What Does 2 Timothy 4:10 Mean in the King James?
For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
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
“World” translates αἰών (aiōn), “age”: Demas’s departure is bound to the present order he loves.
THE MEANING
You see love and departure joined: Demas loves the present age and leaves Paul for Thessalonica. The verse names where he goes and what he loves, while leaving his fuller motive unstated.
THE ROOT
αἰῶνα
aiōna
GROWS FROM
αἰών
aiōn
Age, era, or span of time.
“world” in this verse is aiōna. Here αἰών names an age or prevailing order of time. Demas’s love is directed toward the present age, giving his departure a dimension beyond its destination.
ALSO GROWS
aiōnios: Age-related; lasting through an age.
αἰώνιος
This related word carries the same age-language into descriptions of what belongs to an age.
aiōnes: Ages; spans of time.
αἰῶνες
The plural keeps the temporal sense visible: αἰών can name an age, not only the physical world.
ἐγκατέλιπεν
egkatelipen
GROWS FROM
λείπω
leipō
To leave, be absent, or be lacking.
“forsaken” in this verse is egkatelipen. The verb carries the sense of leaving someone behind. The same verb appears again in verse 16 when others forsake Paul, repeating the language of absence without supplying the reason for each departure.
ALSO GROWS
egkataleipō: Abandon; leave behind.
ἐγκαταλείπω
This is the compound verb used for Demas’s departure from Paul.
kataleipō: Leave behind; leave remaining.
καταλείπω
This related compound keeps the root’s concrete image of something or someone left behind.
ἀγαπήσας
agapēsas
GROWS FROM
ἀγαπάω
agapaō
To love; hold in regard or affection.
The participle ἀγαπήσας (agapēsas, “having loved”) attaches love directly to Demas’s leaving. Its word-family also names love and the beloved, so the verse presents his departure as affection-shaped without claiming more about his motives than it states.
ALSO GROWS
agapē: Love.
ἀγάπη
The noun makes visible the love named here as the force attached to Demas’s departure.
agapētos: Beloved; dearly loved.
ἀγαπητός
This related word shows the same family can describe the one who is loved.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats the present age as a shaping order one can be drawn toward, resisted, or delivered from.
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.THE THREAD
At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.“Forsook” translates the same Greek verb, ἐγκαταλείπω (egkataleipō), used for Demas in verse 10. The repeated word widens the scene from one named departure to a wider absence around Paul, while leaving each person’s reason unstated.
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