2 Timothy 2:2

And the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
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Basil the Great

AD 379
One does not speak of the Spirit and of angels as if they were equals. The Spirit is the Lord of life. The angels are our helpers, our fellow servants, faithful witnesses of the truth. It is customary for the saints to deliver God’s commandments in the presence of witnesses. St. Paul says to Timothy: “what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men.” He asks the angels to testify with him, because he knows that angels will be present when the Lord comes in the glory of his father to judge the world in righteousness.

George Leo Haydock

AD 1849
Before many witnesses. Some expound it, in the presence of many witnesses; others, of the witnesses and testimonies which St. Paul had brought out of the Scriptures, when he instructed Timothy. (Witham)

Hippolytus of Rome

AD 235
[Only] see that you do not give these scriptural teachings over to unbelieving and blasphemous tongues, for that is a danger greatly to be avoided. But impart them to pious and faithful men who desire to live in a holy way and righteously with fear. For it is not to no purpose that the blessed apostle exhorts Timothy, and says, “O Timothy, keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the faith.” And again, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me in many exhortations, the same you should commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” The blessed apostle delivered these things with a pious caution, aware that they could be easily known and distorted by anyone who does not have faith. How much greater will be our danger, if, rashly and without thought, we commit the revelati...

John Chrysostom

AD 407
As if he had said: You have not heard in secret, nor apart, but in the presence of many, with all openness of speech.

Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
Now what is this commandment, and what is this charge? From the preceding and the succeeding contexts, it will be manifest that there is no mysterious hint darkly suggested in this expression about some farfetched doctrine. A warning is rather being given against receiving any other doctrine than that which Timothy had heard from Paul, as I take it, publicly: “Before many witnesses” is his phrase.

Tertullian of Carthage

AD 220
Publicly: "Before many witnesses "is his phrase. "Nor, again, must the circumstance of his having wished him to "commit these things to faithful men, who should be able to teach others also"

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

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