crown

The Greek that is translated in English as “crown” is translated in the German Luther Bible 2017 as Siegeskranz or “victory (laurel) wreath.” (Source: Jost Zetzsche)

See also crown.

complete verse (2 Timothy 2:5)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Timothy 2:5:

  • Uma: “So also, a person who works the work of the Lord can be compared to a person who runs a race [lit., competes running]. He must follow the laws of the game, for if he does not follow them, he will not get a prize/present.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “If a person enters a running race, he will not win if he does not obey/follow the laws of that competition.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The servant of God is like an athlete. As for the athlete, he cannot win and he is not given a prize if he does not follow the rules of competition.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Think also of the athlete who is running-in-a-race. He certainly has no reward if he doesn’t follow the regulations of the race-course.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Well if we also use the illustration of a competitor, he won’t be acknowledged as having won if he didn’t obey/follow whatever prohibitions/rules.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “You must be like the people who run in a race. Whoever does not do all ordered by the one who conducts the race is not able to win anything.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 2 Timothy 2:5

Secondly, the Christian worker is compared to an athlete. The athletic imagery appears elsewhere in Paul’s letters (see especially 1 Cor 9.24-27).

Athlete translates a verb that means “to be a contestant in competitive games,” “to engage in a contest,” hence “to compete.” The word for crowned appears only here in the Pastoral Letters. (It occurs twice more, in Heb 2.7, 9.) It was customary in ancient times to bestow a crown of leaves or flowers on victorious athletes; the crown therefore is a symbol of victory. An athlete is not crowned may therefore mean that (1) an athlete cannot win in the contest, or (2) an athlete is not acknowledged as victor even though he or she wins the contest.

According to the rules is literally “lawfully,” which is the same word found in 1 Tim 1.8. What these rules are is not specified in the text; perhaps these refer to training regulations, which goes logically with the first option above and that produces the following possible restructuring: “Athletes cannot win in a contest unless they obey the rules of training.” A second possibility is to understand these rules as pertaining to the competition itself, which goes with the second option above and produces a possible restructuring as follows: “Athletes are not crowned as winners even though they win the contest, unless they follow all the contest rules.” This second option seems to be closer to the intention of the verse, since it reiterates the eschatological emphasis that, as we have seen, is a main feature of this letter. Furthermore, this option takes seriously the meaning of athlete, which as previously mentioned is derived from a verb that means “to compete” and therefore focuses on actual competition rather than mere preparation.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• Any person who runs (or, competes) in a race against others cannot win unless he (or, he or she) follows (or, obeys) all the rules.

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 .

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Timothy 2:5

2:5a

Likewise, a competitor: In this verse Paul compared Christians to athletes. Just as an athletic competitor has to follow rules when he plays a game, so Christ has given believers rules regarding their behavior. Paul made this comparison to remind Timothy that he should follow all these rules.

Likewise: The common combination of Greek conjunctions de kai (“and also”) connects 2:4 and 2:5. The Berean Standard Bible translates this phrase with the word Likewise to show that Paul was using another example to illustrate his point. Another way to show this connection is with the word “also,” as the NET Bible, New American Standard Bible, and New Century Version have done.

a competitor: This phrase is the translation of the Greek verb athleō. The English word “athlete” comes from this verb. It means “to compete in a contest.” This verb implies that the athlete is not merely playing a game for fun. He wants to win. Also, the verb implies that the contest was for young people or adults—Paul was not talking about a child’s game. Other ways to express this idea are:

if someone plays in a sport/game
-or-
if a runner runs a race
-or-
if anyone competes as an athlete (New International Version (2011 Revision))

2:5b–c

does not receive the crown: In the sports that Paul was thinking of, the person in charge of the contest, or some other important person, placed a crown made out of leaves on the head of the winner as a symbol of victory.

If you do not have a word for “crown,” you can use a more general term, such as “prize” or “reward.”

unless he competes according to the rules: The point of the comparison in 2:5a is that there are specific rules for each sport that people who compete in that sport must obey. The person who does not obey the rules cannot win.

Another way to state this is:

if he does not follow/obey the rules
-or-
if he does not compete/play according to the rules

General Comment on 2:5

In some languages, it may be more natural to reverse the order of 2:5b and 2:5c as follows:

If he does not compete according to the rules, he does not win the victor’s crown.

It is also possible to combine 2:5a–c as follows:

Also, an athlete cannot win a prize if he does not play by the rules.

© 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.