Cutting it straight

Paul gives Timothy a sentence that has been printed on more study Bibles than almost any other, and the middle of it is a workman’s image.

A worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

The Greek behind that phrase is one compound verb: orthotomeo. Straight, and to cut. Cutting straight.

What exactly is being cut has been argued for centuries — a road cut straight through country, a furrow ploughed without wandering, a stonemason squaring a block so it fits the wall, a tentmaker cutting leather to a pattern. Paul made tents. So did Timothy’s teacher.

Every one of those images is a trade where a crooked cut wastes the material and cannot be undone.

And notice the frame Paul puts around it, because both sides matter.

Before the cutting: be diligent to present yourself approved to God. The audience for the work is named first, and it is not the congregation.

After it: a worker who does not need to be ashamed. Which implies the possibility of a workman who does — a man whose handling of the text will not bear inspection.

And the very next verse says to avoid irreverent, empty chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Paul is not describing an academic standard. He is describing the difference between a man who does the work on a passage and a man who talks around it.

The volume has said that this Book is God-breathed, living, active, settled in heaven, sharper than a sword, sweeter than honey, worth more than thousands in gold. It has watched it tear a king’s robe, empty a chariot of confusion, burn two men’s hearts on a road, and get burned itself by a man with a penknife.

None of that removes the need for somebody to sit down and do the work.

Cutting straight is slow. It means finding out what a word meant to the people who first heard it, and reading the verses on either side, and noticing who is being addressed, and checking whether the writer has already answered the question three chapters earlier. It means being willing to discover that a verse you have loved does not mean what you thought.

It is not glamorous and there is no shortcut. But the alternative, in Paul’s image, is a workman with a pile of ruined leather and a customer waiting.

And note who Paul is writing to. Timothy already knew the Scriptures from infancy, had been taught by an apostle, and was leading a church. The instruction to work at cutting straight is given to a man who was already qualified, which rules out reading it as advice for beginners.

So: one passage, this week. Read the whole chapter around it. Look up one word. Find out who was being spoken to. That is the turn, and it is available to anyone with a Bible and an hour.

Orthotomeo appears only here in the New Testament. It occurs twice in the Greek Old Testament, at Proverbs 3:6 and 11:5, where it renders a Hebrew phrase about making one’s paths straight — which is the strongest evidence for the road-cutting reading. The King James rightly dividing gave rise to an English tradition of reading it as dividing the text into parts, a sense the word itself does not require.

The word for be diligent is spoudazo, to make every effort, be eager, hurry to do something. It is the same verb Peter uses for making every effort to ensure his readers can remember after his departure. Handling Scripture well is described in both places as something requiring exertion.

The word for approved, dokimos, is used of metal that has passed assay and coinage that is genuine. The related noun appears in Romans 5:4 for the character produced by endurance. It is a testing word, not a permission word.

The chapter is dense with occupational images — a soldier who does not get entangled in civilian affairs, an athlete who competes by the rules, a hardworking farmer who gets the first share of the crop, and then this workman. Paul stacks four trades in ten verses, and all four assume ordinary sustained labor rather than inspiration.

The verse is often quoted with study as the opening word, from the King James, and modern readers hear it as an instruction to read more. The Greek verb is about diligence and effort generally; the studying is implied by the rest of the sentence rather than stated in that word.

Look it upG3718 ὀρθοτομέω orthotomeo, to cut straight · G4704 σπουδάζω spoudazo, to be diligent, make every effort · G1384 δόκιμος dokimos, approved, tested · G2040 ἐργάτης ergates, worker, laborer

Where this touches2 Timothy 2:14–19 · Proverbs 3:6 · Acts 17:11 (Week Four, Day Seven) · Ezra 7:10 (Week Two, Day Seven) · 1 Timothy 4:13–16. The earlier turns were James 1, Ezra 7:10, the two builders, the Bereans, Colossians 3:16, Psalm 119:11, Acts 20:32 and 1 Thessalonians 2:13.