Faithless is better translated in English as “unfaithful” (compare Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version), with Christ as the implicit object of the unfaithfulness. This would make clear that “unfaithful” is parallel to “deny” in the previous verse, since to disown Christ is equivalent to being unfaithful to him. So one may translate “If we are unfaithful to him” or “If we turn our backs on him.”

The second part of this verse is not what we expect it to be, considering the previous verse. So here we would have expected “he will also be unfaithful.” In fact some scholars have suggested that the meaning of he remains faithful is that Christ remains faithful to his sense of justice and will therefore pronounce judgment on those who are unfaithful to him. After all, as Good News Translation puts it, “he cannot be false to himself.” (This may be Christ or God; he is ambiguous, but since Christ is the implicit subject in the previous verses, it is logical to understand this verse in the same way.) Attractive as this explanation may be, it is more likely that the object of faithfulness here is not Christ but the believers, that is, “he remains faithful to us.” “He cannot be false to himself” then means that Christ cannot turn his back on his true nature as the Savior who remains faithful to those who trust in him. It is perhaps appropriate to ensure that this understanding is clear in the translation; for example, “If we are not faithful, he will still be faithful” (Contemporary English Version).

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

This verse and the next give the reason and the ground for the solemn charge in the previous verse; this connection is made clear by the use of the connective For. It should be noted that the verbs in these two verses are in the future sense. It is very likely, however, that what is being described here is a present reality that is also valid as a description of the future, since it was common belief that, as the End draws nearer, evil will continue to multiply. Other passages where present conditions are described as future events include 1 Tim 4.1-2 and 2 Tim 3.1-5.

For time see 1 Tim 2.6. In some languages one cannot talk about time “coming.” In such cases the clause the time is coming may be expressed as “it will happen that” or “there will be a day when.” Endure translates a verb that means “to accept,” “to receive” something as valid or true, to listen willingly to something. The negative is expressed in various ways: New Revised Standard Version “will not put up with,” Jerusalem Bible “far from being content with,” Good News Translation “will not listen to…,” Phillips “will not tolerate.” For sound doctrine see 1 Tim 1.10.

The expression itching ears (or “ears that tickle”) occurs only here in the New Testament and is used as a figure for curiosity (so New American Bible, Revised “insatiable curiosity”). Unfortunately, what they will be curious about is not sound doctrine but interesting and spicy pieces of information that “tickle” their ears. Perhaps what is being referred to here are the speculative teachings mentioned in 1 Tim 1.3-7. Translators need to look for an idiom in the receptor language that has the same meaning as the Greek idiom “ears that tickle,” or the English itching ears. One should not, however, translate itching ears literally if it does not carry the meaning of “insatiable curiosity” in the receptor language.

Because of this desire for such information, these people will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings. Accumulate occurs only here in the whole New Testament; the meaning of the verb is “to heap up,” “to gather,” or to increase significantly the number of something; hence accumulate, “collect more and more” (Good News Translation), “gather a crowd” (New English Bible).

To suit their own likings is literally “according to their own desires.” For “desires”see 1 Tim 6.9. It is possible to restructure this part of the verse to relate “their own desires” with itching ears, which is what Good News Translation has done (compare New International Version “teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear,” or Contemporary English Version “what they are itching to hear”).

For teachers see 1 Tim 2.7 and 2 Tim 1.11.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .