What Does 2 Timothy 2:15 Mean?
Make haste to stand yourself tested before God, a worker unashamed, cutting straight the word of truth.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.THE KEY
Beneath “rightly dividing” is the image of cutting straight: truth is handled with care that keeps its line true.
THE MEANING
This verse meets you in your work with truth now: it calls for diligence and accurate handling, not a convenient reshaping. God is the one before whom the worker stands, with approval and freedom from shame as the aim.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that truth is raw material to shape around your preference; the worker is answerable to God for handling it straight.
THE ROOT
ὀρθοτομοῦντα
orthotomounta
GROWS FROM
ὀρθο- + τομ- (ortho- + tom-)
The compound carries the image of cutting straight or making a straight course.
“cutting straight” in this verse is orthotomounta. The image is precise handling that keeps the word of truth on a straight line. The same rare verb appears in the Greek rendering of Proverbs 3:6 for directing paths, joining the straightness of the text with the straightness of a way.
ALSO GROWS
orthos: straight, right, upright
ὀρθός
This element gives the compound its sense of straightness.
temnō: to cut
τέμνω
This element supplies the action: the image is a straight cut, not a cut shaped by convenience.
δόκιμον
dokimon
GROWS FROM
δοκιμ-
dokim-
Tested and found acceptable; proven under examination.
“tested” in this verse is dokimon. Approval here carries the sense of standing up to examination, not merely having a good reputation. The worker and the work are measured before God.
ALSO GROWS
dokimazō: to test, examine, or approve
δοκιμάζω
This verb from the same word family names the testing that establishes whether something is sound.
dokimē: tested character, proven quality
δοκιμή
This branch shows approval as a quality demonstrated through testing.
σπούδασον
spoudason
GROWS FROM
σπουδ-
spoud-
Earnest effort, diligence, urgency.
“make haste” in this verse is spoudason. The command calls for sustained earnestness, not simply collecting information. Diligence serves accurate handling; it does not replace it.
ALSO GROWS
spoudazō: to be diligent, make every effort
σπουδάζω
This verb names the wholehearted effort the verse calls for.
spoudē: diligence, earnestness
σπουδή
This noun shows the quality beneath the command: focused care in the work.
THE PATTERN
The word of truth is entrusted to careful handling that preserves its straightness instead of bending it toward the handler.
You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor shave anything away from it, that you may guard the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.In all your ways, perceive him, and he straightens your paths.As also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to perceive, which the untaught and the unsteady twist, as they also twist the other writings, to their own perishing.THE THREAD
In all your ways, perceive him, and he straightens your paths.The Septuagint uses ὀρθοτομῇ (orthotomē, “make straight”) for “direct,” a form of the same verb behind “rightly dividing” here. The shared image links a straight path with truth handled straight.
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