(Such women are forever following new teachings, but they are never able to understand the truth.)
Parallel translations
- WEB always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
- KJV Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
- BSB who are always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
- NKJV always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
- NASB always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Their victims are always learning yet never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. Endless religious curiosity without saving truth leaves people lost.
Overview
Those captured by false teachers remain perpetually receptive yet never reach genuine understanding. Their problem is not lack of instruction but resistance to the truth that saves. The verse exposes the emptiness of religious novelty that never leads to Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- 2 Tim 4:3–4For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts;
- Eph 4:14that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
- 1 Tim 2:4who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.
- John 5:44How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and you don’t seek the glory that comes from the only God?
- Heb 5:11About him we have many words to say, and hard to interpret, seeing you have become dull of hearing.
- Prov 14:6A scoffer seeks wisdom, and doesn’t find it, but knowledge comes easily to a discerning person.
- 2 Tim 2:25in gentleness correcting those who oppose him: perhaps God may give them repentance leading to a full knowledge of the truth,
- 1 Cor 3:1–4Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ.
- John 12:42–43Nevertheless even of the rulers many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees they didn’t confess it, so that they wouldn’t be put out of the synagogue,
- John 3:20–21For everyone who does evil hates the light, and doesn’t come to the light, lest his works would be exposed.
- Isa 30:10–11who tell the seers, “Don’t see!” and to the prophets, “Don’t prophesy to us right things. Tell us pleasant things. Prophesy deceits.
- Deut 29:4But Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.
- Matt 13:11He answered them, “To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them.
- Ezek 14:4–10Therefore speak to them, and tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I Yahweh will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols;
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Christ Jesus 'abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel' — the risen Lord whose word and kingdom endure to the end.
How 2 Timothy 3:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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