2 Timothy 2:15 – my notes

Here are my efforts at working this verse.

ΠΡΟΣ ΤΙΜΟΘΕΟΝ Β΄ 2:15
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σπούδασον σεαυτὸν δόκιμον παραστῆσαι τῷ θεῷ ἐργάτην ἀνεπαίσχυντον, ὀρθοτομοῦντα τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας.

My Translation:

Make every effort to present yourself as one approved to God, a worker who is not ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.

or

With all diligence present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who need not be ashamed [who] accurately handles the word of truth.

I like “diligence” too because it connects Paul with Peter who stresses “making every effort” and “be diligent” in living the Christian life (cf. 2Peter 1)

parse and explain your translation for σπούδασον (why you chose the word you did).

aorist active imperative from σπουδαζω – BDAG 939.3: to be especially conscientious to discharging an obligation, be zealous/eager, take pains, make every effort, be conscientious. Guthrie sees a notion of persistent zeal (New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the GNT, Zondervan 1998). Perhaps one could say here “have persistent diligence” or “have persistent zeal” – but “make every effort” says the same thing.

Something interesting about the aorist imperative is “the force generally is to command an action as a whole, without focusing on duration, repetition, etc.” The aorist imperative has different functions. Here it has the tone of a command. Wallace calls it “a summary command.” (Wallace, GGBB, 485). It seems Paul may be giving a command that applies to all of life not just certain instances. σπουδαζω here is also the main verb.

parse and explain your translation for παραστῆσαι (why you chose the word you did).

aorist active infinitive from παριστημι/παριστανω – for this I am going to go with BDAG 778.1.d which notes one use of παραστημι in relation to the language of sacrifice, offer, bring, present, which is also used in Romans 12:1 and would be consistent with Pauline usage. If this verse is in juxtaposition with the verses before and after it, it can take much work and sacrifice not to get sucked into the ways of the world (ie., face rejection, loose friends, etc). I can relate to this being a new Pastor in a context where it can be quite easy to be given over to an ungodly lifestyle.

It is possible this is a complementary infinitive (used with helping verbs to complete a thought) for this to be the case παραστημι/παριστανω has to nearly always occur with the infinitive. One could say here “be diligent to present yourselves…” “Make every effort to present yourselves…” (see also Wallace, GGBB, 598-99).

parse and explain your translation for ὀρθοτομοῦντα (why you chose the word you did).

present active participle from ὀρθοτομε͗ω – BDAG 722 to guide [something] along a straight path, in this case, the word of truth (the Scriptures); One could put accurately handling the word of truth.

Possibly an adverbial participle of manner meaning how the finite verb is carried out – here meaning in our diligence and work we rightly divide the word of truth. Or it is an adverbial participle of result – the result of the main verb – here the result of our diligence is rightly dividing the word of truth.

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My whole point for putting this up is in looking at σπουδαζω I realized “study” did not fit the context or usage of the word and that it is not talking about the need to study our Bibles but rather living a godly life. Of course we are to read and study our Bibles but this isn’t the verse to argue that point (though telling this to a KJVO person would be futile).

Thanks to those who participated in working on the verse.