2 Timothy 2:17 - Exposition

Gangrene for canker, A.V. Their word; as opposed to "the Word of truth" in 2 Timothy 2:15 . Will eat ( νομὴν ἕξει ); i.e. spread, like a gangrene, which gradually enlarges its area, corrupting the flesh that was sound before. So these heretical opinions spread in the body of the Church which is affected by them. νομή is literally "pasture" ( John 10:9 ), "grazing of flocks," and hence is applied to fire (Polybius), which as it were feeds upon all around it, and, in medical language (Hippocrates), to sores and gangrenes, which grow larger and depasture the flesh. Of whom ; of the number of those pointed at in the phrase, "their word." Hymenaeus ; probably the same person as is mentioned as a blasphemer in 1 Timothy 1:20 . Philetus . Nothing is known of him.