Study
In the KJV’s English, to study was to apply oneself with diligent effort, and here the work is the word of truth.
Modern versions: “Do your best” (ESV, NIV), “Be diligent” (NASB, NKJV)
Spoudazō means to hasten, to be earnest, to make every effort (Strong’s: “to make effort, be prompt or earnest”). The KJV renders it “endeavour,” “be diligent,” “give diligence,” and “labour” elsewhere, and “study” in 2 Timothy 2:15.
“Study” in that English meant exactly this. Webster in 1828 still gives as one sense of the verb “to endeavor diligently,” with the KJV’s “study to be quiet” (1 Thessalonians 4:11). The KJV did not coin it here: it is the word of Tyndale (“Study to shewe thy silfe laudable vnto god”) and of the Geneva Bible (“Studie to shewe thy selfe approued vnto God”).
The word holds both meanings. Paul calls Timothy to earnest effort, and the work he names is “rightly dividing the word of truth”: a workman who handles the Scriptures aright must give his mind to them. “Do your best” keeps the effort; “Study” keeps the effort and shows what it is spent on.
Where the King James Bible Has It
Sources
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Study to shewe thy silfe laudable vnto god a workman yt nedeth not to be a shamed dividynge the worde of trueth iustly.
Checked against: Wikisource, 2026-10-16 -
Studie to shewe thy selfe approued vnto God, a workeman that needeth not to be ashamed, diuiding the worde of trueth aright.
Checked against: Wikisource, 2026-10-16 -
Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828), “Study”
To endeavor diligently. That ye study to be quiet and do your own business.
Checked against: webstersdictionary1828.com, 2026-10-16 -
Sollicite cura teipsum probabilem exhibere Deo, operarium inconfusibilem, recte tractantem verbum veritatis.
Checked against: The Latin Library, 2026-10-16
