2 Timothy 2:23 - Exposition

Ignorant questionings for unlearned questions, A.V.; refuse for avoid, A.V.; gender for do gender, A.V. Ignorant ( ἀπαιδεύτους ) ; only here in the New Testament, but not uncommon in the LXX ., applied to persons, and in classical Greek. Unlearned is quite as good a rendering as ignorant. It is a term applied properly to ill-educated, ill-disciplined people, and thence, by an easy metonymy, to the questions such persons delight in. Questionings ( ζητήσεις ); see 1 Timothy 1:4 , note, and Titus 3:9 . Refuse ( παραίτου ) ; "have nothing to do with" (see 1 Timothy 4:7 ; Titus 3:10 ). Gender ( γεννῶσι ). This is the only place in the New Testament where γεννάω is used in this metaphorical sense, unless Galatians 4:24 is included. (For the sentiment, see 1 Timothy 6:4 , "Whereof cometh envy, strife," etc.) Strifes ( μάχας ); compare μάχας νομικάς , "fightings about the Law" ( Titus 3:9 ); and "wars and fightings" ( James 4:1 , James 4:2 ). Compare, too, the verb λογομαχεῖν , in Galatians 4:14 . Nothing can be more emphatic than St. Paul's warnings against foolish and angry controversies about words, and yet nothing has been more neglected in the Church, in all ages.