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World English Bible: 2 Timothy

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This is the Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy, a personal letter from the New Testament canon written in the tradition of Pauline epistolary literature, likely composed while Paul was imprisoned in Rome awaiting execution. The letter's central argument is an urgent charge to Timothy to hold fast to sound Christian teaching, endure persecution without shame, and continue faithfully preaching the gospel even as false teachers spread and apostasy grows. Paul frames Timothy's calling through three extended metaphors — soldier, athlete, and farmer — to emphasize disciplined perseverance, and grounds the authority of that calling in both apostolic transmission and the divine inspiration of Scripture (the famous "God-breathed" passage at 3:16). A notably distinctive element is the letter's stark personal tone: Paul catalogs those who abandoned him, names specific opponents and defectors (Demas, Hymenaeus, Philetus, Alexander the coppersmith), and describes his own imminent death with the famous valediction "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith." The letter closes with mundane personal requests — for Timothy to come before winter, to bring a cloak and scrolls left at Troas — giving it an unusually intimate, historically textured quality compared to Paul's more doctrinal letters.

World English Bible: 2 Timothy

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