4:13a

Until I come: Paul mentioned in 3:14a that he planned to visit Timothy in Ephesus. Presumably, when he arrived, he would give Timothy further instructions.

4:13b

devote yourself to: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as devote yourself to means to occupy your time doing something or to work diligently at a task. In 4:13b–c, Paul told Timothy to devote himself to three things: reading, preaching, and teaching. In some languages, it may not be possible to use the same verb (devote yourself) with each of these tasks. Use what is appropriate in your language.

the public reading of Scripture: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as public reading of Scripture is simply the word that means “reading.” In some languages, as in many English versions, it may be helpful to supply the following information:

(a) Paul was talking about reading aloud in worship services.

(b) Paul was referring to reading from the Bible. At the time when he wrote this letter, he was referring only to the Old Testament.

4:13c

exhortation: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as exhortation refers to announcing an important message. In this context, the message is what the Scripture says.

teaching: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as teaching refers, in this context, to instructing and training people about Scripture.

© 2003 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.