2 Timothy 2:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"And their word will spread like gangrene." This is an unrestrainable evil, which cannot be stopped by treatment, but infects everything. The Apostle teaches that empty speech is a disease, and even worse than a disease. He also expresses the incorrigibility of such men. They err not by chance but willingly, and therefore they are utterly incorrigible. "Such," he says, "are Hymenaeus and Philetus."

"But avoid profane empty speech." That is, flee from it. Saint John Chrysostom everywhere understands by "empty speech," κενοφωνία, new tendencies, καινοτομίας, in doctrine and in what follows from it. Some, instead of "avoid," περιίστασο, read περισσωσίστασο, meaning: pay greater attention to stopping and restraining them. This is not correct. "For they will progress still more in impiety, and their word will spread like gangrene." He says that this evil is unrestrainable and admits no cure. It infects everything, and such men are incorrigible. "Gangrene" is a disease that produces decay and spreads around. Such are Hymenaeus and Philetus.

"Let the wickedness of sinners come to an end" (Ps 7:10). The one who offers this prayer is clearly a disciple of the Gospel commandments. He prays for those who persecute him (Mt 5:44), asking that a limit and end be set to the wickedness of sinners. It is as though someone praying for those who suffer bodily said: let the disease of the sufferers come to an end. So that sin, like a devouring fire in the members, may not spread farther and occupy more space, the prophet prays God to stop its further overflowing and set it a limit. He prays because he loves his enemies, desires to do good to those who hate him (Mt 5:44), and therefore prays for those who harm him.

What they now write, as I have already said, they write not out of care for truth, but rather for amusement. They do this cunningly, to deceive people. By sending letters, they seek to turn the people's attention to this, to gain time for themselves and avoid accusation. By hiding their impiety, they gain the possibility of spreading heresy like gangrene, which finds nourishment everywhere.

Their speech is like the ulcer called gangrene. Either, just as this ulcer proves incurable, so they do not acquire sound-mindedness from the true faith. Or, just as this disease eats away and destroys bodies, so this sect perverts and crushes minds. They have already fallen away from manifest truth. Such are Hymenaeus and Philetus.

"But shun profane empty talk." The Apostle clearly showed that by "right handling" he meant the teaching of truth, for he urged them to flee hateful and vain teachings. "For they will progress still more in impiety, and their word will spread like gangrene." Gangrene is a disease that continually spreads and damages the healthy parts of the body. The Apostle compared to it those who undertake to teach what is contrary to the truth, because they often corrupt even those free from the disease. But the Apostle also sets forth the names of those whom he compared to the disease. "Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus." What do they teach?

Those separate themselves who, without divine ordinance, seize authority over senseless gatherings by their own will. Without lawful ordination they make themselves leaders. They appropriate the name of bishop, although no one gives them the episcopate. In the Psalms the Holy Spirit calls them those who sit in the assembly of corrupters (Ps 1:1). They are an ulcer and contagion for the faith, men who deceive through serpent mouths, skilled in perverting the truth. They are men with a destructive tongue, spewing deadly poison, whose word will spread like gangrene. Their conversation pours deadly contagion into every heart.

“Their word will spread like gangrene.” Gangrene, cancer, is an extremely dangerous and incurable disease. It attacks the healthy parts of the body and eats them away like a wound, accompanied by putrefaction of the flesh and destruction of the bones.

Its spread can be stopped by cutting out the entire diseased part of the body, or by cauterizing it. Yet even with so strong a remedy it soon appears again in the same place.

“Fat” means pasture or food. In the very name of this disease as cancer, some find an indication of false teaching’s likeness to this creature, which always crawls backward.

“Their word will find pasture like gangrene” (2 Tim. 2:17-18; in Russian, “will spread like cancer”). Among them are Hymenaeus (cf. 1 Tim. 1:20) and Philetus. Saint Timothy probably knew both these persons very well.

They “erred concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection has already taken place, and they overthrow the faith of some.”

To what heresy do we have a historical reference here? To the beginnings of the Gnostic heresy, which developed chiefly in the second century.

Saint Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Saint Epiphanius indicate that some sectarians of this kind rejected the resurrection of bodies. They understood resurrection in a spiritual sense.

Again turning them away from disputes about words, and showing their harmful influence by comparison with the disease of cancer, the Apostle points to a visible example in the destructive activity of Hymenaeus and Philetus.

Of one of them the Apostle had spoken in the first epistle (1:20), as one excommunicated from the Church together with Alexander for blasphemy. Here this blasphemy is defined more precisely as the introduction of innovations.

“This is an irresistible evil which cannot be stopped by treatment, like gangrene or cancer, but infects everything,” says Saint John Chrysostom.

If until now the Apostle has been persuading Timothy to endurance in sufferings, he now rouses his energy for action. He gives him instructions on how to conduct himself toward false teachers.

Timothy must restrain believers from empty disputes about words, into which false teachers usually provoked them. He must also make himself a faithful and worthy worker, εργάτην.

He must rightly cut, όρθοτομοϋντα, the word of God like a field, and not spoil this field with crooked furrows. That is, Timothy must handle the teaching entrusted to him as its importance requires, and not introduce his own additions into it.

“Their” points to persons, namely, to the empty talkers, or inventors and spreaders of innovations in the faith. Therefore, above, with the word “they will advance,” one should also have them in mind.

Yet there one may also think of the empty babblings and novelties themselves, because it is appropriate to say of them too that they “will advance.”

Gangrene is cancer, a disease which, having begun in one place, starts to damage the neighboring parts. It does not remain in one place, but consumes the body more and more, until it has eaten it all.

“Fat,” νομην, means pasture or grazing ground. Gangrene is likened to a greedy beast which, finding a meadow with lush grass, begins greedily to devour it and does not leave until it has eaten everything.