Fact Check: Exactly what is entrusted to whom in 2 Timothy 1:12?

Maintaining the ambiguity of the scriptures.

What is entrusted to whom in 2 Timothy 1:12?

Thanks to John G who sparked this article with a question in tonight’s prayer group.

2 Timothy 1:12 can be rather puzzling, if you look at different translations.

2 Timothy 1:12 - New International Version

That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.

2 Timothy 1:12 - English Standard Version

which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.

This is very puzzling: the two meanings seem to be completely opposite - which one is right? How do we know what the Bible actually says?

The Greek:

δἰ ἣν αἰτίαν καὶ ταῦτα πάσχω· ἀλλ̓ οὐκ ἐπαισχύνομαι, οἶδα γὰρ ᾧ πεπίστευκα καὶ πέπεισμαι ὅτι δυνατός ἐστιν τὴν παραθήκην μου φυλάξαι εἰς ἐκείνην τὴν ἡμέραν.

The difficulty:

To get an idea of the difficulty, I have made a very literal, and obviously a bit ungrammatical, translation into English: 

For this cause even though I suffer, I am not ashamed, for I know in whom I have believed and trust that he is able to guard what has been entrusted of-me until that day. 

παραθήκην from παραθήκη deposit or entrust. The of-me is one word, μου, it is in the genitive, and could perhaps mean entrusted to me but in the context I initially took it as meaning what Paul has entrusted to Christ, that is, his whole self.

So a translation like this was initially my preference:

For this cause even though I suffer, I am not ashamed, for I know who I have believed and trust that he is able to guard what I have entrusted until that day. 

I went to Daniel Wallace’s Greek Grammar (he is probably the world authority on New Testament Greek) and the genitive can mean “from” in some cases, also a Paul S. Jeon study on 2 Timothy has “guard my entrustment” which I think is a wonderful translation because it matches the middle/passive feel of παραθήκην, and renders the genitive as a possessive pronoun perfectly. 

Also I initially doubted that it means “what has been entrusted to me” because I thought maybe that of-me “μου” would instead be dative to-me “μοι” - but Greek is a bit funny sometimes with certain constructions; particularly when it’s a middle/passive verb with the genitive so….

Anyhow, Daniel Wallace himself helped write the NET bible translation, and the NET Bible footnote for 2 Timothy 1:12 tends slightly the other way: 

What has been entrusted to me (Grk “my entrustment,” meaning either (1) “what I have entrusted to him” [his life, destiny, etc.] or (2) “what he has entrusted to me” [the truth of the gospel]). The parallel with v. 14 and use of similar words in the pastorals (1 Tim 6:20; 2 Tim 2:2) argue for the latter sense.

A third meaning? Or both?

A third possible meaning of “my entrustment”, though, is the reward Paul is expecting, that is, his “treasure in heaven”, and in this interpretation both meanings are wrapped up, since Paul’s entrustment is his hope for the life to come in Christ as a reward for his sufferings for Christ in this world, his entrustment is his whole life, which is given to Christ, his entrustment is the gospel, which is actually Paul’s whole life; for he has traded his natural life for the gospel - depositing it effectively into the kingdom of heaven - and what is entrusted to God is actually his whole life; for anyone who loses his/her life for Jesus will save it.

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.” Mark 8:35

So my preferred version is the following, simply using the ambiguous “my entrustment”: 

For this cause even though I suffer, I am not ashamed, for I know in whom I have believed and trust that he is able to guard my entrustment until that day. 

So I think it means both, together. 

The Berean Literal Bible is the only one that gets close in my opinion:

2 Timothy 1:12 - Berean Literal Bible

For this reason I also suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard my deposit entrusted for that day.

Maintaining the ambiguity

I don’t know why the translators don’t simply translate passages like this in this way as often as possible, striving to maintain the ambiguity; for the phrase is like a holy pun.

For this cause even though I suffer, I am not ashamed, for I know in whom I have believed and trust that he is able to guard my entrustment until that day. 

Paul’s entrustment - his whole life - which is Christ, the gospel - brings to mind, Galatians 2:20 — “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

It is what Paul doesn’t say that is important

I find that when one digs down into Paul’s letters, there are often treasures to be found in what he doesn’t say, in the puns, the clarifications that are intentionally left out. Greek is a great language for this sort of , actually.

The ambiguously brief statement or pun which leaves something out is actually a rhetorical/poetic device in Paul’s writings, called Paralipsis in English, from paraleipein in Greek, and whenever anyone tries to pin such a statement down one way or another, they are robbing the scripture of its richness and poetic meaning.

The ambiguity in scripture is holy and I believe it is certainly intentional on God’s part and Paul’s part, and I believe that God’s ambiguity and puns and linguistic peculiarities should be respected in the translation; particularly because it is precisely by trying to work out which meaning is intended, that one gains a richer understanding of what Paul actually meant to say.

Photo by Liviu Florescu on Unsplash