2 Timothy 3:16

16. The divine suitableness of Scripture to fit the minister for his work.

All Scripture The Greek word for Scripture, γραφη , simply signifies writing; hence in 2 Timothy 3:15 the adjective holy, and, perhaps, here the adjective God-breathed, (which is the literal Greek of the full phrase given by inspiration of God,) are used to qualify the word as meaning the sacred writings. Yet of the fifty times in which the Greek word γραφη , occurs, it does not once designate any thing else than the sacred canon. Scholars find two interpretations for this passage. One is clearly expressed in our English translation: All scripture is inspired and profitable, etc. But the verb for is, not being in the Greek, can be supplied at a different place; and the Greek for and can be emphatic, also. We, then, may have the rendering, All inspired scripture is also profitable, etc. In the former interpretation the inspiration of Scripture is affirmed, in the latter case assumed. Either interpretation is sustainable by the Greek. Ellicott, Alford, and Huther prefer the latter; in which they are sustained by Origen, Grotius, Erasmus, Whitby, and Hammond; also by the Syriac, Vulgate, and Luther’s version. The latter meaning lies most clearly in the train of thought.

That thought, and, perhaps, words, should be God-breathed into, or on, a human being, is a conception familiar to ancient pagan as well as Hebrew and Christian writers. Josephus says: “The prophets learned the highest and most ancient things by the inspiration (breathing on) that is from God.” Plutarch speaks of “the God-breathed dreams.” Cicero says, “No man was ever great without some divine afflatus, (breathing-on.) Either the thought might be imparted to the man, and then the thought was inspired; or the man might be elevated to a higher tone, and so, speaking spontaneously, his words would have something divine about them. 2 Peter 1:21; Matthew 22:43, seems to describe the latter inspiration.

Scripture, Paul tells Timothy, is profitable, positively for doctrine, or teaching positive truth; negatively for reproof, or rather, refutation of error; disciplinarily for correction of conduct; formatively as a whole for righteousness or rectitude of character.