2 Timothy 3:16 to 17 · Passage · Featured Study
All Scripture Is God-Breathed
The one Greek word theopneustos carries the church's doctrine that Scripture is inspired by God.
Facing death, Paul pointed Timothy to the writings he had known from infancy.
- The passage
- 2 Timothy 3:14 to 17
- Book
- 2 Timothy
- When
- AD 66 to 67 (probable)
- Hold in memory
- 2 Timothy 3:16 to 17
Caravaggio, The Inspiration of Saint Matthew, 1602. Public domain.
Summary
In 2 Timothy 3:16 to 17 Paul says that all Scripture comes from the breath of God, and he names what it does for the one who reads it.
- The Greek word theopneustos, rendered God-breathed, joins the word for God to the verb to breathe.
- Paul names four uses of Scripture in order: instruction, conviction, correction and training in righteousness.
- The Greek can say that all Scripture is God-breathed, or it can use God-breathed to say which writings are meant, and the American Standard Version prints the second reading.
- 2 Peter 1:20 to 21 says that men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
- Readers divide over the extent of inspiration and over how the human writers took part in it.
The Verse
The two verses close the third chapter of Paul's second letter to Timothy.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work.These two verses are the fullest statement in Paul's letters of where Scripture comes from and what it is for.
The doctrine of inspiration has usually been taught in English under the King James wording of 2 Timothy 3:16.
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.Paul's word on his coming departure is why 2 Timothy is read as the last of his letters.
The Four Profits
Each noun of verse 16 names a work Scripture does, and the four together serve the end that verse 17 names.
A table of the four nouns of 2 Timothy 3:16 in Paul's order, each with its Greek word, the Berean word and what that use of Scripture does.
| Order | The Greek word | The Berean word | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | didaskalia | instruction | It teaches what is true, and so builds the true thing where error stood. |
| 2 | elegmos | conviction | It proves a thing and so exposes what is wrong by name. |
| 3 | epanorthōsis | correction | It sets the crooked thing straight again once the fault is exposed. |
| 4 | paideia | training | It shapes a life over time through discipline. |
Correction, conviction and training in the Greekthe lexicon, the Greek text of 2 Timothy 3:16, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown
The lexicon gives epanorthōsis as a straightening up again, and the noun occurs once in the New Testament, at this verse.
The Greek text of 2 Timothy 3:16 reads elegmos. The related noun elenchos stands at Hebrews 11:1, where the Berean text renders it certainty.
Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.The related noun names the proof that makes unseen things certain.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read paideia as disciplining, the way a father disciplines his child, and point to Hebrews 12:5 to 11.
How two Greek commentators read the four usesTheodore of Mopsuestia and Theophylact of Ohrid
“The usefulness of Scripture lies in its detailing of what one ought to do, either to convict sinners or to clarify what correction is necessary for penitents or to teach what can bring persons to righteousness.”
Theodore of Mopsuestia · Commentary on 2 Timothy · on 2 Timothy 3:16Patristic
“Correction, he says, comes through Scripture, so that the man who lives according to God may lack nothing good. So if you too desire to become equally well-fitted (artios), that is, perfect, sound, and always even in all things, not despairing in sorrowful circumstances and …”
Theophylact of Ohrid · Commentary on 2 Timothy · on 2 Timothy 3:17Patristic
From Infancy
Verses 14 and 15 recall what Timothy learned as a child and from whom.
But as for you, continue in the things you have learned and firmly believed, since you know from whom you have learned them. From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.These verses lead into verse 16, which gives the reason Timothy can trust the writings he learned.
“Paul here lays out four reasons why Timothy ought to be steadfast, if he will recall them: first, because of the teacher from whom he learned; second, the time when he learned it; third, the source from which the teaching came; and finally, the sublime …”
Theodore of Mopsuestia · Commentary on 2 Timothy · on 2 Timothy 3:15Patristic
Paul grounds his appeal in a life he had watched being formed by the writings he now defends. Charles Spurgeon, preaching on 2 Timothy 3:15, told his hearers that the remedy Paul used against false doctrine in his day was the remedy for theirs.
I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am convinced is in you as well.Acts 16:1 says that Timothy's mother was a Jewish believer and his father a Greek, so his teaching in the Scriptures came through his mother's side.
Albert Barnes and John Wesley both read the Holy Scriptures of verse 15 as the Old Testament, because the New Testament was not yet written when Timothy was a child.
“All” or “Every” Scripture?
Versions differ over whether the verse asserts inspiration or assumes it.
The Greek pasa graphē carries no definite article on graphē, a construction called anarthrous, and theopneustos stands beside it without a linking verb. Greek permits two constructions, and English has to choose one. Most modern English Bibles print the verse as a statement that all Scripture is God-breathed.
A table of the two constructions of 2 Timothy 3:16, each with the versions that print it and what the verse then asserts.
| The construction | The versions that print it | What the verse asserts |
|---|---|---|
| Predicative | Berean Standard Bible: All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful; King James Version: All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable | Two claims about Scripture: it is breathed out by God, and it is useful. |
| Attributive | American Standard Version: Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable | One claim, that it is profitable; inspired of God says which writings are in view. |
Adam Clarke held that the verse should be rendered “Every writing Divinely inspired is profitable for doctrine”. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown report that Henry Alford and Charles Ellicott read it the same way, and that Alford admits the rendering to be harsh. They answer that the two adjectives are joined by “and,” so that as surely as one is a predicate the other must be one too.
Even on the attributive reading the verse presupposes a body of writings that is God-breathed. The question it leaves open is whether this sentence is where that is stated. The doctrine does not rest on this verse alone, since 2 Peter 1:20 to 21 asserts it in words no choice of construction changes.
Theopneustos
Albert Barnes and B. B. Warfield read Paul's word for God-breathed in opposite ways.
Theopneustos joins theos, God, to a verbal root from pneō, to breathe. A word found only once in a body of writing is called a hapax legomenon, and theopneustos is one in the New Testament. The lexicon gives its sense as God-breathed, divinely breathed in. B. B. Warfield argued in The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible that the word is passive and means that Scripture is breathed out by God.
On his reading the English word inspired can mislead a reader toward the opposite sense, of a text that breathes into its reader.
Barnes reads the word as a breathing intoAlbert Barnes, Notes on 2 Timothy 3:16
Albert Barnes held that the idea of breathing upon or breathing into the soul is what the word naturally conveys. He also set it beside Jesus breathing on His disciples in John 20:22.
Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.Barnes takes the breath of life given to Adam as the picture behind the word.
The keynote wordsfive Greek words of 2 Timothy 3:16 to 17
A table of five Greek words of 2 Timothy 3:16 to 17, each with its sense in the lexicon and the other places it stands in the Greek New Testament.
| The Greek word | Its sense | Where else it stands |
|---|---|---|
| θεόπνευστος, theopneustos | God-breathed | Nowhere else in the New Testament |
| γραφή, graphē | a writing, Scripture | Forty-nine places in all, Romans 1:2 and Matthew 21:42 among them |
| ὠφέλιμος, ōphelimos | useful, valuable | 1 Timothy 4:8, of godliness, and Titus 3:8 |
| ἄρτιος, artios | complete, competent | Nowhere else in the New Testament |
| ἐξαρτίζω, exartizō | to furnish fully, to equip | Acts 21:5, of days completed |
What the Verse Settles and What It Leaves Open
Paul's words name no books, and readers have asked which writings his all Scripture takes in.
The verse settles that the Holy Scriptures Timothy had known from infancy are breathed out by God at their origin, and that they are therefore useful for the four works it names.
The doctrine of inspiration and the history of how the canon was formed are related questions, and this verse answers the first.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that most of the New Testament books were written when Paul wrote this letter, and that all Scripture takes in those books as the churches recognized them.
He writes this way in all his letters, speaking in them about such matters. Some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction.Peter counts Paul's letters with the rest of the Scriptures, so the apostolic generation already read them as Scripture.
The Companion Text
2 Peter 1:20 to 21 is the New Testament's other statement of where Scripture comes from.
Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture comes from one’s own interpretation. For no such prophecy was ever brought forth by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.Paul names what the Scriptures are, and Peter describes the prophets who spoke them, so the two passages are read together.
B. B. Warfield called Peter's account concursive inspiration, God's superintendence working through each author's own personality, vocabulary and setting.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the Greek of verse 21 to mean that the prophets were passive rather than active instruments.
How the Church Has Read It
Four teachers of the church, from Gregory of Nyssa to Matthew Henry, read the verses in their own words.
died 395 · Gregory of Nyssa
Against Eunomius 7
The quotation1 quotation
“The Scripture, ‘given by inspiration of God,’ as the Apostle calls it, is the Scripture of the Holy Spirit, and its intention is the profit of men. For ‘every scripture,’ he says, ‘is given by inspiration of God and is profitable’; and the profit is varied and multiform, as the Apostle says—‘for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.’ Such a boon as this, however, is not within any man's reach to lay hold of, but the Divine intention lies hid under the body of the Scripture, as it were under a veil, some legislative enactment or some historical narrative being cast over the truths that are contemplated by the mind. For this reason, then, the Apostle tells us that those who look upon the body of the Scripture have ‘a veil upon their heart,’ and are not able to look upon the glory of the spiritual law, being hindered by the veil that has been cast over the face of the law-giver.”
Gregory of Nyssa · Against Eunomius 7 · on 2 Timothy 3:16Patristic
died 430 · Augustine of Hippo
SERMONS 23.3
The quotation1 quotation
“The Scriptures are holy, they are truthful, they are blameless.… So we have no grounds at all for blaming Scripture if we happen to deviate in any way, because we haven't understood it. When we do understand it, we are right. But when we are wrong because we haven't understood it, we leave it in the right. When we have gone wrong, we don't make out Scripture to be wrong, but it continues to stand up straight and right, so that we may return to it for correction.”
Augustine of Hippo · SERMONS 23.3 · on 2 Timothy 3:16Patristic
died 1274 · Thomas Aquinas
Commentary on 2 Timothy
The quotation1 quotation
“Then he discloses the reason, saying, all Scripture, inspired of God, is profitable. And he does three things. He commends Scripture by reason of its principle, by reason of its useful effect, and by reason of its final fruit and success. For if you consider …”
Thomas Aquinas · Commentary on 2 Timothy · on 2 Timothy 3:16Patristic
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“The Christian, the minister, is the man of God. That which finishes a man of God in this world is the scripture. By it we are thoroughly furnished for every good work.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on 2 Timothy 3:17Puritan
Thomas Aquinas, Matthew Henry
The Extent and Meaning of Inspiration
Three positions on how far inspiration reaches and how the writers took part, each with its holders.
Verbal-plenary inspirationthe Chicago Statement, B. B. Warfield, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown
The verbal-plenary view holds that every word of the whole of Scripture, in the original autographs, is God-breathed and so without error in all it affirms. Verbal names the words, and plenary names the whole. The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, issued in 1978, codified this classical Reformed and evangelical position, and R. C. Sproul chaired the council that drafted it. Its holders treat 2 Timothy 3:16 as the New Testament's own witness to the doctrine, with Warfield's case on theopneustos as its exegetical anchor.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that the whole of Scripture, its ideas, phrases and words, is such as God saw fit to be there. They add that the present condition of the text is no ground for concluding that the original text was not inspired.
Charles Spurgeon defended verbal inspiration through the Down-Grade controversy, arguing it in his magazine The Sword and the Trowel from 1887 to 1892, and he resigned from the Baptist Union rather than soften the point.
The objection: inspiration may describe the Spirit's guidance of the writers, or the effect Scripture has when God speaks through it, without making every incidental historical or scientific detail exact. On that reading inerrancy covers matters of faith and practice, and incidental statements are bound to the writer's culture. Jack Rogers and Donald K. McKim argue this case in The Authority and Interpretation of the Bible, published in 1979.
Inspiration in the writer and in the readerJohn Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament
John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, held that the Spirit who once inspired the writers continues to inspire and assist those who read with prayer. On this reading the verse's useful works happen as the same Spirit opens the text to its reader.
The objection: theopneustos describes the Scripture itself, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that inspiration is here predicated of the writings and not of the persons.
DictationAdam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, on 2 Peter 1:21
The dictation view holds that God gave Scripture word for word to writers who added nothing of their own vocabulary, style or personality. Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible on 2 Peter 1:21, wrote that the Holy Ghost dictated to the prophets what to speak and what to write. He held that the words were so far above their knowledge that they did not know the intent of their own words.
The objection: verbal-plenary inerrantists reject dictation, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown do on 2 Timothy 3:16.
Books to Read Next
Three commentaries of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries treat 2 Timothy 3:15 to 17 verse by verse.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown · 1871
Its note on 2 Timothy 3:16 sets out the grammar of the two constructions of the verse.
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments
Albert Barnes · 1832 to 1869
Barnes traces theopneustos through Greek and Latin writers outside the New Testament.
Exposition of the New Testament
John Gill · 1746 to 1748
Gill sets verse 15 beside the Jewish custom of teaching children the Scriptures from infancy.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- King James Version, 1611.
- American Standard Version, 1901.
- The Greek New Testament, word by word.
- STEP Bible TBESG, the Brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith, 1922.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on 2 Timothy 3:15 to 16.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871, on 2 Timothy 3 and 2 Peter 1:21.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, on 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:21.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament, on 2 Timothy 3:15 to 17.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on 2 Timothy 3:17.
- John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament, 1746 to 1748, on 2 Timothy 3:15.
- Gregory of Nyssa, Against Eunomius 7.
- Augustine of Hippo, Sermons 23.3.
- Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on 2 Timothy.
- Theodore of Mopsuestia, Commentary on 2 Timothy.
- Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 2 Timothy.
- Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1866, The Sunday School and the Scriptures, on 2 Timothy 3:15.
- B. B. Warfield, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible.
- Jack Rogers and Donald K. McKim, The Authority and Interpretation of the Bible: An Historical Approach, 1979.
- The Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, International Council on Biblical Inerrancy, 1978.
- Charles Spurgeon, The Sword and the Trowel, the Down-Grade articles.
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