2 Timothy 3:14-17; 4:1-5
Beloved: Continue thou in those things which thou hast learned and which have been committed to thee: knowing of Whom thou hast learned them; and because from thy infancy thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which can instruct thee to salvation by the faith which is in Jesus Christ. All Scripture, inspired by God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work. I charge thee, before God and Jesus Christ, Who shall judge the living and the dead by His coming, and His kingdom: Preach the word: be instant in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. For there shall be a time when they shall not endure sound doctrine: but according to their own desires, they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears, and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. But be thou vigilant, labour in all things, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil thy ministry.
Haydock
2 Timothy 3
Verse 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, &c. S. Paul here gives particular advice to his disciple, S. Timothy, who had been long since instructed in all the truths and mysteries of the Christian faith, who had received the gifts of the Holy Ghost, of prophecy, of interpreting the Scriptures, who was a priest, a bishop of Ephesus, the metropolis of Asia, whose office it was to instruct, direct, and convert others. He tells this great bishop, that the holy Scriptures are able, and may conduce or can instruct him unto salvation, (v. 15.) unto his own salvation and that of others. Wi. — The apostle here entreats his disciple, and in him all future Christians, to adhere to the true deposit of doctrine. He teaches with Catholics, that all Scripture is profitable; but not with Protestants, that Scripture alone is necessary and sufficient.
Verse 16. All scripture divinely inspired is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, or admonish, to instruct others in justice, and in the ways of virtue, that thus he who is a man of God, a minister of the gospel, may be perfect and instructed unto every good work. But when our adversaries of the pretended reformation, undertake from these four verses to shew, first, that every ignorant man or woman is hereby warranted to read and put what construction his or her private spirit, or private judgment, suggests upon all places of the holy Scriptures; and secondly, that the Scriptures alone contain all truths which a Christian is bound to believe; or at least, that the Scriptures teach him all things necessary to salvation, without regard to the interpretation and authority of the Catholic Church: I may at least say (without examining at present any other pretended grounds of these assertions) that these consequences are very remote from the text and sense of S. Paul in this place. As to the first, does this follow; the Scriptures must be read by Timothy, a priest, a bishop, a man of God, a minister of the gospel, whose office it is to instruct and convert others, therefore they are proper to be read and expounded by every ignorant man or woman? Does not S. Paul say elsewhere, (2 Cor. ii. 17.) that many adulterate and corrupt the word of God? does not S. Peter tell us also, (2 Pet. iii. 16.) that in S. Paul’s epistles are some things… which the unlearned and unstable wrest, as also the other scriptures, to their own perdition? See the preface to S. John, where reasons are brought for which it was requisite that the Church should put some restraint to the abuse which the ignorant made of reading the Scriptures in vulgar tongues. As to the second consequence, does it follow: every Scripture divinely inspired is profitable for S. Timothy, for a priest, a bishop, a man of God, a minister and preacher of the gospel, to teach and instruct, and conduce to bring both him and others to salvation; therefore they contain all things that a Christian need to believe? &c. Is not every Christian bound to believe that the books in the canon of the New and Old Testament are of divine authority, as in particular these two epistles of S. Paul to Timothy? Where does the Scripture assure us of this? But of this elsewhere. Wi. — Every part of divine Scripture is certainly profitable for all these ends. But if we would have the whole rule of Christian faith and practice, we must not be content with those Scriptures which Timothy knew from his infancy, (that is, with the Old Testament alone) nor yet with the New Testament, without taking along with it the traditions of the apostles and the interpretation of the Church, to which the apostles delivered both the book and the true meaning of it. Ch.
2 Timothy 4
Verse 1. I charge thee (lit. testify to thee) before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead;) i.e. all those that have been dead for so many ages since the beginning of the world; and the living, i.e. those who shall be found living at the end of the world, but who shall die, and be presently raised again. See 1 Cor. xv. 52. — By his coming. The sense by the Greek seems to be, who shall judge them at or by his coming, rather than I charge thee by his coming, as others translate. Wi.
Verse 2. In season, out of season; i.e. whether the hearers are willing to hearken to thee or not. Or, as others understand it, whether it be convenient or inconvenient for thee to signify that the ministers of God must not desist from preaching, whatever troubles they are under. Wi.
Verse 3. Having itching ears; i.e. the hearers have such ears, running after novelties and such doctrine as favours their passions. Wi.
Verse 5. Be thou vigilant, &c. It may either be expounded, watch in all things; or, take pains in all things. The latter seems the true construction. Wi. — An evangelist; a diligent preacher of the gospel. Ch. — Fulfil thy ministry.[4] So even Dr. Wells, in his amendments to the Prot. translation, which hath, make full proof of thy ministry. See Luke i. 1. See also S. Chrys. on this place. — Be sober. There is nothing for this in the Greek, nor in S. Chrysostom. The Latin interpreter seems to have added it, as being contained in the other Greek words in this verse. Wi.
Denzinger
1608: The Versions of Sacred Scripture
LEO XII 1823-1829 From the Encyclical "Ubi primum" May 5, 1824
And to avert this plague [mistranslations of scripture into the vernacular - Ed.], Our predecessors have published many Constitutions…. We, also, in accord with our Apostolic duty, encourage you, Venerable Brothers, to be zealous in every way to remove your flock away from these poisonous pastures. “Reprove, entreat, be instant in season, out of season, in all patience and doctrine” [2 Tim. 4:2], so that your faithful people, clinging exactly to the regulations of our Congregation of the Index, may be persuaded that, “if the Sacred Books are permitted everywhere without discrimination in the vulgar tongue, more harm will arise therefrom than advantage, because of the boldness of men.” Experience demonstrates the truth of this and, besides other Fathers, St. Augustine has declared in these words: “For heresies are not born except when the true Scriptures are not well understood and when what is not well understood in them is rashly and boldly asserted.”
1698: Naturalism, Communism, Socialism
PIUS IX 1846-1878 From the Encyclical, "Quanta cura," Dec. 8, 1864
Nor do they blush to profess openly and publicly the axiom and principle of heretics from which so many perverse opinions and errors arise. For they repeatedly say that “the ecclesiastical power is not by divine right distinct from and independent of the civil power, and that the distinction and independence of the same could not be preserved without the essential rights of the civil power being invaded and usurped by the Church.” And, we cannot pass over in silence the boldness of those who “not enduring sound doctrine” [2 Tim. 4:3], contend that “without sin and with no loss of Catholic profession, one can withhold assent and obedience to those judgments and decrees of the Apostolic See, whose object is declared to relate to the general good of the Church and its rights and discipline, provided it does not touch dogmas of faith or morals.” There is no one who does not see and understand clearly and openly how opposed this is to the Catholic dogma of the plenary power divinely bestowed on the Roman Pontiff by Christ the Lord Himself of feeding, ruling, and governing the universal Church.