Why 2 Timothy 3:16 Is Not So Simple

An enormously misunderstood and misquoted verse: "All scripture is inspired by God and is[a] useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness..." (2 Timothy 3:16 NRSV)

Some translations say all Scripture is "God-breathed," and some say inspired. The Young's Literal translates this, "every Writing [is] God-breathed, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for setting aright, for instruction that [is] in righteousness..." (YLT) 1) What is in the Greek text? There are a few things to get to, but let's start with this.... Notice in the Young's Literal that the word "is" is in brackets. That's because this word is not there in the Greek. (In the NKJV "is" is italicized, also indicating this.) Which makes it implied. But exactly where and how it is implied is left to interpretation. This is why, if you look in a good study Bible - like the New Oxford Annotated 5th ed, The Harper Collins 2nd ed, or the Jewish Annotated New Testament 2nd ed - or even the NRSV translation, you will see a footnote that says, "Or, Every Scripture inspired by God is also..." Meaning there is another way the verse could be read. Notice the difference: "Every scripture is inspired by God..." vs "Every scripture inspired by God is..." (Where the "is" gets inserted is left to interpretation. And just because you've only ever heard one version your whole life does not invalidate the other..."is" is just simply not there in the Greek.) 2) What Canon?

Many people love to take this verse and apply it to their 66-book Protestant canon....that every verse of scripture in their 66-book Protestant canon is God-breathed. But there's a problem.....the Protestant canon (or any canon for that matter) was not yet in existence when this was written to Timothy. The canons came later. Your English translation with 66 books came later. There are also several different canons that contain different books.

3) What were the 'sacred writings' he knew from his childhood?

So what was this referring to? Let's look at the verses before for a little context...

"14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, 15 and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All scripture is inspired by God and is[a] useful for..." 2 Tim 3:14-16 NRSV (Also notice the little [a] in verse 16...that's where it indicates the footnote showing the other reading of the verse: "Every scripture inspired by God is...")

So the author is referencing 'sacred writings' that Timothy knew from his childhood. But what sacred writings exactly? It's possible this was a reference to the Septuagint. The Septuagint was the earliest Greek translation of the Old Testament - believed to have been completed sometime in the 2nd century BCE - which was used by the New Testament authors. Yet the Septuagint contained verses, passages, and even entire books that did not make it into the Protestant canon and modern translations. (Although the term "THE Septuagint" may not be the most accurate, since, like all translations, it has a complex history. "A Septuagint manuscript" might be a better term, but for the sake of simplicity, let's just stick with the Septuagint for now.)

Some of the books contained in the Septuagint that are not in the Protestant canon are the books of Judith, Tobit, 1 Esdras, the books of the Maccabees, Baruch, the Epistle of Jeremiah and the Wisdom of Sirach (also called Ecclesiasticus). Many manuscripts of the Septuagint contained 3 and 4 Maccabees, and Psalm 151, while others did not. Also there were six more paragraphs in various places in Esther, and Daniel in the Septuagint has The Story of Susanna inserted at the beginning, the Song of the Three Children inserted in chapter 3, and the story of Bel and the Dragon added to the end. In the Vulgate Susanna is moved to before Bel. English versions omit them entirely, or move them to an Apocrypha section.

In addition to studying the Septuagint, the New Testament writers also studied other Jewish writings, which we know because they occassionally quote or reference them. For example, in this very same chapter, 2 Tim 3, the author references Jannes and Jambres, which are names that come from extra-biblical Jewish writings. Are those writings also considered God-breathed? Here they are referenced by NT authors, but they didn't make it into the Protestant canon of scripture (or other canons).

4) What about the bigger picture? Then you have the 30,000 foot big picture question....if a writing claims to be God-breathed, does that automatically make it so? If the Quran claims to be God-breathed, does that make it so? Of course, anyone in the particular tradition that has a writing with such a claim will say that it is God-breathed because it says so. Anyone outside the tradition will say otherwise. But this is really a different issue (an issue of belief systems), so I digress. Conclusion

Back to our main question....what exactly is being referenced when the author talks about the "sacred writings" that Timothy grew up knowing? I'm not sure it's possible for us to know exactly. Perhaps it was only the Septuagint (which contains some differences from our modern Bibles, and exactly which copy of the Septuagint would be unknown), or perhaps it was the Septuagint plus the other Jewish writings. Whatever it was, Timothy must have known what was being referenced.