complete verse (2 Timothy 4:3)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Timothy 4:3:

  • Uma: “For the time will come, they will no longer want to listen to true teaching. They will hunt for many teachers that teach them words that make their hearts glad, so that they can follow the desires of their own hearts.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “That’s why I instruct you this because there will be a day in the future, when people will no longer want to listen to the true teaching but in order that they can follow what they want, they will get many religious-teachers, whatever religious-teachers will teach them the teaching they want to hear.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “The reason I charge this to you is because there will come a time in the future when people will not accept true doctrine, rather the thing they will want to follow is their evil desires. They will have themselves taught by many teachers, and these teachers will teach the doctrine that they really want to hear.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “Because in the future a time will arrive when people refuse/dislike to hear the true teaching, and since they want to follow the evil that is in their minds, they will invite many people to teach what they like to hear.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “Because the time will come when the majority will no longer listen to this truth which we teach. On the contrary, what they will prefer is, all kinds of teaching which is different/unusual. That’s why they will round up many teachers who will speak only in harmony with that which pleases them.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Because the day will come when people will not want to hear the good teaching. Rather the people will hunt for teachers who teach a different word, that word which the people will want to hear. And concerning those teachers, a crowd of them will live who teach the false teaching.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 2 Timothy 4:3

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 .