Opposition
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Antithesis means opposition, contradiction, or a counterclaim set against another claim. Its sole New Testament occurrence appears when Paul tells Timothy to guard the entrusted deposit and turn from contradictions associated with what is falsely called knowledge.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἀντίθεσις (G477) · Open the biblical lexicon
Antithesis means opposition, contradiction, or a counterclaim set against another claim. Its sole New Testament occurrence appears when Paul tells Timothy to guard the entrusted deposit and turn from contradictions associated with what is falsely called knowledge.
The BSB source-word alignment has 1 aligned row for this entry. Common renderings include the opposing arguments (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Timothy 6:20. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Timothy (1).
Antithesis means opposition, contradiction, or a counterclaim set against another claim. Its sole New Testament occurrence appears when Paul tells Timothy to guard the entrusted deposit and turn from contradictions associated with what is falsely called knowledge. The noun does not make every objection, alternative interpretation, or evidence-based challenge hostile to faith.
Paul himself reasons, answers opponents, and commands careful correction. The danger is opposition that claims authoritative knowledge while displacing apostolic truth and producing speculative or ruinous speech. Churches should identify the actual proposition, evidence, doctrinal center, and fruit rather than treating disagreement as rebellion. Faithful response guards the gospel, answers genuine questions patiently, corrects false claims openly, and refuses prestige built on novelty or obscurity.
Antithesis names opposing claims connected with falsely named knowledge. Timothy guards the gospel deposit by refusing contradictions that claim insight while drawing hearers away from trustworthy apostolic truth.
O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid irreverent, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of so-called “knowledge,”
First Timothy 6:20 contains the direct occurrence: Timothy must guard the deposit and turn away from profane empty speech and contradictions of falsely named knowledge.
Or devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculation rather than the stewardship of God’s work, which is by faith.
First Timothy 1:4 supplies related contextual logic rather than another occurrence: speculative myths and genealogies fail to advance God's stewardship by faith.
Remind the believers of these things, charging them before God to avoid quarreling over words, which succeeds only in leading the listeners to ruin.
Second Timothy 2:14 offers related pastoral context: quarrels about words do no good and ruin hearers. It helps identify destructive opposition by fruit.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Direct clash or contradiction between opposing claims, doctrines, or positions
Direct clash or contradiction between opposing claims, doctrines, or positions
(τίθημι), opposition: 1Ti.6:20.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
1 Greek text appearance shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
opposition
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 1 case and number pattern. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
ἀντίθεσις is built from these roots:
Antithesis requires more care than labeling someone oppositional. Paul joins the noun to knowledge falsely so called and contrasts it with a deposit Timothy received rather than invented. The issue is a counterclaim that presents itself as superior insight while turning from apostolic truth. Churches need the courage to reject such claims and the patience to demonstrate why.
They should distinguish central gospel contradiction from secondary disagreement, give objectors a fair hearing, preserve evidence, and state the doctrinal stakes plainly. Leaders must also permit their own teaching to be tested by Scripture; institutional preference is not the deposit. Guarding truth is strongest when it combines clarity, humility, accountable reasoning, and pastoral concern for hearers endangered by error.
1Tim.6.20
Antithesis combines anti, against, with thesis, a placing or proposition. It can denote opposition or a counter-position; later technical uses should not be imported automatically into 1 Timothy.
False prophets contradict God's sent word, while wisdom welcomes truthful reproof and careful hearing. Scripture distinguishes rebellion from the faithful testing of claims.
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