2 Timothy 4.3-4
Teacher, via 2 Timothy 4.3-4

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.