Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Timothy 2:17

"and their word will eat as doth a gangrene: or whom is Hymenaeus an Philetus;" — 2 Timothy 2:17 (ASV)

And their word will eat as doth a canker.—Better rendered, as in the margin of the English translation, as doth a gangrene, the usual rendering of the various English versions.

“Cancer,” which is also adopted by Luther—krebs—fails to express the terrible and deathly nature of the “word” of these false teachers. The life of a sufferer afflicted with cancer may be prolonged for many years; however, a few hours are sufficient to end the life of a patient attacked with “gangrene,” unless the affected limb is immediately cut away.

To translate this Greek word here as “cancer” is to water down the original, in which St. Paul expresses his dread of the fatal influence of the words of these teachers on the lives of many of the flock of Christ. Perhaps Jerome’s words, “a perverse doctrine, beginning with one, at the commencement scarcely finds two or three listeners; but little by little the cancer creeps through the body” (Jerome, in Epist. ad Gal.), have suggested the rendering of the English Version.

Of whom is Hymenæus and Philetus.—Of these false teachers, nothing is known beyond the mention of Hymenæus in the First Epistle to Timothy, who, regardless of the severe action that had been taken against him (1 Timothy 1:20), was apparently still continuing in his error. Vitringa thinks they were Jews, and probably Samaritans. Their names are simply given as examples of the teachers of error to whom St. Paul was referring—famous leaders, no doubt, in their cheerless school of doctrine.