Does 2 Timothy 3:14 indicate or acknowledge that Timothy had received and learned the Scriptures from oral instruction perhaps from his Jewish mother and Jewish grandmother or from hearing the reading of the Scriptures at synagogues?
"Some have alleged that the grammar of 2 Timothy 3:16 requires a restriction of the Theopneustos of 2 Timothy 3:16 to the Original Manuscripts because of an alleged distinction in
2 Timothy 3:15-16 between the words
grammata and
graphe.
"One word supposedly speaks of the Autographs, and the other word of copies.
"It is difficult to determine how exactly this argument is supposed to work, but, in any case, it is invalid, since both words are used for copies.
"For example,
grammata is used of copies:
"
John 5:47 But if ye believe not his writings [grammata], how shall ye believe my words?
"They Jews of the first century only had copies of Moses’ Writings, obviously.
"The word is also used of copies, and with semantic overlap with
graphe, in early extra-Biblical Patristic works:
"Irenaeus,
Against Heresies I:20:1 Besides the above [misrepresentations], they adduce an unspeakable number of apocryphal and spurious writings, which they themselves have forged, to bewilder the minds of foolish men, and of such as are ignorant of the Scriptures [
grammata] of truth.
"Justin,
Dialog with Trypho 29: For these words have neither been prepared by me, nor embellished by the are of man; but David sung them, Isaiah Preached them, Zechariah proclaimed them, and Moses wrote them Are you acquainted with them, Trypho? They are contained in your Scriptures [
grammata], or rather not yours, but ours. For we believe them; but you, though you read them, do not catch the Spirit that is in them.
"Justin,
Dialogue with Trypho 70: Moreover, these Scriptures are equally explicit in saying, that those who are reputed to know the Writings of the Scriptures [here both words together,
ta grammata twn graphon], and who hear the Prophecies, have no understanding.
"Theophilus of Antioch, to Autolycus 3:29 These periods, then, and all the above-mentioned facts, being viewed collectively, one can see the antiquity of the Prophetical writings [
grammata] and the Divinity of our Doctrine, that the Doctrine is not recent, nor our tenets mythical and false, as some think; but very ancient and true.
"Graphe is also used of copies of Scripture:
"
Matthew 21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures [graphe], The Stone which the builders rejected, the Same is become the Head of the Corner: this is the Lord’s Doing, and it is Marvellous in our eyes?
"The book that the Lord Jesus’ audience would hold in its hands and read was a
graphe.
"
John 5:39 Search the scriptures [
graphe]; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.
"Early patristic writings also use
graphe for copies. One easy example is:
"1 Clement 53:1 For you know, and know well, the sacred scriptures [
graphe], dear friends, and you have searched into the oracles of God. We write these things, therefore, merely as a reminder.
"Here the copies that Clement’s audience, the Church at Corinth, was examining were the sacred/holy scriptures. The Greek of 1 Clement 53:1 is
tas hieras graphas, almost identical to
2 Tim 3:15’s
ta hiera grammata.
"If there is some sort of technical distinction between the words so that only either
graphe or
grammata refers only to the Autographs, the distinction was lost already in what is likely the earliest extant Christian document after the composition of the New Testament, 1 Clement, which was written by the man who appears to have been the Baptist Pastor of the church at Rome around the turn of the 1st century.[xv]
"As noted above,
grammata/graphe are also found together as early as Justin Martyr’s
Dialog with Trypho 70, c. A. D. 120 or before. Moreover, these early texts use both
grammata and
graphe for copies of the Scriptures, rather than restricting the words to the Autographs.
"Thus, it is difficult to know which word,
gramma or
graphe, is the one that is supposedly the technical word for the autographs, and why one must believe the one or the other word constitutes such a technical reference in
2 Timothy 3:15-16. The plain teaching of
2 Timothy 3:16 is that accurate copies of the Bible have the Breath of God upon them in the same way that the Original Manuscripts did."