For false christs and false prophets will appear and they will perform great [miraculous] signs and [supernatural] wonders in order to lead astray even the elect [i.e., God’s people], if possible.
1 Timothy 4:2 - An Understandable Version (2005 edition) [Such teaching will be spread] by hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared over as with a hot iron [i.e., making them insensitive to their guilt]. More versionsKing James Version (Oxford) 1769 speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Amplified Bible - Classic Edition Through the hypocrisy and pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared (cauterized), American Standard Version (1901) through the hypocrisy of men that speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron; Common English Bible They will be controlled by the pretense of lying, and their own consciences will be seared. Catholic Public Domain Version speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their consciences seared, Douay-Rheims version of The Bible - 1752 version Speaking lies in hypocrisy, and having their conscience seared, |
For false christs and false prophets will appear and they will perform great [miraculous] signs and [supernatural] wonders in order to lead astray even the elect [i.e., God’s people], if possible.
“Look out for deceiving prophets, who approach you wearing sheep’s clothing, but who are [actually] starving wolves in their hearts.
[Indeed, even] from among your own selves [i.e., the body of elders there in Ephesus] some men will arise and, by speaking false things, they will lead away the disciples, [influencing them] to follow them.
And since these people refused to acknowledge God, He has allowed [or, abandoned] them to have degraded minds and to practice those things which they should not do.
For such men are not serving our Lord Christ but their own [unspiritual] appetites. They are deceiving the minds of innocent people by their smooth talk and flattering words.
Then we will no longer be [spiritual] babies, tossed back and forth [by waves], and blown around by every wind of [false] teaching, [deceived] by the clever trickery of people using deceptive schemes.
They have stopped caring [i.e., about morality], so God has abandoned them to lives of unrestrained indecency and to engage in all kinds of [moral] impurity, with a constant desire for more.
[These people] maintain an appearance of being godly, but they have denied its power; [you should] turn away from such people.
For they are spirits of demons, which perform [supernatural] signs. These spirits go out to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of Almighty God.