Rightly dividing the word

[ricko]

I am currently in a discussion with a free lance preacher. He teachers things like man has been on the earth only 6,000 years. I don’t want to say more as I don’t want to influence anybody. My question is what does the verse “Rightly dividing the word” mean? It is located in 2 Timothy 2:15. He has a strange idea of what this verse means. By the way, he uses only the KJV as it is the only true bible (according to him). Okay, answers?

 

[Todd_Easton]

The word translated in the KJV as “rightly dividing” in 2 Timothy 2:15 is a form of the Greek verb “orthotomeo” (Strong #3718) which means:

1. to cut straight, to cut straight ways.
   a. to proceed on straight paths, hold to a straight course, equiv. to doing right.
2. to make straight and smooth, to handle aright, to teach the truth directly and correctly.

The International Bible Commentary: A Catholic and Ecumenical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, edited by William R. Farmer, published by The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minn., 1998, on page 1749, says, in partc) Paul’s legacy for combating false teachers (2:14–3:16). This polemical section is parallel to 1 Tim 4:6-16. Paul refers to the basic task of the true preacher, enjoining Timothy to “[explain rightly] the words of truth” (2:15)

Following the Douay-Rheims version, the 1859 edition of Haydock’s Catholic commentary, says:Rightly handling.[6] In the Greek, cutting or dividing the word of truth, according to the capacities of the hearers, and for the good of all. (Witham) — The Protestant version has, dividing the word of truth. All Christians challenge the Scriptures, but the whole is in the rightly handling them. Heretics change and adulterate them, as the same apostle affirms, 2 Corinthians xi. and 4. These he admonishes us (as he did before, 1 Timothy vi. 20.) to avoid, for they have a popular way of expression, by which the unlearned are easily beguiled. “Nothing is so easy,” says St. Jerome, “as with a facility and volubility of speech to deceive the illiterate, who are apt to admire what they cannot comprehend.” (Ep. ii. ad Nepot. chap. 10)

 

[ricko]

Thanks Todd

The way he reads it is to actually divide the bible as in the Old Testament and the New Testament. He goes further in dividing other sections as to events or times. I figured that the word dividing meant understanding the word more than actually dividing the word into sections. Your definitions are very helpful and I will see what he has to say about it.

 

[Contarini]

Thanks Todd

The way he reads it is to actually divide the bible as in the Old Testament and the New Testament. He goes further in dividing other sections as to events or times. I figured that the word dividing meant understanding the word more than actually dividing the word into sections. Your definitions are very helpful and I will see what he has to say about it.

Yes, this is a common dispensationalist interpretation. It amounts to a warrant for making large parts of Scripture irrelevant, so it can’t get in the way of their unorthodox theology. (For instance, they don’t have to worry about the Sermon on the Mount because it was directed toward Jews–your friend may not think that, of course!)

Edwin