Illuminated Coptic sanctuary banner

2 Timothy - Overview

21 min read

Guard the Deposit, Finish in the Lord’s Presence

Second Timothy begins with “the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus” and ends with the Lord Jesus Christ beside Timothy’s spirit and grace with the brethren (1:1; 4:22). Everything between those blessings belongs inside that life and grace. Paul calls Timothy to rekindle God’s gift, refuse shame, guard the apostolic deposit by the Holy Spirit, entrust the word to faithful teachers, receive correction from Scripture, preach before Christ the Judge, and endure to the end. He is not teaching anxious preservation. He is showing the Church how truth remains alive.

The letter’s controlling burden is therefore larger than “stay faithful.” The apostolic deposit is guarded when grace is tended, the risen Christ is remembered, doctrine becomes a manner of life, suffering is borne according to God’s power, opponents are corrected for repentance rather than humiliation, Scripture forms servants for every good work, and the final witness rests in the Lord who stands near. Fidelity is not fear clutching a treasure. It is the life of Christ embodied and handed on.

A Fatherly, Apostolic, and Ecclesial Voice

The Church receives 2 Timothy as St Paul’s letter to Timothy, his beloved son. Eusebius records the received report that Paul resumed preaching after his first defense and later returned to Rome, where he suffered martyrdom. He places 2 Timothy in this final imprisonment, with Paul’s departure near.1 The letter itself makes the urgency personal: Paul remembers Timothy’s tears, names Lois and Eunice, speaks of his chain and first defense, asks for his cloak and books, warns about Alexander, longs for Timothy to come quickly, and sends greetings to coworkers and households.

These details do not sit around the doctrine as sentimental decoration. They reveal how apostolic truth is carried: through prayer, memory, bodies, families, ordination, friendship, teaching, illness, danger, forgiveness, and service. Paul speaks with authority, but never as a detached official. His authority is cruciform and relational. He gives Timothy a pattern of sound words and also a pattern of life. By the final verse, the singular blessing for Timothy’s spirit opens into a plural blessing for the brethren. The letter is personal, but never private.

Paul gives us glimpses of these people’s lives, not complete biographies. Demas, Mark, Onesiphorus, Alexander, Prisca, Aquila, Trophimus, and the others matter because fidelity and failure take concrete form in communion. Their presence keeps the overview from becoming a manual of abstract leadership.

The Literary Argument

PartRangeSessionsThe argument
I. Rekindle the Gift and Guard the Deposit1:1-2:131-3Life in Christ grounds sincere faith, Spirit-given courage, unashamed suffering, the pattern of sound words, the guarded deposit, entrusted teaching, disciplined endurance, and remembrance of the risen Son of David.
II. Remain Pure, Patient, and Scriptural2:14-3:174-6Correct handling of truth requires a cleansed and gentle servant. Counterfeit godliness is exposed, then answered by Paul’s embodied teaching and Timothy’s continued formation in the sacred writings.
III. Preach the Word and Finish Faithfully4:1-227-8The charge is given before Christ the Judge. Paul’s poured-out life, crown, loneliness, forgiveness, and final confidence show what finishing looks like when the Lord stands with His servant.

The transitions carry the argument. The Spirit of power, love, and sober-mindedness in 1:6-7 becomes unashamed participation in Gospel suffering in 1:8. The good deposit guarded by the indwelling Spirit in 1:13-14 becomes the word entrusted among many witnesses in 2:1-2. The approved worker of 2:14-26 must handle truth straight, cleanse himself, and correct gently before Paul can expose the religious form without power in 3:1-9. The answer to counterfeit religion is not louder accusation, but apostolic life and God-breathed Scripture in 3:10-17. Finally, the public charge of 4:1-8 opens into the intimate names, wounds, needs, and grace of 4:9-22. The preacher does not finish as an isolated hero. He finishes upheld by Christ and held within the Church.

Life in Christ, from His Appearing to His Kingdom

Christ is not one theme among many. He is the letter’s beginning, center, and end. Life is promised in Him (1:1). Eternal grace is revealed through His appearing; He abolishes death and brings life and immortality to light through the Gospel (1:9-10). Timothy must remember that “Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead” (2:8), where Israel’s royal hope and Paschal victory meet. Those who die with Him live with Him; those who endure reign with Him; even human faithlessness cannot make Him deny Himself (2:11-13).

At the end, Christ is the Judge of the living and the dead, the King whose appearing is loved, the giver of the crown, and the Lord who stands beside Paul (4:1, 8, 17-18). His strengthening presence serves the proclamation, and His deliverance is finally entrance into the heavenly kingdom, not a promise that faithful people escape every earthly wound or death.

The letter also has a clear Trinitarian shape. The Father is the source of Paul’s calling and the grace given in Christ. The Holy Spirit gives power, love, and sober discipline, dwells “in us,” and guards the deposit (1:7, 14). Christ conquers death, strengthens His servants, judges in righteousness, and brings them into His kingdom. Christian endurance is therefore neither grim self-reliance nor personality. It is participation in the life and power of the Triune God.

The Church as a Living Field of Transmission

Second Timothy gives a dense picture of apostolic continuity. Lois and Eunice hand on sincere faith within a household. Paul lays hands on Timothy. Timothy receives a pattern of healthy words and a good deposit. He must then entrust what he heard, among many witnesses, to faithful people able to teach others (1:5-6, 13-14; 2:2). This is genuine succession, but the text will not let it shrink into a bare list of officeholders. The Spirit, the received word, witnesses, fidelity, teaching ability, holiness, and communion all belong to the act of handing on.

St Irenaeus identifies the Linus greeted in 4:21 as the man to whom the apostles entrusted the episcopate at Rome. His argument joins succession to the public transmission of apostolic faith, against claims to secret teaching.2 Chrysostom likewise notes that, according to some accounts, Linus was the second bishop of Rome after Peter.3 These witnesses give the final greetings a place in the Church’s memory of apostolic ministry; continuity of office serves continuity in the faith.

The “great house” of 2:20-21 adds an ascetical demand. A servant cannot preserve apostolic truth while refusing purification. The vessel must be cleansed for the Master’s use. The same principle governs correction: the Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but must be gentle, patient, and able to teach, hoping that God will grant repentance (2:24-26). Truth is not guarded by humiliating an opponent. It is guarded by refusing distortion while seeking the person’s rescue.

This is why Paul’s language of “sound” teaching matters. The verb behind “sound” belongs to the language of health. Apostolic doctrine is not a weapon stored for display. It is medicine meant to restore the mind, order the loves, and form a holy people. The approved worker must both speak truth and become truthful. In the Litany of the Fathers in the Liturgy of St Basil, the Church prays for her shepherds to be kept “rightly dispensing the word of truth”, joining accurate teaching to care for God’s people in purity and righteousness.4

Scripture Received and Lived in the Church

Second Timothy 3:14-17 begins before the familiar declaration, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (3:16). Timothy has followed Paul’s doctrine, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and deliverances. From childhood he has known Israel’s sacred writings, which make him wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Scripture comes to him through a household and an apostle, yet its authority rests in God, whose breath gives it life.

The Greek theopneustos means “God-breathed.” Paul immediately joins divine origin to formative purpose: teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness, completeness, and every good work.5 Scripture does not merely settle arguments. It exposes, heals, trains, and equips. The Orthodox refusal to separate Scripture from the Church does not weaken Scripture’s authority. It receives the text where Paul places it, in the worshiping and teaching Body that hears Israel’s writings in the light of Christ and submits its life to their correction.

Sacramental and Ascetical Implications

Chrysostom reads Timothy’s gift in 1:6 as the Spirit’s grace “for presiding over the Church” and for service.6 Paul’s laying on of hands gives that calling a visible, apostolic form. In Coptic priestly ordination, the bishop places his right hand on the candidate’s head and invokes the Holy Spirit’s grace and wisdom for service to God’s people.7 This rite helps us receive the verse as a gift for ecclesial service, not a private claim to spiritual importance. On “if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him” (2:11), Chrysostom speaks of both baptismal washing and sufferings, especially the trials Paul faces as he writes.8 Baptism joins the believer to Christ’s death and Resurrection; endurance lives from that union.

Paul’s language in 4:6 is liturgical: he is already being poured out as a drink offering. The image draws on Israel’s sacrificial vocabulary and interprets his approaching death as the completion of a life offered to God.9 The offering is his fidelity to Christ, not pain sought for its own sake.

The ascetical sequence is practical and severe without becoming harsh. Remember the grace given. Rekindle it. Refuse shame. Endure without entanglement. Flee immature desires and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with others. Turn from religion that preserves an outward form while refusing transforming power. Continue in Scripture. Be watchful. Fulfill the ministry. Ask for help. Forgive abandonment. Leave vengeance to the Lord. Asceticism here is grace-trained fidelity, not spiritual toughness performed for admiration.

Greek Words That Carry the Book’s Argument

Paul’s vocabulary forms a chain of receiving, tending, handing on, correction, and final witness:

  • Anazōpyreō (ἀναζωπυρέω, 1:6), “rekindle,” treats grace as a real gift that must be tended.
  • Parathēkē (παραθήκη, 1:14), “deposit” or “trust,” names what is received rather than invented.
  • Endynamoō (ἐνδυναμόω, 2:1; 4:17), “be strengthened,” links Timothy’s strength in grace with the Lord’s strengthening of Paul near the end.
  • Paratithēmi (παρατίθημι, 2:2), “entrust,” makes transmission custodial and relational.
  • Orthotomeō (ὀρθοτομέω, 2:15), “cut straight” or handle accurately, opposes verbal distortion.
  • Metanoia (μετάνοια, 2:25), “repentance,” shows that correction aims at a God-given turning of the mind.
  • Theopneustos (θεόπνευστος, 3:16), “God-breathed,” joins Scripture’s origin to its power to form God’s servant.
  • Kēryssō (κηρύσσω, 4:2), “proclaim as a herald,” reminds Timothy that he announces the entrusted word, not his preferences.5

The point is not technical display. These verbs trace the letter’s spiritual logic: rekindle what God gave, guard what was received, entrust it faithfully, handle it without distortion, correct for repentance, remain under Scripture, and proclaim before Christ.

Israel’s Scriptures and Sacrificial Memory

Paul’s Gospel does not discard Israel’s story. He serves God “as my forefathers did” (1:3). Timothy’s faith comes through Lois and Eunice, and the sacred writings he knew from childhood are Israel’s Scriptures (1:5; 3:15). Jesus Christ is the risen seed of David (2:8), so the Resurrection is the fulfillment of God’s covenant faithfulness, not detached religious inspiration.

The seal in 2:19, “The Lord knows those who are His,” echoes Numbers 16:5. In Brenton’s Septuagint, Moses says that God has “known those that are his and who are holy.” The Greek wording closely recalls the Septuagint, whereas the Hebrew-based NKJV Old Testament has the future disclosure, “will show who is His”. The Korah setting gives Paul’s words a sober background of rebellion, divine knowledge, holiness, and judgment. The second seal’s call to leave iniquity also echoes that scene: Moses commands, “Separate yourselves from the tents of these stubborn men” (Numbers 16:26, Brenton). This is a narrative echo, not an exact quotation of Paul’s second seal.10

Jannes and Jambres in 3:8 are traditional names for Pharaoh’s magicians, though Exodus itself does not supply those names. Paul uses them to expose counterfeit resistance to truth, not to invite speculative biographies. The drink-offering image in 4:6 then draws Paul’s final witness into Israel’s sacrificial memory. The Old Testament layer strengthens the letter’s Christian claim: the God who knew His people, promised David’s heir, gave the sacred writings, and received Israel’s offerings has fulfilled His saving purpose in the risen Christ.

St John Chrysostom on Grace Embodied

St John Chrysostom preached ten continuous homilies on 2 Timothy, covering the letter from its greeting to its final grace. His reading is especially valuable because he does not separate doctrine from the servant who carries it. On Timothy’s gift, he calls it “the grace of the Spirit” and says, “For this grace it is in our power to kindle or to extinguish”.6 The gift is God’s, yet negligence can let it grow cold.

On 2:2, Chrysostom says a teacher must be both faithful and able to teach.11 On 3:10, he stresses that Timothy followed not words alone, but Paul’s doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, love, and patience.12 On Paul’s final abandonment, Chrysostom keeps the center on Christ: “Though deserted by man, God does not permit him to suffer any harm.” He explains that the Lord gave Paul boldness to speak and did not let him sink; this preservation is not immunity from bodily death.13 Across the letter, grace must be tended, the teacher’s life must agree with the word, and the servant finishes because the Lord remains present.

Coptic Worship and Lectionary Hearing

The Coptic Church hears 2 Timothy as both a martyr’s charge and a shepherd’s charge. The Pauline reading 2:3-15 joins the good soldier’s endurance to life and reign with Christ. It is read at these commemorations of martyrs:14

Coptic dateCommemorationPauline reading
Paona 6St Theodore the Monk and the Four Archons of Esna2 Timothy 2:3-15
Abib 20St Theodore of Shotep2 Timothy 2:3-15
Babah 15St Panteleimon the Physician2 Timothy 2:3-15
Babah 19St Theophilus and his wife in Fayyum2 Timothy 2:3-15
Amshir 25Sts Philemon, Apphia and Archippus2 Timothy 2:3-15

Archippus, Paul’s fellow soldier in Philemon 2, makes the soldier’s image especially close to home. The martyr’s hope is not hardship itself, but communion with the risen Christ.

The larger readings beginning at 3:10 gather apostolic example, Scripture, preaching, companionship, and the Lord’s preserving presence around the memory of apostles and shepherds. The appointed ending differs by occasion:15

Coptic dateCommemorationPauline reading
Hatour 17Departure of St John Chrysostom2 Timothy 3:10-4:22
Babah 30Appearance of St Mark’s holy head and consecration of his church2 Timothy 3:10-4:18
Hatour 20Departure of St Anianus, second Pope of Alexandria2 Timothy 3:10-4:18
Tout 13Miracle of St Basil the Great2 Timothy 3:10-4:22
Tout 30Miracle God performed for St Athanasius the Apostolic2 Timothy 3:10-4:22
Hatour 21Departure of St Gregory the Wonderworker2 Timothy 3:10-4:22
Abib 2Departure of St Jude the Apostle2 Timothy 3:10-4:18
Abib 9Martyrdom of St Simon son of Clopas, apostle and bishop of Jerusalem2 Timothy 3:10-4:18
Paona 27Martyrdom of St Ananias the Apostle2 Timothy 3:10-4:18
Bashans 28Relocation of St Epiphanius of Cyprus’s body2 Timothy 3:10-4:22
Toba 7Departure of St Silvester, Pope of Rome2 Timothy 3:10-4:22
Kiahk 1Departures of Popes Youannes III and Athanasius III, and St Peter El-Rahawy of Gaza2 Timothy 3:10-4:22
Kiahk 15Departure of St Gregory, patriarch of the Armenians2 Timothy 3:10-4:22
Hatour 6Departure of St Felix, Pope of Rome2 Timothy 3:10-4:22
Mesra 14Great sign manifested during Pope Theophilus’s papacy2 Timothy 3:10-4:22

On Hatour 17, the Church hears the charge to preach on the commemoration of the Golden-Mouthed preacher whose homilies illuminate this letter, beside Paul’s farewell to the elders in Acts 20:17-38 and the Good Shepherd’s words in John 10:1-16.16 On Babah 30, Paul’s testimony to Mark’s usefulness in 4:11 is heard with Acts 15:36-16:5, where Paul and Barnabas disagree over Mark and Timothy enters Paul’s mission.17 The final greetings remember a man whose usefulness was not exhausted by an earlier failure.

The Second Sunday of Tout appoints exactly 2 Timothy 1:12-2:10. Near the beginning of the Coptic year, the Church hears confidence in Christ, the guarded deposit, strength in grace, entrusted teaching, endurance, and the unchained word together. Second Timothy 2:8-15 is read on the Saturday of the second week of the Holy Fifty Days, placing the risen Son of David and the unchained word inside the season of Resurrection joy. The Friday of the seventh week of Great Lent appoints 2 Timothy 3:1-4:5, calling the Church from religious appearance to a life formed by Scripture and patient proclamation.18 These readings cross the teaching sessions’ boundaries: the Church hears the argument in larger movements. Further calendar entries require confirmation in Coptic Reader.19

The prayer, inherited faith, laying on of hands, and Spirit-given courage of 1:1-7 belong to the Church’s life even without a lectionary reading beginning there. Coptic priestly ordination gives a concrete expression of this ecclesial service through the bishop’s laying on of his hand and invocation of the Holy Spirit.7

The Saints of 2 Timothy in the Coptic Church

Many of the named servants in this letter are still remembered by name in the Coptic Church. St Timothy the Apostle is commemorated for his martyrdom on Toba 23 and the translation of his relics on Toba 27. The Synaxarium also remembers St Onesiphorus, one of the Seventy, as a martyr on Baramhat 25; St Erastus the Apostle on Baramouda 29; St Luke the Evangelist on Babah 22; St Titus the Apostle on Nasie 2; and Sts Peter and Paul on Abib 5.20 The greetings become an invitation to thanksgiving: those who carried the word in weakness are not forgotten in the Church’s communion.

Geography, People, and Communion

The letter reaches across Rome, Asia, Ephesus, Thessalonica, Galatia, Dalmatia, Troas, Corinth, and Miletus. Geography is secondary to the theological argument, but it makes the Church’s communion concrete. The deposit travels through roads and households, books and parchments, sickness and imprisonment, coworkers and local churches.

Onesiphorus searches for Paul in Rome after serving in Ephesus (1:16-18). The final chapter names Demas’s departure for Thessalonica, Crescens’s journey to Galatia, and Titus’s to Dalmatia; Tychicus is sent to Ephesus, the cloak and books remain at Troas, Erastus stays in Corinth, and Trophimus is left sick at Miletus (4:10-13, 20). These places show communion sustained across distance and strained by absence. The letter gives particular journeys and needs, not a complete itinerary of Paul’s last years.

Pastoral Risks in Teaching the Letter

  • Suffering: Do not make pain holy by itself. Paul speaks of suffering for the Gospel according to God’s power. His hope is Christ’s victory and presence, not injury, abandonment, or martyrdom treated as achievements.
  • Authority and succession: Do not reduce 1:6, 1:13-14, or 2:2 to office continuity. Gift, Spirit, witnesses, faithful character, teaching ability, holiness, and service belong together.
  • Doctrinal conflict: Hymenaeus and Philetus are not merely argumentative. They deny the future resurrection by saying it has already occurred and overthrow the faith of some (2:17-18). Yet the servant who confronts error must be cleansed, patient, gentle, and ordered toward repentance.
  • Judgment: The echo of Korah’s rebellion behind 2:19 gives the foundation and seal a serious setting. Divine judgment must not become permission for human self-righteousness.
  • The devil’s snare: The captive language in 2:26 describes real spiritual bondage. It must not be expanded into an unsupported case narrative, and it never cancels the opponent’s dignity or the hope of rescue.
  • The last days: Begin with the disordered loves named in 3:2-4, including self, money, pleasure, and religious appearance. Do not turn the passage into panic about outsiders or a culture-war checklist.
  • Gendered vulnerability: In 3:6-7, moral responsibility rests on predatory teachers who exploit burdened people. The passage must not be generalized into contempt for women or used to blame those who have been manipulated.
  • Scripture: Do not isolate 3:16 from Timothy’s household formation, apostolic example, faith in Christ, and equipping for good works.
  • Preaching: Timothy receives the direct charge in 4:1-5, but hearers also decide whether they will endure healthy teaching or gather voices that flatter their desires. The passage addresses the whole Church’s appetite for truth.
  • Warning and vengeance: Paul names Alexander’s harm and warns Timothy, but leaves repayment to the Lord (4:14-15). Love can require clear warning without hatred or retaliation.
  • Deliverance and sickness: The Lord’s rescue in 4:18 leads into the heavenly kingdom, not guaranteed escape from death. Trophimus remains sick in 4:20; illness is not evidence of faithlessness.

The Controlling Spiritual Burden

Second Timothy teaches the Church to guard the apostolic deposit by living it. Grace must be rekindled, the risen Christ remembered, truth embodied and entrusted, Scripture received as God’s formative word, correction ordered toward repentance, and the final witness carried in hope because the Lord stands with His servants and grace remains with His Church.

The letter asks for concrete fidelity. Tend a gift that has cooled. Refuse the shame that makes you hide Christ or His suffering members. Let truth correct your own life before using it to correct another. Remain in Scripture long enough to be reproved and trained, not merely confirmed. Ask for companionship instead of performing strength. Name harm without taking vengeance. Finish the work in front of you, trusting that Christ’s presence is stronger than human desertion.

Teaching the Book Responsibly

Begin with the promise of life, not Paul’s death. Keep the three transitions visible: gift becomes witness; guarded truth becomes entrusted and embodied truth; public preaching ends in personal communion and grace. Let each session answer one question: what does guarding the deposit look like here?

Linger over 1:6-14, 2:1-2, 2:14-26, 3:14-17, and 4:1-18. These passages hold together the gift, the Spirit, transmission, purification, repentance, Scripture, preaching, judgment, and the Lord’s presence. Compress speculative biography. Do not let military and athletic images harden the tone, or farewell imagery swallow the charge to preach.

The book should leave a parish reader neither frightened nor complacent. Its warnings are severe because truth and people can be harmed. Its hope is stronger because Christ has abolished death, Scripture remains living and formative, repentance can be granted, and the Lord stands beside the servant whom others leave alone.

Footnotes

  1. Eusebius, Church History 2.22.2-3, 7, the report of renewed preaching and second Roman imprisonment, Book II, Chapter 22. ↩

  2. St Irenaeus, Against Heresies 3.3.1-3, especially 3.3.3 on Linus, Book III, Chapter 3. ↩

  3. St John Chrysostom, Homily 10 on Second Timothy, comment on 4:21, Linus according to some accounts, Homily 10. ↩

  4. The Coptic Orthodox Liturgy, The Three Great Litanies, “The Litany of the Fathers”, priest’s prayer after the commemoration of the patriarch and bishop. ↩

  5. Lexical references: ἀναζωπυρέω, παραθήκη, ἐνδυναμόω, παρατίθημι, ὀρθοτομέω, μετάνοια, θεόπνευστος, and κηρύσσω. ↩ ↩2

  6. St John Chrysostom, Homily 1 on Second Timothy, exposition of 1:6, the Spirit’s gift, presiding over the Church, and tending grace, Homily 1. ↩ ↩2

  7. The Sacrament of Priesthood, “The Rite of Ordination of the Priest”, rubric beginning with the bishop turning west and placing his right hand on the candidate’s head, followed by the invocation of the Holy Spirit. ↩ ↩2

  8. St John Chrysostom, Homily 5 on Second Timothy, exposition of 2:11, baptismal washing and suffering, Homily 5. ↩

  9. Brenton Septuagint, Numbers 15, drink-offering legislation. ↩

  10. Brenton Septuagint, Numbers 16:5 and 16:26; Swete Greek Septuagint, Numbers 16:5; NKJV Numbers 16:5; 1904 Patriarchal Greek text, 2 Timothy 2:19. ↩

  11. St John Chrysostom, Homily 4 on Second Timothy, exposition of 2:2, faithfulness and teaching ability, Homily 4. ↩

  12. St John Chrysostom, Homily 8 on Second Timothy, exposition of 3:10, doctrine and manner of life, Homily 8. ↩

  13. St John Chrysostom, Homily 10 on Second Timothy, exposition of 4:17-18, boldness in proclamation and deliverance into the kingdom, Homily 10. ↩

  14. Coptic Katameros, Liturgy, Pauline Epistle, Paona 6; Abib 20; Babah 15 and 19; Amshir 25, 2 Timothy 2:3-15. Date witnesses: Paona 6, 13 June 2026 and Amshir 25, 4 March 2027. Coptic Reader, Synaxarium, corresponding Coptic dates, for the commemorations. ↩

  15. Coptic Katameros, Liturgy, Pauline Epistle, the Coptic dates in the table: 2 Timothy 3:10-4:18 or 2 Timothy 3:10-4:22 according to occasion. See, for example, Hatour 17, 26 November 2026 and Babah 30, 9 November 2026. Coptic Reader, Synaxarium, corresponding Coptic dates, for the commemorations. ↩

  16. Coptic Katameros, Hatour 17, Liturgy: 2 Timothy 3:10-4:22; Acts 20:17-38; John 10:1-16, 26 November 2026. Coptic Reader, Synaxarium, Hatour 17, departure of St John Chrysostom. ↩

  17. Coptic Katameros, Babah 30, Liturgy: 2 Timothy 3:10-4:18; Acts 15:36-16:5, 9 November 2026. Coptic Reader, Synaxarium, Babah 30, appearance of St Mark’s holy head and consecration of his church. ↩

  18. Coptic Katameros, Liturgy, Pauline Epistle: Second Sunday of Tout, 2 Timothy 1:12-2:10, 20 September 2026; Saturday of the second week of the Holy Fifty Days, 2 Timothy 2:8-15, 25 April 2026; Friday of the seventh week of Great Lent, 2 Timothy 3:1-4:5, 3 April 2026. ↩

  19. Coptic Katameros, Liturgy, Pauline Epistle, further calendar entries: confirm in Coptic Reader before using these as appointed readings for a particular celebration. For 2 Timothy 2:3-15: Amshir 28; Baramhat 18; Baramouda 2, 20, 24, and 26. For 2 Timothy 3:10-4:18: Bashans 23. For 2 Timothy 3:10-4:22: Amshir 14, 18, and 27. Split forms: Bashans 12, 2 Timothy 3:10-17 with 2 Timothy 4:1-22; Baramouda 30, 2 Timothy 3:10-17 with 2 Timothy 4:1-18. Entries labeled Great Lent, 2 Timothy 2:3-15, and Fast of Nineveh, 2 Timothy 3:10-4:22, likewise require confirmation; these labels do not establish recurring seasonal appointments. ↩

  20. Coptic Reader, Synaxarium: Toba 23, martyrdom of St Timothy the Apostle; Toba 27, translation of his relics; Baramhat 25, martyrdom of St Onesiphorous, one of the Seventy; Baramouda 29, St Erastus; Babah 22, St Luke; Nasie 2, St Titus; Abib 5, Sts Peter and Paul. These are commemorations, not Pauline reading assignments. ↩

Reading statusLoading your browser-local progress
Saved only in this browser

Created: | Updated:

Page Connections

Backlinks