2 Timothy 3:13

(13) But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.—This verse is closely connected with the following (2Ti_3:14), to which, indeed, it serves as an introduction. 2Ti_3:14 takes up again the exhortation to Timothy begun in 2Ti_3:10 : “But thou hast fully known my doctrine,” &c. 2Ti_3:14 takes up the thought: “Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them.” Here, in 2Ti_3:13, these evil men and seducers (or better, perhaps, deceivers) are spoken of as advancing towards the worse. History has borne witness to the accuracy of these prophetic words. The false teachers known to St. Paul and Timothy developed into the leaders of the various wild and speculative Gnostic sects, whose connection with Christianity consisted alone in the name; and each succeeding age has witnessed a development in opposition to the truth as it is in Jesus. In this allusion to the gradual development of hostility to the truth it will hardly be out of place to instance the eighteenth Christian century, when opposition to the teaching of Jesus had reached such a pitch that, with the approval or even the applause of thousands, the most brilliant writer in Europe wrote of Christ and His religion in the well-known words, “Ecrasez l’infame!” while it was reserved for our own century—the nineteenth—to witness the rare, though we believe ephemeral popularity, among so-called Christian peoples of a work which, with honeyed phrases, and in romantic, graceful language, paints the Redeemer of man in the strange and apparently contradictory characters of a loving enthusiast and of a conscious impostor!

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

2Ti_3:13

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse.

Graduating in ungodliness

1. If we consider wicked men as they are in themselves, they are all strongly bent to apostasy; every day they grow worse and worse. As godly men are graduates in Gods school, growing from strength to strength, and from one degree of grace unto another, till they become perfect men in Christ, every sermon makes them better, and every ordinance improves them. So wicked men are graduates also, and take degrees in the devils school; they stand not at a stay, but they grow from evil to Worse. As he that is righteous will go on and be more righteous, so he that is filthy will go on in his filthiness (Rev_22:11). It is the proper character of wicked men that they fall away more and more (Isa_1:5; Pro_1:22).

2. But secondly, let us consider them specifically and divisively for such evil men as are deceivers and impostors, and these we see experimentally grow worse and worse. They have no foundation to rest on; they know no stay when once they have passed the bounds of the word, no more than a violent stream doth when it hath broke over those bounds and bonds which before kept it in. Error knows no end; when once men forsake the way of truth they wander in infinitum. As it is in logic, grant one absurdity and I will infer a thousand, and as sin begets sin, blood toucheth blood, and one murder begets another (Hos_4:2). So error is very fertile and prolific; it speedily brings forth a great increase. One error is a bridge to another; ill weeds spring apace and spread far, when good herbs grow thin and low. A little of this leaven will quickly sour the whole lump (Mat_16:6). When once men begin to tumble down the hill of error they seldom rest till they come to the bottom. (T. Hall, B. D.)

Deceiving others and being deceived in turn

They cozen others, and the devil cozens them, leading them into far greater errors; and so they shall be punished on a double account.

1. Because they err themselves and resist the truth.

2. Because they have drawn others into error. The participle of the present tense notes their assiduity and constancy; they make it their trade to deceive others: they are still deceiving one or other with their smooth, flattering language. As God loves to employ good men for the conversion of others (not that He needs the help of man, but), for the exercising of the graces of His servants, and for the greater manifestation of His own glory, so the devil, who is Gods ape, loves to deceive men by men. He hath his agents and emissaries everywhere. As good men delight in converting others, so wicked men delight in perverting others: as those would not go to heaven alone, so these would not go to hell alone: and therefore they labour to make others twofold more the children of the devil than themselves. (T. Hall, B. D.)

Satan the great deceiver

As thieves when they would rob a man draw him aside out of the highway into some wood, and then cut his throat, so this grand deceiver and his agents draw men aside from the right way of Gods worship into some bypaths of error to their ruin. The devil he is the cheater of cheaters, and deluder of deluders; it is his constant trade, as the participle implies. And this is the reason why many false teachers may die with boldness and courage for their opinions, viz., because they are blinded and deluded by the devil; they think themselves martyrs, when they are grand deceivers and grossly deceived. We had need, therefore, to pray for the Spirit of grace and illumination that we may see the methods, depths, and devices of Satan and avoid them. (T. Hall, B. D.)

Worse and worse

Things alter for the worse spontaneously, if they be not altered for the better designedly. (Bacon.)

Being deceived

A man may tell a lie till he believes it to be the truth. (J. C. Gray.)

Self-deception

Mr. Robert Sutcliffe, a member of the Society of Friends, travelling in America early in the present century, had a tough argument with a man engaged in the slave trade, of whom he says: At length, being hard pressed, he gave up the point in a good deal of warmth, with this remarkable declaration: Why, sir, you cant suppose that the Almighty looks so narrowly into our actions as you do. (Leisure Hour.)

Changed by sin

Allowed sin always masters a man in time. The man may loathe his master, yet he obeys him; he may fear his master, yet still he does his hateful bidding. But there is here an awful warning as to the sure change of the very being of a man under the once invited presence and the permitted occupation of the forces of evil. The man himself changes--imperceptibly at first to himself--others see it. He is often unaware of it himself, till the last stages are reached. It must be so--there must be a change. If you think there is no such thing as standing still in life--in spiritual, in natural life. As the solid tower reels and sways beneath the crashing of the ringing bells, so there is movement even in the most solid, calm-seeming life. (Canon Wilberforce.)

Development of evil

Secular history tells us that when Tiberius (Luk_3:1) became emperor of Rome, he was remarkable for his kindness, amiability, and moderation. But he became one of the most wicked and cruel of tyrants. Nero, too, was so affable and kind in early life, that he was quite popular at the beginning of his reign; but he afterwards caused his mother, his wife, his old tutor Seneca, with multitudes of Christians and others, to be put to death, many of them in excessively cruel ways; and he was guilty of such other enormities, that his people at length conspired against him, when, to escape their malice, he killed himself in the thirty-first year of his age. Robespierre, the tyrant, and the leading spirit during the reign of terror in Paris, through whom thousands of both his friends and foes were slaughtered or subjected to the greatest cruelties, was, in private and early life, amiable and kind. He once, when young, resigned his situation as a member of a criminal court, because he had such an objection to the barbarity of capital punishment, which he characterised as base assassination. The devil and his angels, Cain, Henry Wainwright, etc., show to what evil an immortal spirit may fall. Wherefore avoid bad company, give up evil or doubtful habits, get Gods restraining, converting, and preserving grace. (H. R. Burton.)

Productivity of sin

Referring to the terrible productivity of sin, Mr. Varley once mentioned that when in Tasmania, he had heard of a snake recently killed there which had given birth to thirty-seven young ones. But, said he, quoting Joseph Cook, sin is an eternal mother.

Progressiveness of sin

A gentleman was walking with a friend one day through his beautiful grounds, when they came to a fine large tree which was decayed to the very core. That tree, said the proprietor, was destroyed by a single worm. A short time since it was as vigorous as any of its companions, when one day a woodworm was discovered forcing its way under the outer bark. A naturalist who was at that time my guest remarked on seeing it that if left alone it would ultimately kill the tree. It seemed so improbable, that the worm was suffered to remain. Gradually it bored its way into the fibre of the tree, slowly but surely doing its work. The following summer the tree shed its leaves much earlier than usual, and in the second season it was a dead, worthless thing. The worm which seemed so very insignificant had found its way to the heart of the once noble tree and destroyed its life. How forcibly do we see this same thing illustrated in the common walks of every-day life. A young man is persuaded by his companions to take his first glass of wine. It seems like a little thing, but it is the beginning of a course of degradation and eternal shame. The clerk in the bank appropriates a few shillings of the funds entrusted to his care. One step leads to another, until at last he is arrested and cast into prison as a defaulter. A boy begins to practise little deceits at school or at home which, unless discovered and checked, will make him a base and unprincipled man. Such is the destructive power of little sins when the continued indulgence in them is practised.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ti 3:13. Πονηροὶ, evil men) The antithesis is godly, 2Ti 3:12. These are πλανώμενοι, with a middle signification, who permit themselves to be seduced.—γόητες) seducers, enchanters, like those of Egypt, 2Ti 3:8. These are πλανῶντες, seducers.—προκόψουσιν, shall proceed to) so that no one will persecute them, but they will persecute the godly.—πλανῶντες καὶ πλανώμενοι, deceiving and being deceived) He who has once begun to deceive others, is the less easily able to recover himself from error, and the more easily embraces in turn the errors of others.

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

2Ti_3:13. Matthies (with whom Wiesinger agrees) thus states the connection between this and the preceding verses: Quite different is it with evil men, who, instead of suffering for the truth, proceed always farther in their wickedness; but there is no real opposition in the two thoughts thus opposed.[52] The apostle here continues the description of the heretics which was interrupted at 2Ti_3:10; in contrast with οἱ θέλοντες εὐσεβῶς ζῆν, he calls them πονηροὶ ἄνθρωποι καὶ γόητες, and says of them, προκόπτειν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον, which is all the more suitable that it was the very reason why persecution was threatening the honest disciples of Christ, and with them Timothy.

πονηροὶ δὲ ἄνθρωποι] As the article is wanting, the thought is quite general, but καὶ γόητες clearly shows that the heretics mentioned above are specially meant (in opposition to Hofmann). Paul gives this name to the heretics, with reference to 2Ti_3:8, where he compared them to the Egyptian sorcerers. The word γόης is ἅπ. λεγ. (γοητεία 2Ma_12:24); it is equivalent to μάγος, Act_13:6; Act_13:8 (comp., too, Act_8:9; Act_8:11). Hofmann generalizes the idea to that of a traitor; but this is all the more arbitrary, that the expression is undoubtedly an allusion to 2Ti_3:8.

προκόψουσιν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον] denotes a greater degree of wickedness, while 2Ti_3:9 refers to the increase in the extent of its influence.

How this increase of wickedness comes to pass, is told by the words πλανῶντες καὶ πλανώμενοι. Bengel and Heydenreich make πλανῶντες and γόητες, πλανώμενοι and πονηροί parallel to each other; for this, however, there is no ground. Even the meaning of πλανώμενοι is against the parallel, for it is neither transitive: leading astray (Matthies), nor middle: qui se seducendos permittunt (Bengel), nor even intransitive: going astray (Hofmann); it is purely passive: being led astray (Luther), or otherwise it would have been put first. He who leads others astray is himself led astray.

[52] Wiesinger argues, on the other hand, that suffering for the sake of holiness, and advance in wickedness with outward success, do form a contrast; but the idea with outward success is entirely imported.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Ti 3:13 . πονηροὶ δὲ : The antithesis seems to be between the apparent discomfiture of those who wish to live in Christ (their persecution being after all almost a means conditional to their attaining their desire), and the paradoxical success of evil men; they advance indeed; but only in degradation; proficient in peius (Vulg.). See notes on 2Ti 3:9 and 2Ti 2:16 .

γόητες , impostors (R.V.), seductores , exactly expresses the term. γοητεία occurs 2Ma 12:24 , where it means trickery .

πλανώμενοι : cf. Tit 3:3 . Those who deceive others impair, in so doing, their sense of the distinction between truth and falsehood, and thus weaken their power of resistance to self-deceit, and to imposition by others.

προκόψουσιν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον : See on 2Ti 3:9 .

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

Their wickedness shall daily increase.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Reason why persecutions must be expected, and these becoming worse and worse as the end approaches. The breach between light and darkness, so far from being healed, shall be widened [ALFORD].

evil men--in contrast to the "godly" (Ti2 3:12).

seducers--literally, "conjurers." Magical arts prevailed at Ephesus (Act 19:19), and had been renounced by many Ephesians on embracing Christianity: but now when Paul was writing to Ephesus, symptoms of a return to conjuring tricks appeared: an undesigned coincidence [BURTON]. Probably sorcery will characterize the final apostasy (Rev 13:15; Rev 18:23; Rev 22:15).

wax worse--literally, "advance in the direction of worse" (see on Ti2 3:9). Not contradictory to that verse: there the diffusion of the evil was spoken of; here its intensity [ALFORD].

deceiving, and being deceived--He who has once begun to deceive others, is the less easily able to recover himself from error, and the more easily embraces in turn the errors of others [BENGEL].

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 13. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse] They will yet get on for a season, deceiving themselves and deceiving others; but, by and by, their folly will become manifest to all, 2Ti 3:9. The word γοητες, which we render seducers, signifies jugglers, pretenders to magical arts; probably persons dealing in false miracles, with whom the Church in all ages has been not a little disgraced.

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

13 But wicked men and impostors This is the most bitter of all persecutions, when we see wicked men, with their sacrilegious hardihood, with their blasphemies and errors, gathering strength. Thus Paul says elsewhere, that Ishmael persecuted Isaac, not by the sword, but by mockery (Galatians 4:29.) Hence also we may conclude, that in the preceding verse, it was not merely one kind of persecution that was described, but that the Apostle spoke, in general terms, of those distresses which the children of God are compelled to endure, when they contend for the glory of their Father.

I stated, a little before, in what respect they shall grow worse and worse; for he foretells not only that they will make obstinate resistance, but that they will succeed in injuring and corrupting others. One worthless person will always be more effectual in destroying, than ten faithful teachers in building, though they labor with all their might. Nor are there ever wanting the tares which Satan sows for injuring the pure corn; and even when we think that false prophets are driven away, others continually spring up in other directions.

Again, as to the power of doing injury, it is not because falsehood, in its own nature, is stronger than truth, or that the tricks of Satan exceed the energy of the Spirit of God; but because men, being naturally inclined to vanity and errors, embrace far more readily what agrees with their natural disposition, and also because, being blinded by a righteous vengeance of God, they are led, as captive slaves, at the will of Satan. And the chief reason, why the plague of wicked doctrines is so efficacious, is, that the ingratitude of men deserves that it should be so. It is highly necessary for godly teachers to be reminded of this, that they may be prepared for uninterrupted warfare, and may not be discouraged by delay, or yield to the haughtiness and insolence of adversaries.

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.

13. But evil men and seducers] The word ‘seduce’ in A.V. occurs nine times in Old and New Testament always in the general sense of ‘lead astray’; everywhere except here it is used to represent the Greek word for this cognate to the English word ‘planet’ ‘the wanderer,’ (cf. Jude’s ‘wandering stars’) and almost immediately following here ‘deceiving,’ cf. 1Ti_4:1 and note. R.V. in these places varies between ‘seduce’ and ‘lead astray.’ The word so rendered here is properly ‘enchanter,’ from the cries of incantations used. So ‘magicians,’ and more generally ‘impostors.’ Compare for the general sense, the most probable here, the use of the verb by Plato, Phæd. 81, 13, ‘the soul having served and loved the body and been bewitched by it through desires and pleasures.’ Some think there may be a reference to the magic arts, such as those of Jannes and Jambres; and certainly Ephesus had an evil repute in this respect itself, cf. Act_19:13; Act_19:10. ‘Ephesian letters’ was a common expression for charms made up of magic words and worn as amulets.

shall wax worse and worse] The same verb as in 2Ti_3:9. The ‘progress’ is a ‘rake’s progress,’ step after step leading and being led astray. Compare Rev_18:23, ‘with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived,’ 2Jn_1:7, ‘many deceivers are gone forth into the world … this is the deceiver and the antichrist.’

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.

But continue thou in the things,.... That is, in the doctrines of the Gospel, and not be moved away from them, either through the malice or persecutions, or the cunning sleight of men that lie in wait to deceive; and which is an exhortation suitable to the godly in all ages: and what follow are so many reasons enforcing it:

which thou hast learned: not merely in a theoretical way, as arts and sciences are learned, but in a spiritual and experimental manner; a comfortable knowledge and experience of which he had attained unto; and were not like those in Ti2 3:7, who had been ever learning, and yet could not come to the knowledge of the truth: and since therefore he had learned the truths of the Gospel, and had attained to a good understanding of them, it was his duty, as it is the duty of all such, to abide by them:

and hast been assured of: the doctrines of the Gospel are certain things; they are truths without controversy; there is a full assurance of understanding of them, which men may arrive unto, and which ministers should, since they are to affirm them with certainty. Scepticism is very unbecoming one that calls himself a minister of the Gospel; and when a man is assured of the truth and reality of Gospel doctrines, it would be shameful in him to drop them, or depart from them:

knowing of whom thou hast learned them. The apostle means himself, though he modestly forbears the mention of himself: and it is another argument why Timothy should continue steadfastly in the doctrines of the Gospel, seeing he had learned them of so great an apostle of Christ; whose mission, as such, was abundantly confirmed by miracles and success, and who had received these doctrines by immediate revelation from Christ; so that it was all one as if Timothy had learned them from Christ himself. The Alexandrian copy reads the word "whom", in the plural number, as if the apostle referred to more teachers of Timothy than himself; however, he doubtless was the principal one.

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

13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

Ver. 13. Shall wax worse and worse] In deterius proficient, a sorry kind of profiting, quando Andabatarum more res procedat. Thus the Illuminates (as they called themselves), a pestilent sect in Arragon, professing and affecting in themselves a kind of angelic purity, fell suddenly to the very counterpoint of justifying bestiality. (Spec. Europ.) And though these men and their light are quenched some while since, yet under pretence of new lights have not our church forsakers wheeled and wheeled about so long to the right hand, that they are perfectly come round to the left? {See Trapp on "2Ti 2:16"} {See Trapp on "2Ti 2:17"}

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.

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse - That is, it is the character of such men to do this; they may be expected to do it. This is the general law of depravity - that if men are not converted, they are always growing worse, and sinking deeper into iniquity. Their progress will be certain, though it may be gradual, since “nemo repente turpissimus.” The connection here is this: that Timothy was not to expect that he would be exempt from persecution 2Ti 3:12, by any change for the better in the wicked men referred to. He was to anticipate in them the operation of the general law in regard to bad men and seducers - that they would grow worse and worse. From this fact, he was to regard it as certain that he, as well as others, would be liable to be persecuted. The word rendered “seducers” - γόης goēs - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means, properly, a “juggler, or diviner;” and then, a “deceiver, or impostor.” Here it refers to those who by seductive arts, lead persons into error.

Deceiving - Making others believe that to be true and right, which is false and wrong. This was, of course, done by seductive arts.

And being deceived - Under delusion themselves. The advocates of error are often themselves as really under deception, as those whom they impose upon. They are often sincere in the belief of error, and then they are under a delusion; or, if they are insincere, they are equally deluded in supposing that they can make error pass for truth before God, or can deceive the Searcher of hearts. The worst victims of delusion are those who attempt to delude others.

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

Neither do thou expect that the times should mend, for men that are given up to their lusts and γοητες, such as go about to deceive others, will grow worse and worse, as the world groweth older, both in their endeavours to deceive, and in their malice and hatred to those that oppose them.

Deceiving, and being deceived; deceiving others, and being left by the just judgment of God to deceive and ruin their own souls.

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

13. But—In contrast to 10-12, St. Paul makes again a brief reference to the corrupt sorcerers of 2Ti_3:8.

Seducers—Literally, sorcerers or jugglers; like the opponents of Moses in Exodus, or Elymas, and the followers of Diana in Acts.

Deceiving, and being deceived—By a perpetual community of error mutually deluding each other, and so wax worse and worse by going deeper and deeper into a series of delusions. Such, in fact, was the history of Gnosticism.

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

Impostors for seducers, A.V Evil men (ponhroi). Inv. 2Ti_4:18 it is pantov ergou ponhrou. The adjective is applied indifferently to persons and things evil men, evil servants, evil persons, evil generation, evil spirits, etc., and evil deeds, evil fruits, evil eye, evil works, etc. Satan, the embodiment of evil, is oJ ponhro Impostors (gontev); only here in the New Testament. In classical Greek gohv is a juggler, a cheat, an enchanter. St. Paul still had the Egyptian magicians in his mind. Shall wax worse and worse (prokoyousin ejpi to ceiron); see above, ver. 9, note.

The downward course of seducers.

The apostle connects the persecution with the ways of evil men, while he warns Timothy against them.

I THEIR DEGENERATE COURSE. "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.

1. The persons here described.

(1) Evil men.

(a) They are those in contrast with the men who "would live godly in Christ Jesus.

(b) They are not simply sinners as all men are by nature and practice, but rather wicked men who wear a mask of godliness, yet are full of malice against the saints of God.

(2) Seducers, literally magicians, in allusion to those of Egypt; men who are full of sorceries to captivate and betray the unwary into error.

2. They shall go from bad to worse both in principle and in practice, in the use of their seductive arts and in the gradual depravation of their character. There is nothing to arrest their downward course; there is no grace in the heart; the principles of evil will work with unchecked energy in their natures.

II THE EXPLANATION OF THIS DEGENERACY. "Deceiving and being deceived.

1. The method of mental and moral debasement. Let men repeat falsities with sufficient frequency and deliberateness, and they will come by and by to believe them themselves. They begin by deceiving others. They cannot deceive God nor the elect, but by their good words and fair speeches, their lying wonders and their specious arts, they may seduce the simple into error.

2. The retribution that follows upon deception is self-deception. Such deceivers have become sincere in their error, because they have blinded their spiritual eyesight; but now they see truth as error, and error as truth. T.C.

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

Deceiving and being deceived - He who has once begun to deceive others is both the less likely to recover from his own error, and the more ready to embrace the errors of other men.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Ver. 13. But evil men and deceivers shall grow worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. We have here, by way of contrast to the life and experience of such as live piously in Christ, a return to the wretched characters formerly discoursed of—the modern representatives of the Egyptian magicians. For the language employed is strictly applicable only to such: evil men and γόητες—we have no precise synonym for it; deceivers is too general, though we must take it for want of a better; but the word is expressive of a specific class of deceivers—the class of magicians, sorcerers, thaumaturgists, or wonder-workers, as they were variously called, who by dexterous sleight of hand, mysterious incantations, and consummate hypocrisy, wrought upon the hopes and fears of the credulous. In naming these, the apostle is plainly not to be understood as introducing a new class, for they bear the very lineaments of those already described and denounced; but their course of life and its fruits are now placed over against those of the true followers of Christ. How different! Living in an element of deceit, they come to be themselves deceived; their sin becomes their snare and their punishment: so that, in so far as they are capable of progress, the progress is from bad to worse; and if their manner of life is such as to save them from persecution at the hand of others, it brings recompenses of evil far more to be dreaded, and these prepared by their own hands. The assertion of Huther, that the term γόητες in this passage is only in a kind of secondary or figurative sense applied to the parties in question, that it merely represents them as exercising a sort of magical power over their weak, especially female, followers, is without foundation. The unqualified use of such a term cannot justly be understood otherwise than as identifying them with the wily and unscrupulous professors of the magical art.

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

Our apostle having acquainted us, in the former verse, with the condition of the godly, that they must expect and prepare for persecution; he lets us in this verse understand the miserable condition of the wicked, that they wax worse and worse; their proficiency is mere apostasy, they actively deceive others, and are passively deceived themselves, by the devil, that lying spirit, that grand imposter.

Learn hence, That the prosperous estate of wicked men is much more dangerous and miserable than the afflicted, persecuted conditon of the godly; the good by persecution grow better, but the wicked by living easy wax worse and worse.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

13. Evil men and seducers. The men who hate the church shall become worse and worse. Seducers. Enchanters, men who lead astray.

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.

13. πονηροὶ δὲ ἄνθρωποι, but (sc. in contrast with those οἱ θέλοντες ζῆν εὐσεβῶς) evil men. Cp. 2Th 3:2.

καὶ γόητες, and impostors, lit. wizards. The word does not occur again in the Greek Bible, but we have γοητεία in 2Ma 12:24 in the sense of ‘crafty guile.’ Its use here is no doubt suggested by the comparison in 2Ti 3:8 of the ἑτεροδιδάσκαλοι to the Egyptian magicians, Jannes and Jambres. It would seem from its employment here that the ‘false teachers’ whom the Apostle had in his mind professed magical arts, though this is not certain, inasmuch as γόης is not necessarily equivalent to μάγος. (See Introd. p. liv.)

προκόψουσιν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον, will make advance towards the worse. This is not contradictory of 2Ti 3:9 (which see), for here it is the intensity, as there the diffusion, of the evil which is in question.

πλανῶντες καὶ πλανώμενοι, deceiving and being deceived. The two generally go together. Few men admit to themselves that they are deliberate impostors; the practice of deceit is intolerable unless it be partly hidden from the actor by self-deceit. And, further, πλανώμενοι is strictly passive, not middle; the deceivers may have themselves been deceived by the teachers who seduced them from the middle way of truth. Cp. Tit 3:3.

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.

13.] But (on the other hand: a reason why persecutions must be expected, and even worse and more bitter as time goes on. The opposition certainly, as seems to me (see also Wiesinger and Ellicott), is to the clause immediately preceding, not, as De W. and Huther maintain, to ver. 10 f. There would thus be no real contrast: whereas on our view, it is forcibly represented that the breach between light and darkness, between εὐσέβεια and πονηρία, would not be healed, but rather widened, as time went on) evil men (in general,—over the world: particularized, as applying to the matter in hand, by the next words) and seducers (lit. magicians, in allusion probably to the Egyptian magicians mentioned above. Jos. contra Apion. ii. 16, has the word in this sense,—τοιοῦτός τις ἡμῶν ὁ νομοθέτης, οὐ γόης, οὐδʼ ἀπατεών. Demosth. p. 374. 20, puts into the mouth of Æschines, respecting Philip, ἄπιστος, γόης, πονηρός. See Wetst., and Suicer in voc., and consult Ellic.’s note here) shall grow worse and worse (‘advance in the direction of worse:’ see above, ver. 9. There the diffusion of evil was spoken of: here its intensity), deceiving and being deceived (πλανώμενοι is not middle (as Bengel, ‘qui se seducendos permittunt’) but passive: rather for contrast’s sake, as the middle would be vapid, than for the reason given by Huther, that if so, it would stand first, because he that deceives others is first himself deceived: for we might say exactly the same of the passive. Nor is the active participle to be assigned to the γόητες and the passive to the πονηροί, as Bengel also: both equally designate both. But his remark is striking and just, ‘Qui semel alios decipere cœpit, eo minus ipse ab errore se recipit, et eo facilius alienos errores mutuo amplectitur’).

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

Seducers [γοντες] . N. T. o. Better, impostors or deceivers. From goan to howl. Originally, one who chants spells; a wizard, sorcerer. Hence, a cheat.

Shall wax worse and worse [προκοψουσιν επι το χειρον] . Lit. shall proceed to the worse. The formula, Past o. Comp. verse 9 and chapter 2Ti 2:16. Deceiving [πλανωντες] . Properly, leading astray. See on planoiv seducing, 1Ti 4:1.

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