For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
Parallel Translations
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For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
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Of this sorte are they which entre in to houses and brynge into bondage wymmen laden with synne which wemen are ledde of divers lustes
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For of this sort are they which creepe into houses, and leade captiue simple women laden with sinnes, and led with diuers lustes,
Cross-references (14)
Passages linked to 2 Timothy 3:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jude 1:4 For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.
- Titus 3:3 For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
- 2 Peter 3:17 You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.
- Titus 1:11 whose mouths must be stopped: men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake.
- Jude 1:18 They said to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts.”
- Mark 4:19 and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
- Matthew 23:13 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
- 1 Corinthians 12:2 You know that when you were heathen, you were led away to those mute idols, however you might be led.
- 2 Peter 2:18 For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
- Jude 1:16 These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts—and their mouth speaks proud things—showing respect of persons to gain advantage.
- Isaiah 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people loaded with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken Yahweh. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They are estranged and backward.
- Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest.
- 1 Timothy 6:9 But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation, a snare, and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction.
- Psalms 38:4 For my iniquities have gone over my head. As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 6 Of those are they who creep into families…
6 Of those are they who creep into families You would say, that here Paul intentionally draws a lively picture of the order of monks. But without saying a single word about monks, those marks by which Paul distinguishes false and pretended teachers are sufficiently clear; creeping into houses, snares for catching silly women, mean flattery, imposing upon people by various superstitions. These marks it is proper to observe carefully, if we wish to distinguish between useless drones and faithful ministers of Christ. These former are here marked by so black a coal, that it is of no use for them to shuffle. To “creep into families” means to enter stealthily, or to seek an entrance by cunning methods.
And lead captive silly women laden with sins Now, he speaks of “women” rather than men, because the former are more liable to be led astray in this manner. He says that they “are led captive,” because false prophets of this sort, through various tricks, gain their ear, partly by prying curiously into all their affairs, and partly by flattery. And this is what he immediately adds, “laden with sins;” for, if they had not been bound by the chain of a bad conscience, they would not have allowed themselves to be led away, in every possible manner, at the will of others.
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By various sinful desires I consider “sinful desires” to denote generally those foolish and light desires by which women, who do not seek God sincerely, and yet wish to be reckoned religious and holy, are carried away. There is no end of the methods adopted by them, when, departing from a good conscience, they are constantly assuming new masks. Chrysostom is more disposed to refer it to disgraceful and immodest desires; but, when I examine the context, I prefer the former exposition; for it immediately follows —
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.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 6 For of this sort are they which creep…
6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
Ver. 6. Creep into houses] Gr. ενδυνοντες, shoot themselves into the inner rooms of houses, qui sese immergunt, by their pithanology and counterfeit humility, as the Jesuits and many of our modem sectaries, {a} That creep like ferrets or weasels, as the Syriac here hath it.
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Lead captive silly women] Gr. αιχμαλωτιζοντες, take them prisoners, and then make price of them, 2Pe 2:3. Egregiam vero laudem, et spolia ampla refertis. (Virgil.) But omnes haereses ex gynaeciis. It is the guise of heretics to abuse the help of women, to spread their poisonous opinions. They get an Eudoxia, Justina, Constantia on their side; and so work upon Adam by Eve. Of women they have ever made their profit, that have attempted any innovation in religion.
{a} Mulierculas Iesuitae pio studio semper complecti soleni.
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.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain For of this sort are they which creep into…
For of this sort are they which creep into houses; who do not only privily enter in at the doors of houses, but pierce into the secrets of them, making it their business to pry into all families,
and lead captive silly women, and take their advantages upon women, (the weaker sex), and not the wisest of them, but γυναικαρια, the diminutive word, is used to vilify; the little despicable women, of no judgment in sound religion, whom they by their tongues and pleasing errors make their captives.
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Laden with sins; nor do they deal with the most pious and honest women, but such as are laden with the guilt of much sin;
led away with divers lusts; and who, being possessed of divers sinful inclinations, not only lusts of the flesh, but any other, such as pride, &c., are easily led away; lust always smoothing the way for such errors as will be principles to justify it against the reflections of conscience. Their vices, rather than sex, made them easily seduced.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain In these words our apostle renders a reason why…
In these words our apostle renders a reason why we should turn away from the forementioned sins and sinners, namely, because these heretical and false teachers before characterized are of an insinuating temper; they vent not their errors openly, but in corners; they creep into houses, and there set upon women with their temptations, who have less ability to detect them: and first upon women, that they may better win their husbands over to compliance with them; and upon silly women, and such as were laden with sins and led way with divers lusts; they make a prey of such women as are weak in their intellectuals, and corrupt and wicked in their morals: which women always pretend to be learned, but are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, and consequently, are an easy prey to seducers, and very capable receptive objects for such deceivers to draw away.
Learn hence, That seducers observe a method in seducing. They begin with women, weak women, and usually wicked and loose women. Carefully ought that sex to resolve, and shun conversing and disputing with them.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For of this sort are they which creep into…
For of this sort are they which creep into houses,.... Privily and unawares, in a clandestine manner, and insinuate themselves into families, by fawning and flattering, and under specious pretences to knowledge and virtue. The Syriac version uses a word, from whence comes "Chulda", which signifies "a weasel"; suggesting, that their entrance into houses was like to the way of that creature, which is sometimes covered, and sometimes open: there was also a gate of the temple, which was called "Huldah"; whether there is any allusion in the word to that, may be inquired (k).
And lead captive silly women; the coming of antichrist is after the working of Satan; as Satan attacked the woman, and not the man, and beguiled Eve and not Adam, so these his instruments and emissaries, work themselves into the affections of the weaker vessel, and into the weaker sort of women, as the diminutive word here used signifies; and gain upon them, instil their principles into them, attach them to their interests, captivate them to them, and lead them as they please:
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laden with sins; covered with them, full of them, and so ready to receive any set of principles that would encourage them to continue in them; or else were pressed down with a sense of them, their consciences being awakened, and they under some concern on account of them, and so fit persons for such deceivers to gain upon, by pretending to great sanctity and religion, and by providing them with pardons and indulgences, and putting them upon penance, &c. though the former sense seems most agreeable, and is confirmed by what follows,
led away with divers lusts. The Alexandrian copy adds, "and pleasures"; that is, sinful ones; though this may be understood, not of unclean lusts, but of the itch and desire after new teachers, and new doctrines, and practices, which prevail in weak women, and by which they are governed and led away.
(k) Vid. L. Empercur in Misn. Middot, c. 1. sect. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Of these - That is, mere formalists.
Of these - That is, mere formalists.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. For of this sort are they] He…
Verse 6. For of this sort are they] He here refers to false teachers and their insinuating manners, practising upon weak women, who, seeing in them such a semblance of piety, entertain them with great eagerness, and at last become partakers with them in their impurities. Among the Jews there are remarkable cases of this kind on record, and not a few of them among the full fed monks of the Romish Church. But in what sect or party have not such teachers been occasionally found? yet neither Judaism, Protestantism, nor Roman Catholicism makes any provision for such men.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Ti 3:6-7. For, &c. — As if he had…
2Ti 3:6-7. For, &c. — As if he had said, There is need to watch against such, because there are some of them already in the church; for of this sort are those artful deceivers who creep into houses — Insinuate themselves into families, and, having the appearance of godliness, lead captive silly women — Gain such influence over women of low rank and mean understandings as to obtain the direction of their consciences and purses; women who, whatever pretences they may make to sanctity, are laden with sins, and led away with divers lusts — Or desires, which these seducers know how to flatter, so as to make such persons their own property. “This, with the two subsequent verses, is thought by some a prophetical description of the practices of the Romish monks and friars in the dark ages, who, by hypocritical pretensions to extraordinary sanctity, and by auricular confession and other wicked arts, deluded and corrupted their female votaries. But practices similar to those began very early in the church, and, by a gradual progress, were at length, under the Romish hierarchy, formed into a regular system of deceit. We may therefore suppose, that as in the prophecies which foretel the political state of the world, so in those concerning the apostacy, in which its religious state is represented the general course of things through a succession of ages is foretold, rather than the state of things in any particular age. This will be allowed, when it is considered that not the rise only, but the progress and downfall of the apostacy is foretold in these prophecies. So that their subject being a series of things which were to happen throughout a long course of years, and which were gradually to produce a widely-extended and confirmed state of corruption in the church, there is no reason for limiting their fulfilment to any particular period.” — Macknight. Ever learning — Pretending to hear with great eagerness, and, it may be, charmed with every appearance of fervour and novelty in their teachers, but, being tossed about with every wind of doctrine, they are never able to come to the experimental and practical knowledge of the truth — As it is in Jesus, or to attain any fixed and steady principles of religion.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For of this sort are they which creep into…
For of this sort are they which creep into houses - Who go slyly and insidiously into families. They are not open and manly in endeavoring to propagate their views, but they endeavor by their address to ingratiate themselves first with weak women, and through them to influence men; compare Tit 1:11. The word translated “creep into,” is rendered by Doddridge, “insinuate themselves;” by Bloomfield, “wind their way into,” in the manner of serpents; by Bretschneider, “deceitfully enter;” by Robinson and Passow,” go in, enter in.” It is not certain that the idea of deceit or cunning is contained in this “word,” yet the whole complexion of the passage implies that they made their way by art and deceitful tricks.
And lead captive silly women - One of the tricks always played by the advocates of error, and one of the ways by which they seek to promote their purposes. Satan began his work of temptation with Eve rather than with Adam, and the advocates of error usually follow his example. There are always weak-minded women enough in any community to give an opportunity of practicing these arts, and often the aims of the impostor and deceiver can be best secured by appealing to them. Such women are easily flattered; they are charmed by the graceful manners of religious instructors; they lend a willing ear to anything that has the appearance of religion, and their hearts are open to anything that promises to advance the welfare of the world. At the same time, they are just such persons as the propagators of error can rely upon. They have leisure; they have wealth; they are busy; they move about in society, and by their activity they obtain an influence to which they are by no means entitled by their piety or talents. There are, indeed, very many women in the world who cannot be so easily led away as men; but it cannot be denied also that there are those who are just adapted to the purposes of such as seek to spread plausible error. The word rendered “silly women,” means properly “little women,” and then “weak women.”
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Laden with sins - With so many sins that they seem to be “burdened” with them. The idea is, that they are under the influence of sinful desires and propensities, and hence, are better adapted to the purposes of deceivers.
Led away with divers lusts - With various kinds of passions or desires - ἐπιθυμίας epithumias - such as pride, vanity, the love of novelty, or a susceptibility to flattery, so as to make them an easy prey to deceivers.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Of this sort, &c. Here St. Paul gives a…
Of this sort, &c. Here St. Paul gives a true description of heretics, and evil men; such as they have existed in every age. For there never existed a time, either under the Old or New Testaments, in which such have not appeared. Even in the apostle’s time, we behold heresies and disorders in the Church. We see them increase rapidly after their decease. Simon, the magician, seems to have been dead when St. Paul wrote this epistle, which was but a short time before his martyrdom. But he had left a great number of disciples behind him, known by the numerous sects, the Gnostics, the Simonians, the Encratians, &c. &c. into which, after the death of their master, they were split. (Calmet) --- Who creep [1] into houses and lead captive silly [2] women, &c. That is the custom of almost all heretics. See St. Jerome to Ctesiphon, tom. iv. part 2. p. 477. Nov. edit. where he brings a number of instances, from Simon Magus to his time. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Qui penetrant, Greek: endunontes.
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Mulierculas, Greek: gunaikaria: nunquam pervenientes, Greek: medapote dunamena, which agrees with Greek: gunaikaria.
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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain of this sort--Greek, "of these," such as were described…
of this sort--Greek, "of these," such as were described (Ti2 3:5).
creep into--stealthily.
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laden with sins-- (Isa 1:4); applying to the "silly women" whose consciences are burdened with sins, and so are a ready prey to the false teachers who promise ease of conscience if they will follow them. A bad conscience leads easily to shipwreck of faith (Ti1 1:19).
divers lusts--not only animal lusts, but passion for change in doctrine and manner of teaching; the running after fashionable men and fashionable tenets, drawing them in the most opposite directions [ALFORD].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 6. St. Paul now shows one of the arts…
6. St. Paul now shows one of the arts by which these antinomians gain adherents, namely, by appealing to the weaknesses of weak women. St.
Paul more than once found noble women who were converted by his public preaching. Act_17:4. But these proselytes crept, like serpents, into the women’s apartments to suit their doctrines to their tempers.
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Creep— Metaphor, perhaps, from serpents.
Silly women—The Greek diminutive, womanlings, females of a smaller intellectual magnitude than the average.
Laden with sins—With remorseful views of past courses, and so looking for some method of absolution. So the Jesuits have, during their whole history, held the secrets of families in possession through means of the female confessional. Women laden with a life of sins found the convent their last resource.
Led… lusts—The word lusts, same as 2Ti_2:22, where see note. Here the strong impulses and passions of the feminine sex are meant, by which the proselytes gained them over.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6–9. Appeal to Timothy for pure doctrine in view…
6–9. Appeal to Timothy for pure doctrine in view of the worse doctrines to come
6. For of this sort] For of these, the reason of the warning; the mischief has begun.
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which creep into] The verb occurs only here in N.T., but is classical.
lead captive] For the primary sense cf. Luk_21:24; for the derived, Rom_7:23; 2Co_10:5.
silly women] The neuter gender and the diminutive ending of the word here indicate the degraded contemptible state to which they have come. Vulg. ‘mulierculas’; ‘womanlings,’ Farrar.
laden with sins] The simple verb occurs only Rom_12:20, where it is quoted from LXX., Pro_25:22 ‘thou shalt heap coals of fire’; the compound verb in 2Ti_4:3. Why such women especially? Their burdened conscience lays them open to any proselytisers who promise relief.
led away with divers lusts] Apparently the meaning is (not ‘lusts of the flesh’ but rather) as in 2Ti_4:3, which Wordsworth explains of persons ‘who in their prurient craving for something new, to stimulate and gratify their diseased appetite, accumulate to themselves a promiscuous heap of self-chosen teachers.’ ‘Led’ belongs to ‘women’; it occurs with the same construction, Rom_8:14.
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.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (6) For of this sort are they which creep…
(6) For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women.—The corrupting influence of these hypocritical professors of the religion of Jesus must have been already great, and the danger to all real vital godliness in Ephesus imminent, for Paul here specifies one of the most—perhaps the most—successful work of these toilers for Satan: the power they were acquiring over women. As we shall see, these unhappy men busied themselves in securing popularity among the female portion of the flock in the Ephesian Church, and the way by which they won their popularity was by supplying anodynes for the guilty consciences of these women, laden, we are told, with sins The expression, “which creep into houses,” although perfectly natural, and one which, even in these Western countries, could be used with propriety to express the method in which these deceiving and perverting men make their way into households, yet, when we remember the comparative state of seclusion in which women usually lived and still live in Eastern lands, the words used by Paul acquire an increased force. Special fraud and deceit was needful for these false teachers to creep into the women’s apartments in Asia. The Greek word translated “lead captive” is a peculiar one, and is only found in comparatively later Greek. It is supposed to be a word of Alexandrian or Macedonian origin. It here represents these women as wholly under the influence of these bad men, to the utter destruction of all true, healthy, home life. The Greek word translated “silly women,” in the Vulgate “mulierculas,” is simply a diminutive, expressing contempt. There is no doubt but that the older Heresiarchs made great use of women in the propagation of their new and strange systems. They worked more easily, perhaps, on the impulsive and emotional female mind; but what has never sufficiently been taken into account is the reaction which was then taking place among women, so long relegated to an inferior and subordinate position, and now, by the teaching of Christ and His Apostles, raised to a position of equality with men as regards the hope of future glory. In many instances, in the first ages of Christianity, there is no doubt, but that they misunderstood their position; they claimed work they could never do, and aimed after an influence they could never exercise, and thus, no doubt, in these first feverish years many a woman fell a comparatively easy prey to these proselytisers, who, laying claim to a higher and deeper wisdom, proposed now to lead some into the knowledge of profound and hidden mysteries, now offered ease of conscience to others if they would but follow them. Irenæus, in the second century, speaks of the special power which the Valentinian Gnostic Marcus had acquired over women; and Epiphanius, in the same century, also refers to the Gnostics’ deceitful influence with the female sex. Jerome, in an interesting though rhetorical passage (Epist. ad Ctesiphontem), cites a number of instances in which a woman shared in the baleful influence exercised by the leading masters of heresy in doctrine and laxity of life.
Simon Magus, he tells us, was accompanied by the wicked Helen. Nicolas, of Antioch, a teacher of immorality, gathered round him what Jerome calls choros fæmineos. Montanus is associated with the well-known names of Maximilla and Prisca. Donatus is coupled with Lucilla. Marcion, Arius, Priscillian, and other Heresiarchs, famous in the annals of the early churches, he speaks of as intimately associated with or supported by female influence.
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Laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.—This gives us some insight into the source of the power which these false teachers acquired over those women of Ephesus who in name were Christians. They had accepted the faith of Christ, but were unable to live His life; over their passions and lusts had these no mastery. “Laden with sins,” and “led away with divers lusts,” these weak women fell an easy prey to men who procured them, by means of their lying doctrines, a false peace. By their words they seemed to have lulled the consciences of their female listeners to sleep. They showed them, no doubt, how in their school they might still be Christians and yet indulge their divers lusts.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain These for this sort, A.V; tact for which, A.V;…
These for this sort, A.V; tact for which, A.V; take for lead, A.V; by for with, A.V Creep into (ejndunontev); here only in the New Testament. It has the sense of "sneaking into," "insinuating themselves into," as in Xenophon, "Cyrop.," 2. 1. 13. Take captive (aijcmalwteuontev); as inzontev Eph_4:3. The other form, aijcmalwti which is that of the R.T., is in Luk_21:24; Rom_7:23;); 2Co_10:5. The word well describes the blind surrender of the will and conscience to such crafty teachers. Silly women (taria, diminutive of gunh) nowhere else in the New Testament or LXX, but is used by some late Greek authors. It is a term of contempt he will not call them gunaikav they are only gunaikaria. In the passages quoted by Alford from Irenaeus and Epiphanius, the women made use of by the later Gnostics are called gunaikaria. See, too, the striking quotation in the same note from Jerome, specifying by name the women whom Nicolas of Antioch, Marcion, Montanus, and others employed as their instruments in spreading their abominable heresies. So true is St. Paul"s forecast in the text. Laden with sins (seswreumena aJmartiaiv elsewhere only inmena); Rom_12:20, "heap coals of fire." It occurs in Aristotle and other Greek writers in the sense of heaping one thing upon another, and heaping up anything with something else. The last is the sense in which it is here used. It seems to convey the idea of passive helplessness. Led away (ajgo) with a strong intimation of unresisting weakness. (comp. 1Co_12:2; Act_8:32; Luk_23:32) Lusts (ejpiqumiaiv); all kinds of carnal and selfish desires (see Mat_4:19; Joh_8:44; Rom_1:24 Rom_6:12 Rom_7:7, Rom_7:8; Gal_5:24; Eph_2:3 Eph_4:22; Colossians 1Ti_6:9; 2Ti_2:22 2Ti_4:3: Tit_2:12; fit. 3; 1Pe_1:14, etc.; 2Pe_2:18; 1Jn_2:16, etc.)
Vers. 6, 7.
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The insidiously proselytizing habits of these apostates.
I THE ARTS OF THE SEDUCERS. "For of this sort are they who creep into houses, and lead captive silly women.
1. They were of a most proselytizing spirit. Like the Pharisees, they would compass sea and land to make one proselyte.
2. They practised unworthy arts. They wormed their way insidiously into the confidence of families. There was a deceitful and tricky method of gaining access to their victims.
3. They used their stratagems to snare women rather than men. They knew that women, as the weaker vessels, were more accessible to soft blandishments and specious pretences of piety. They counted upon an accession of female converts as, above all things, most contributing to the success of their propaganda.
II THE CHARACTER OF THEIR VICTIMS. "Silly women laden with sins, led away by divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." These victims of their specious arts were morally and intellectually prepared for them.
1. They were, morally, under the sway of evil passions and desires, full, no doubt, of "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life." Such women would welcome a short cut to peace, or any reconciliation between religion and worldliness that could be devised by the arts of apostasy. The words seem to point to the weight of former sins burdening the conscience, from which they hoped to be released under easier conditions than those prescribed by the gospel.
2. They were incapable, through their sinful life, of attaining a true knowledge of the truth. They were" silly women," with light, frivolous, unbalanced judgments; "ever learning with a morbid love of novelties in religion, an insatiable curiosity for the mysteries promised by their false guides, and a constant craving for an adaptation of doctrinal views to their evil desires never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Because their hearts had become indurated through an evil life, and so made inaccessible to the 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.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Lead captive silly women.
2Ti_3:6
Lead captive silly women.
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Creeping into houses
The expression which creep into houses, although perfectly natural, and one which, even in these Western countries, could be used with propriety to express the method in which these deceiving and perverting men make their way into households, yet, when we remember the comparative state of seclusion in which women usually lived, and still live, in Eastern lands, the words used by Paul acquire an increased force. Special fraud and deceit was needful for these false teachers to creep into the womens apartments in Asia. (H. D. M. Spence, D. D.)
Sneakiness
Cheaters must get some credit before they can cozen; and all falsehood, if not founded in some truth would not be fixed in any belief. (T. Fuller.)
Woman and sin
There lies in the womanly character the foundation; as for the highest development of the power of faith, so also for the highest revelation of the power of sin (comp. Rev_17:1-18.). Josephus also states that the Pharisees especially had found much support amongst women (Antiq. 17:2). Compare the account, moreover, of the rich Fulvia of Rome, who was induced by two Jewish impostors to furnish a considerable sum of gold, under the supposition that it was for the temple at Jerusalem (Antiq. 18:3). (Van Oosterzee.)
Impostors
1. As they are impudent, so they are of a fraudulent, subtle, sly, insinuating temper; they vent not their errors openly (especially, not at first) but they secretly and slily creep into private houses, and there they sell their wares (Jud_1:4), they privily bring in damnable heresies (2Pe_2:1; Gal_2:4). Truth loveth the light and seeks no corners.
2. These impostors observe a method in seducing silly women, who being the weaker sex, are sooner won over to their way, as being less able to withstand the shock of a temptation. As warriors go about a city observing where the wall is weakest, lowest, and unguarded, and there they make their greatest assault; and as thieves set not upon strong, armed men, but upon weak, unarmed ones, so seducers love not to set upon strong, grounded, judicious, discerning Christians, but it is the weak and ignorant which cannot discern their frauds, but like children are tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine, that become their prey (Pro_14:15; Rom_16:18; Eph_4:14); man is, or at leastwise should be, more strong and prudent to resist temptations than women are. They catch not grave and truly pious matrons, but light women which prefer their lusts before Christ. It is the light chaff which is tossed with every wind, when the massy wheat abides in the floor. (T. Hall, B. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 6, 7. This sort are they. Men of this…
6, 7. This sort are they. Men of this sort are they who form a party by creeping into houses and by their seductive influences lead silly women captive. Not the sensible, pious women, but silly women already laden with sins. Hence, easily led away.
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.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain 2Ti_3:6. Silly women.—The diminutive term (“little women”) is not…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
2Ti_3:6. Silly women.—The diminutive term (“little women”) is not found again in New Testament. The contemptuous epithet indicates their weakness and proneness to temptation.
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2Ti_3:7. Never able.—In the nature of things whilst such conditions lasted. To come to the knowledge.—I.e. the complete knowledge.
2Ti_3:8. Jannes and Jambres.—According to Jewish tradition, sons of Balaam, at first teachers, then opponents, of Moses. They perished with the Egyptians in the Red Sea.
2Ti_3:9. Shall be manifest.—“Thoroughly exposed.” As theirs also was.—R.V. “came to be.” The pronoun points to these men far removed as monitory specimens of those who oppose truth.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—2Ti_3:6-9
Characteristics of False Teachers.
I. They furtively insinuate themselves into the midst of domestic life.—“For of this sort are they which creep into houses” (2Ti_3:6). As a serpent crawls towards its prey, or as a wolf stealthily attacks the sheepfold. The peace of many a home has been destroyed by the cunning of unprincipled men.
II. They practise their wiles on weak women.—
1. Women whose sinful lives make them a prey to conflicting passions. “And lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts” (2Ti_3:6). The most abandoned woman has her moments of remorse, when her conscience is roused and her soul bowed down under the load of conscious sin. It is then that the false teacher, who promises ease of conscience, is eagerly listened to, especially if too much restriction is not placed on the indulgence of unholy desire.
2. Women who crave for novelty rather than the knowledge of the truth. “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2Ti_3:7). They quickly disparage what they already know by the restless desire and curiosity to gain something new. It is not a paradox but a truth to say that their constant craving for knowledge leaves them utterly ignorant, for nothing can be known that is forgotten as soon as it is learned. The Gnostic teachers, like more recent heretics, laid hold of the female sex and encouraged them to use all their seductive arts in popularising their theories.
III. They have their prototypes in past ages.—
1. In men who audaciously opposed the truth. “Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth” (2Ti_3:8). These were the traditional names of the Egyptian magicians who sought by their conjuring tricks to discredit the authority of Moses. It is the ambition of false teachers to-day to imitate and if possible outrival the preacher of the gospel.
2. In men whose degraded minds rendered them incapable of appreciating the truth. “Men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith” (2Ti_3:8). Their own vitiated tastes and misused powers incapacitated them from testing the truth. They were bewitched and misled by their own foolish errors, and infatuated by their own sins.
IV. The inevitable exposure of their wicked and insensate folly limits their power for mischief.—“But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest” (2Ti_3:9). Wise as they may seem, their folly shall be exposed. In all wickedness there is an element of weakness which limits its power to do evil. They who seek to deceive others end in being most deceived themselves.
Lessons.—
1. False teachers are not particular as to the instruments they employ.
2. Error hopelessly degrades its victims.
3. False teachers expose themselves.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
2Ti_3:8-9. Opposition to the Truth—
I. Is the offspring of ignorance and obstinate wickedness.
II. Is limited in its power.
III. The folly of such an attitude will be exposed and the opponents signally punished.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").
sins
Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 3:6-7 The effect of the false teachers on households…
3:6-7 The effect of the false teachers on households and women is a consistent concern of the letters to Timothy and Titus (Titus 1:11; see 1 Tim 2:11-15; 3:4-5; 5:14-15). Whether or not the false teachers targeted women, they apparently were successful with some of them.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.