What Does 2 Timothy 2:24 Mean in the King James?
And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient,
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The servant of the Lord bears what is wrong without turning it into the next fight.
THE MEANING
The Lord’s servant meets everyone with gentleness, can teach, and can endure harm without turning the encounter into a fight. Service holds its shape even when another person’s hostility could pull it into conflict.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that authority requires winning the exchange: the Lord’s servant is marked by gentleness, teaching, and endurance rather than by fighting.
THE ROOT
ἀνεξίκακον
anexikakon
GROWS FROM
ἀνεχ- + κακ- (anech- + kak-)
To bear or endure; the compound brings that bearing into contact with badness or harm.
The word translated “patient” is ἀνεξίκακος (anexikakos, patient under wrong), a compound built from ἀνέχομαι (anechomai, bear or endure) and κακός (kakos, harm or evil). It describes endurance under wrong, so gentleness here is not withdrawal: it is strength that does not turn harm into another fight.
ALSO GROWS
anechomai: To bear with, endure, or forbear.
ἀνέχομαι
This is the bearing element within “patient”; Colossians 3:13 uses it for bearing with one another.
anochē: Forbearance or restraint.
ἀνοχή
This related word names forbearance in Romans 2:4, showing the same root’s connection to holding back a response.
μάχεσθαι
machesthai
GROWS FROM
μαχ-
mach-
To fight or contend.
The Greek verb means to fight or contend, more sharply than “strive” can sound in English. The preceding verse uses μάχη (machē, quarrel or strife) from the same family, so the instruction refuses to let verbal disputes become the servant’s identity.
ALSO GROWS
machē: A fight, quarrel, or strife.
μάχη
This is the word family behind “strifes” in 2 Timothy 2:23, the disputes this verse answers.
amachos: Not contentious; not given to fighting.
ἄμαχος
This related word in 1 Timothy 3:3 describes the same refusal to make conflict the mark of a servant.
THE PATTERN
Gentleness interrupts hostility by refusing to return harm as harm.
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:THE THREAD
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.The “patient” word here shares its ἀνεχ- (anech-, bearing) element with ἀνέχομαι (anechomai, bear with), which appears in Colossians as ἀνεχόμενοι (anechomenoi, bearing with one another). Colossians joins that shared bearing to release, showing how endurance can stop conflict from being passed along.
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