2 Timothy 1:2

my dearly beloved son--In Ti1 1:2, and Tit 1:4, written at an earlier period than this Epistle, the expression used is in the Greek, "my genuine son." ALFORD sees in the change of expression an intimation of an altered tone as to Timothy, more of mere love, and less of confidence, as though Paul saw m him a want of firmness, whence arose the need of his stirring up afresh the faith and grace in Him (Ti2 1:6). But this seems to me not justified by the Greek word agapetos, which implies the attachment of reasoning and choice, on the ground of merit in the one "beloved," not of merely instinctive love. See TRENCH [Greek Synonyms of the New Testament].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 2. To Timothy, my dearly beloved son] See the note in 1Ti 1:2.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(2) To Timothy, my dearly beloved son.—More accurately, (my) beloved son. The words used in the address of the First Epistle were “my own son” (γνησίω̩ τέκνω̩). The change in the words was probably owing to St. Paul’s feeling that, in spite of his earnest request for Timothy to come to him with all speed, these lines were in reality his farewell to his trusted friend and more than son, hence the loving word.

Grace, mercy, and peace . . .—See Notes on 1Ti_1:2.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. my dearly beloved son] Or my beloved child. ‘Child’ as in 1Ti_1:1; ‘beloved’ in place of ‘mine own,’ but surely not a weaker word, when we remember its use to express ‘the only begotten,’ Mat_3:17.

mercy] Omitted in the greeting to Titus is in both the letters to Timothy, and may imply St Paul’s inner oneness with his ‘beloved child’ in the feeling ‘he shewed me all the mercy as he shewed me all the sin.’ Cf. note 1Ti_1:2. All is ‘writ large’ in 2Ti_1:8-12.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To Timothy, my dearly beloved son,.... Not in a natural, but in a spiritual sense; and not on account of his being an instrument of his conversion, but by reason of that instruction in the doctrines of the Gospel which he gave him, it being usual to call disciples children; and he calls him so, because as a son, he, being young in years, served with him, and under him, as a father, in the Gospel of Christ; for whom he had a very great affection, on account of his having been a companion with him in his travels, and very useful to him in the ministry, and because of his singular and eminent gifts, great grace, religion, and holiness: Grace, mercy, and peace, &c. See Gill on Ti1 1:2.

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2 Timothy 1:3

ti2 1:3

ti2 1:3

ti2 1:3I thank God,.... After the inscription and salutation follows the preface to the epistle; which contains a thanksgiving to God upon Timothy's account, and has a tendency to engage his attention to what he was about to write to him in the body of the epistle. God is the object of praise and thanksgiving, both as the God of nature and providence, and as the God of all grace; for every good thing comes from him, and therefore he ought to have the glory of it; nor should any glory, as though they had not received it: and he is here described, as follows,

whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience; the apostle served God in the precepts of the law, as in the hands of Christ, and as written upon his heart by the Spirit of God, in which he delighted after the inward man, and which he served with his regenerated mind; and also in the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, in which he was very diligent and laborious, faithful and successful: and this God, whom he served, was the God of his "forefathers", of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of Benjamin, of whose tribe he was, and also of his more immediate ancestors. The Ethiopic version renders it, "from my original"; for though he preached the Gospel of Christ, and asserted the abrogation of the ceremonial law, yet he worshipped the one, true, and living God, the God of Israel, and was not an apostate from the true religion, as his enemies would insinuate: and this service of his was performed with a "pure conscience": every man has a conscience, but the conscience of every natural man is defiled with sin; and that is only a pure one, which is sprinkled and purged with the blood of Christ; and whereby a person is only fitted to serve the living God, without the incumbrance of dead works, and slavish fear, and with faith and cheerfulness; and such a conscience the apostle had, and with such an one he served God. For this refers not to his serving of God, and to his conscience, while a Pharisee and a persecutor; for however moral was his conduct and conversation then, and with what sincerity and uprightness soever he behaved, his conscience was not a pure one. He goes on to observe what he thanked God for,

that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; that God had laid him upon his heart, and that he had such reason to remember him at the throne of grace continually. We learn from hence, that the apostle prayed constantly night and day; and if so great a man as he stood in need of continual prayer, much more we; and that in his prayers he was not unmindful of his friends, though at a distance from him; and in both these he is to be imitated: it becomes us to pray without ceasing: to pray always, and not faint and give out, to pray every day and night; and to pray for others as well as for ourselves, for all the saints, yea, for our enemies, as well as for our friends.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2 To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Ver. 2. Grace, mercy, and peace] {See Trapp on "1Ti 1:2"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To Timothy, my dearly beloved son; - See the notes at 1Ti 1:2.

Grace, mercy, and peace - see the notes at Rom 1:7.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

See Poole on "1Ti 1:2"; there he calls him his own son, testifying his relation, here his beloved son, to testify his affection to him. The salutation is the same with that in 1Ti 1:2.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2. Beloved—In 1Ti_1:2, genuine son, (see note there,) a difference arising from the fact that the first epistle is more official, this more personal and hearty.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Beloved child for dearly beloved son, A.V; peace for and peace, A.V My beloved child. In 1Ti_1:2 (as in (Tit_1:4) it is "my true child," or "my own son," A.V The idea broached by some commentators, that this variation in expression marks some change in St. Paul"s confidence in Timothy, seems utterly unfounded. The exhortations to boldness and courage which follow were the natural results of the danger in which St. Paul"s own life was, and the depression of spirits caused by the desertion of many friends. (2Ti_4:10-16) St. Paul, too, knew that the time was close at hand when Timothy, still young, would no longer have him to lean upon and look up to, and therefore would prepare him for it; and possibly he may have seen some symptoms of weakness in Timothy"s character, which made him anxious, as appears, indeed, in the course of this Epistle. Grace, etc. (so 1Ti_1:2; Tit_1:4, A.V; 2Jn_1:3). Jude has "mercy, peace, and love." The salutation in Eph_1:2 is "grace and peace," as also in (Romans 1Co_1:3, and elsewhere in St. Paul"s Epistles, and in Rev_1:4.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ver. 2. To Timothy, [my] beloved child. I cannot but regard it as a very frivolous question, to ask here, with some commentators, why the apostle should have addressed Timothy as his beloved (ἀγαπητῷ), and not, as in the first epistle, his true (γνησίῳ) child? and whether his doing so did not bespeak a somewhat diminished confidence now in respect to Timothy? (Mack, Alford.) Why should an apostle, any more than another person, be expected, if he has once employed a particular epithet on an endeared friend, to confine himself ever afterwards to the same? For anything we know, it might be the very reason why Paul did not use true here, that he was conscious of having used it in the former epistle; for love itself, when fervent, instinctively shrinks from formal repetitions. And did not Timothy now need to be greeted with an endearing rather than a confidential epithet, separated as he was unwillingly, and at such a crisis, from his spiritual father? The tears shed by the youthful disciple at that separation, which were still fresh in the remembrance of the apostle’s heart (2Ti 1:4), would alone prompt the latter to select a term that would be expressive of tenderness and affection. If there are certain things in the epistle (as Alford alleges) which seem to indicate a “somewhat saddened reminding, rather than one of rising hope and confidence,” toward Timothy, the designation of beloved child, so appropriate in the circumstances, is assuredly not one of them; and the attempt to turn it to such account belongs to fancy, not to exposition. Grace, mercy, peace from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord. The same form of salutation as at 1Ti 1:2, which see, with reference especially to the inclusion of mercy, a peculiarity of these two epistles.

Patrick Fairbairn — An Exposition of Ezekiel (1851), Jonah (1849), and The Pastoral Epistles (1874) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ti 1:2. Ἀγαπητῷ, dearly beloved) An appropriate epithet; for the strongest declaration of love follows. In the first epistle he had written, my genuine [γνησίῳ]: that is compensated for here in 2Ti 1:5 [by the expression, τῆς ἐν σοὶ ἀνυποκρίτου πίστεως, the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which corresponds to it].

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ti 1:2 . ἀγαπητῷ : On the variation here from γνησίῳ , which occurs in 1Ti 1:2 and Tit 1:4 , see the note in the former place. 2Ti 1:5 (“the unfeigned faith that is in thee”) proves that St. Paul did not wish to hint that Timothy had ceased to be his γνήσιον τέκνον . Timothy is St. Paul’s τέκνον ἀγαπητόν also in 1Co 4:17 . ἀγαπητός is complete in itself: it does not require the explanatory addition, ἐν πίστει , or κατὰ κοινὴν πίστιν .

χάρις , κ . τ . λ .: See note on 1Ti 1:2 .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. Before Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ א* and some cursives insert κυρίου, reading κυρίου Χρ. Ἰησ. τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν.

2. ἀγαπητῷ τέκνῳ. It is γνησίῳ τέκνῳ in 1Ti 1:2 and Tit 1:4; but the change in phrase is hardly to be counted significant. In 1Co 4:17 Timothy is described as τέκνον ἀγαπητόν μου.

Χάρις, ἔλεος, εἰρήνη. see on 1Ti 1:2.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2.] Address and greeting.

2. ἀγαπητῷ τέκνῳ] “Can it be accidental,” says Mack, “that instead of γνησίῳ τέκν., as Timotheus is called in the first Epistle, 1:2, and Tit 1:4,—here we have ἀγαπητῷ? Or may a reason for the change be found in this, that it now behoved Timotheus to stir up afresh the faith and the grace in him, before he could again be worthy of the name γνησίον τέκνον in its full sense?” This may be too much pressed: but certainly there is throughout this Epistle an altered tone with regard to Timotheus—more of mere love, and less of confidence, than in the former: and this would naturally shew itself even in passing words of address. When Bengel says, “in Ep. i., scripserat, genuino: id compensator hic versu 5,” he certainly misses the delicate sense of ver. 5: see below. To find in ἀγαπητῷ more confidence, as Heyd. (and Chrys., maintaining that οἱ κατὰ πίστιν ὅταν ὦσιν ἀγαπητοί, διʼ οὐδὲν ἕτερόν εἰσιν, ἀλλʼ ἢ διʼ ἀρετήν), can hardly be correct: the expression of feeling is different in kind, not comparable in degree: suiting an Epistle of warm affection and somewhat saddened reminding, rather than one of rising hope and confidence. I regret to be, on this point, at issue throughout this second Epistle, with my friend Bishop Ellicott, who seems to me too anxious to rescue the character of Timotheus from the slightest imputation of weakness: thereby marring the delicate texture of many of St. Paul’s characteristic periods, in which tender reproof, vigorous reassurance, and fervent affection are exquisitely intermingled.

See reff. and notes.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. Cf. I 1:2 notes.

3-2:13. Thanksgiving to God for Timothy’s past life, and appeal for renewed efforts, for courage to face danger, and for loyal adherence to the apostolic teaching.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Dearly beloved [αγαπητω] . Better, beloved. (Comp. 1Co 4:17. In 1Ti 1:2, Timothy is addressed as gnhsiov, and Tit. in Tit 1:4.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

2 My beloved son By this designation he not only testifies his love of Timothy, but procures respect and submission to him; because he wishes to be acknowledged in him, as one who may justly be called his son, The reason of the appellation is, that he had begotten him in Christ; for, although this honor belongs to God alone, yet it is also transferred to ministers, whose agency he employs for regenerating us.

Grace, mercy The word mercy, which he employs here, is commonly left out by him in his ordinary salutations. I think that he introduced it, when he poured out his feelings with more than ordinary vehemence. Moreover, he appears to have inverted the order; for, since “mercy” is the cause of “grace,” it ought to have come before it in this passage. But still it is not unsuitable that it should be put after “grace”, in order to express more clearly what is the nature of that grace, and whence it proceeds; as if he had added, in the form of a declaration, that the reason why we are loved by God is, that he is merciful. Yet this may also be explained as relating to God’s daily benefits, which are so many testimonies of his “mercy”; for, whenever he assists us, whenever he delivers us from evils, pardons our sins, and bears with our weakness, he does so, because he has compassion on us.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

2. “To Timothy, a beloved child.” Here we have the same tenderly affectionate epithet used in the introductory of the first letter.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. To Timothy. See sketch of the public life of Timothy in the Introduction to 1 Timothy.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.