2:17a

and: The Greek text begins this verse with the conjunction kai, which is often translated and. Some English translations (Berean Standard Bible, Revised Standard Version, NET Bible, God’s Word, New American Standard Bible, Revised English Bible) begin this verse with and to show that 2:17a is connected with 2:16.

the talk of such men will spread: This is the second reason why Timothy should avoid empty chatter.

the talk of such men: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as talk is literally “word.” Here it refers to the “empty chatter” in 2:16a. The words “teaching” or “message” are other ways to translate this word.

will spread: The verb phrase will spread means that if the false teachers continued to talk, their message would go out to a wider area and deceive more and more people.

like gangrene: The word gangrene is a medical term. It refers to the decay of body tissue that is caused by an infection or disease.

Paul used gangrene as a figure of speech. Paul was comparing the false teaching to an infected wound. If no one tries to cure the infected wound, the infection will spread to more and more of the person’s body until it poisons him and eventually kills him. In the same way, if Timothy allowed the false teachers to continue teaching false doctrines, more and more people would believe their message and would stop believing the true message. In this way, those people would die spiritually.

If you cannot keep the figure of speech, you can say something like:

their words will spread and eventually destroy the faith of the people who listen to it.
-or-
more and more people will hear their teaching and it will damage those who pay attention to it.

2:17b

Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus: This is the first time in this letter that Paul mentioned the names of any of the false teachers. He had spoken of them in 2:17a when he mentions “the talk of such men.” Hymenaeus and Philetus were two of the people who had been teaching the believers ideas that were contrary to the truths of the word of God. Apparently, Timothy knew who both of these men were. Paul mentioned Hymenaeus in 1 Timothy 1:20 and indicated that he had removed Hymenaeus from the Christian congregation in Ephesus.

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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.