2 Timothy 3:15

from a child Lit. from a babe; the word occurs four times in St Luke's -Gospel of the Infancy," ch. 1 and 2, and again Luke 18:15; Acts 7:19.

thou hast known Lit. -thou knowest," the perfect having this present force, and the Greek idiom in a phrase like this using the present where we use the perfect definite. The meaning is that there has been a continued knowledge present always -from a babe" and present now. So in John 15:27, -ye are, i.e. have been, with me from the beginning," cf. Winer, iii. § 40.

the holy scriptures Lit. -the sacred writings" of the Old Testament. It was a requirement of the Rabbis that a child should begin to learn the Law by heart when five years old. -Raf said to Samuel, the son of Schilath, a teacher, "Do not take the boy to be taught before he is six years old, but from that year receive him, and train him as you do the ox, which, day by day, bears a heavier load." Philo, a contemporary of our Lord, says, "They are taught, so to speak, from their very swaddling clothes by their parents, masters and teachers, in the holy laws, and in the unwritten customs, and to believe in God, the one Father and Creator of the world," (Legal. ad Caium, § 16). At the age of thirteen he became a "son of the Law," and was bound to practise all its moral and ritual requirements." Geikie, Life of Christ, i. 173.

The original word for -scriptures" is used of Moses" writings John 5:47, where Westcott well points out that it -appears to mark the specific form rather than the general scope of the record" which is denoted by the word used in 2 Timothy 3:16.

which are able Present participle, in harmony with the presentsense of -thou hast known," and marking the abiding continuous power of the Holy Scripture.

to make thee wise The verb occurs here only in N.T.; its participle in 2 Peter 1:16, -cunningly devised"; the tense is aoristaccording to the proper use of the aorist, to give the idea of the verb in its most general form, -the scriptures have this capacity of making wise."

through faith which is in Christ Jesus See note on 1 Timothy 3:13; the clause belongs to the verb -make wise," not to the noun -salvation." The doctrine and scheme of Christianity is required to illuminate the precept and history of the Old Testament. -In vetere Testamento latet novum, in novo vetus patet." Ellicott quotes Hooker, Eccl. Pol. i. 14. -The Old did make wise by teaching Salvation through Christ that should come, the New by teaching that Christ the Saviour is come." Cf. also Art. vii. in the English Prayer Book, -The Old Testament is not contrary to the New; for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to mankind by Christ."