pass on to the remainder of the verse. The wording of the A.V. is somewhat ambiguous,

for one cannot be sure whether the congregation or the teacher has the itching ears. The

R.V. removes the ambiguity, reading:

When speaking of the "last days", in the previous chapter, the apostle uses the word

soreuo "laden" with sins. He reverts to the same figure when he says that men will

"heap" to themselves teachers. It is a strange word to choose, the idea of "piling up", a

"cumulus", a "heap", does not readily fit in with the thought of "teachers". There must

be something in the word itself that would illuminate the apostle's intention if we could

discover it.

Among other meanings which the word has in classical Greek is that of a "sepulchral

mound" and in some versions of the LXX moreover, according to Wordsworth, it is used

for the heaping up of a mound by an enemy against a city. The tumulus raised to

commemorate the dead that fell at Marathon is still called soros, and in heathen

mythology the mountains heaped up by the giants became a sepulchral mound to those

who raised them. The apostle would not be ignorant of this usage, and we cannot avoid

the conclusion that his hearers also would be acquainted with the associations of this

word, and so would understand the apostle to suggest, that although these teachers would

be from one point of view throwing up of a mound by the enemy as an attack against the

citadel of truth, yet in the long run, this accumulation of evil teaching would become the

sepulchral mound of those responsible for its erection. If, moreover, the allusion of

Marathon be permissible the context of II Tim. 4: 3, 4, with its reference to "finishing a

course" and so winning a crown, would add to the significance of the word.

Coming to the next figure, "itching ears", Wetstein gives references to both Greek and

Latin authors where this figure is used to describe the flattery of sophistical teachers.

Plutarch uses the expression in his book "de Superstit". Plato says, that music was given

to men to indulge their luxury, kai kneseos oton, or tickle their ears.

This expression was well known and popular, and the apostle's words would need no

interpretation. We also in our own day know full well that the doctrine that will tickle the

ears, and satisfy the "itch" of those for whom the sound teaching of the Word is

unbearable, cannot be of God.

Shakespeare uses a similar figure when he says:

Such debasement of true ministry can have but one sad result: