Here the importance of the virtues mentioned in the previous verse is emphasized by mentioning what happened to some people who did not hold on to them. Certain persons are the same ones referred to in verse 3, where the same Greek word is used, and in some languages it will be helpful to translate Certain persons as “Those false teachers.” These people have been swerving from these Christian virtues; the verb used here literally means “to miss the mark” and has the extended meaning of “to deviate,” to “turn away from” (Good News Translation). Other ways to express this are “strayed from” or even “forsaken.” In some languages it will be helpful to make these explicit by saying “strayed from these teachings.”

As a result of their deviating from these important Christian virtues, these people have wandered away into vain discussion. Wandered away (Good News Translation “lost their way”) is a term that is used in Greek philosophical writing during the second century before the time of Christ; it carries the idea of turning away from something important into something less desirable. The notion of turning away from the faith is one of the main features of the Pastoral Letters. Wandered away may also be expressed as “got enmeshed in,” or “have entangled themselves,” or idiomatically, “have got themselves bogged down in.” Vain discussion translates a term that is also used in Greek writings during the second century before Christ. The term is a combination of two words. The first word means “vain,” “useless,” “of no value,” and is used frequently in the New Testament to describe the worship of idols and other undesirable conduct. The second word is the word logos, which in this context means not simply “word” but “speech” or “discussion.” These two words put together form a term that describes any foolish discussions or senseless arguments (so New Revised Standard Version [New Revised Standard Version] “meaningless talk”).

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• Those false teachers have strayed from these teachings and have entangled themselves in foolish discussions.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .