What Does 2 Timothy 3:13 Mean?
But evil humankind and chanting deceivers will cut their way forward toward the worse, leading others off the path and wandering themselves.
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
But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.THE KEY
The one leading others off course is being carried off course by the same drift.
THE MEANING
The danger described here feeds itself: those who mislead others are also losing their way, and their course keeps advancing toward what is worse. Deception can distort the deceiver’s own sense of direction as well as the hearer’s.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a deceiver must stand outside the lie in clear control: the verse says the one misleading is also being misled.
THE ROOT
πλανῶντες καὶ πλανώμενοι
planōntes kai planōmenoi
GROWS FROM
πλαν-
plan-
To wander, or to lead someone into wandering.
“leading others off the path” in this verse is planōntes kai planōmenoi. The verse uses the same verb in active and passive forms: “deceiving” and “being deceived.” Greek binds the outward act to inward wandering, the one leading others astray is also caught in the loss of direction.
ALSO GROWS
planē: Wandering; error or delusion.
πλάνη
This branch gives deception the shape of a path gone astray, rather than only a false statement.
planētēs: Wanderer; the source of English “planet.”
πλανήτης
The shared word-family carries the image of wandering motion, echoing how both deceiver and deceived can lose their bearings.
προκόψουσιν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον
prokopsousin epi to
GROWS FROM
προκόπτω (prokoptō), πρό + κόπτω
To advance or make progress; the compound is traditionally pictured as cutting forward.
“cut their way forward toward the worse” in this verse is prokopsousin epi to. The phrase pictures deterioration as movement: they keep advancing, but toward what is worse. The word-family can also describe progress without implying harm, so the phrase supplies the direction of that advance.
ALSO GROWS
prokopē: Progress; advancement.
προκοπή
This related noun shows that forward movement itself is not the problem; here the destination is what is worse.
prokoptō: To advance or increase; used of Jesus as he “increased” in Luke 2:52.
προκόπτω
The same verb can describe growth, making the verse’s downward trajectory audible in its choice of destination.
THE PATTERN
Deception can carry a person from an outside lie into a false path they mistake for their own.
And the LORD God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent led me astray, and I ate.There is a way straight before a man, but its latter end is the ways of death.But be makers of the word, and not hearers only, miscounting yourselves.THE THREAD
Jesus answered and said to them, Watch that no one leads you off the path.“Deceive” here is the same Greek word-family as “deceiving” in this verse, built on πλαν- (plan-), “to wander or lead astray.” The warning opens the deeper pattern: deception is a loss of direction that can involve the one who leads as well as the one who follows.
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