If one then asks what criteria there are to determine whether a doctrine is “sound” or not, the answer is that there is one final, definitive, and decisive criterion, and that is the gospel that has been entrusted to Paul himself. This verse is connected with the previous one by the preposition translated in accordance with, which means that any teaching or doctrine must agree or “conform to” (New Revised Standard Version) the gospel itself. The gospel is a technical term used for the Good News of what God has done in Jesus Christ on behalf of all people. At an early stage it was used for the message of Jesus: his life, his suffering, death, resurrection and ascension, and his teachings; this is the origin of the term gospel being used as a title for the New Testament books that contain the life and teachings of Jesus. But in a wider sense it came to be used for the Christian message itself in its totality, and this meaning is what is intended in the present context. So this first clause may also be rendered as “We can find that teaching in the Christian message” or “That teaching agrees with….” The glorious gospel of the blessed God is literally “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” “Glory” has the meaning of “greatness,” “majesty,” “power.” Blessed as a quality of God is used only here and in 6.15. In all other cases blessed is used as a human attribute. In Revised Standard Version the expression “Blessed be God” occurs several times, but “blessed” in that expression translates the Greek word eulogētos, which in that context can be more appropriately translated as “praise.” In the present verse the word translated blessed is makarios and is the same word used in the Beatitudes (Matt 5.3-12). When used for people the term describes being in a favorable state or situation, resulting in the experience of happiness and contentment. But what does the term mean when it is used to describe God? There is very little help here from commentaries or lexicons. (Louw and Nida only discuss “blessedness” as a human quality but not as a divine attribute.) Perhaps it is possible to take makarios here as a synonym for eulogētos, in which case the blessed God can then be translated “the God who is worthy to be praised” or “the God whom people should praise.”

Some take glorious as a qualifier for gospel, hence the glorious gospel. Others take glorious as joined with blessed, with both terms used to describe the nature of God, hence Good News Translation “the glorious and blessed God.” The reason for this latter position is because of the presence of the definite article before “glory” in the Greek. A similar construction occurs in 2 Cor 4.4. It is recommended that translators follow this second interpretation. Glorious in relation to God refers to God’s greatness, splendor, and saving activity. It will often be translated as “wonderful” or “great.” As indicated above, blessed may refer to the activity of humans “praising” or “honoring” God. So one may render the glorious gospel of the blessed God as “the wonderful God whom people praise.” In certain languages direct speech will be preferred; for example, “from God whom people praise, saying, ‘You are wonderful (or, great).’ ”

This gospel has been entrusted to Paul. The implicit agent who entrusted this gospel to Paul is either God or Christ, but more likely it is God who is the intended actor, and both New Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation make this information explicit in the translation. The word for entrust is the same word usually translated “to believe” or “to have faith,” but here it is used in the sense of entrusting something to the care of someone. In this case it is the gospel that has been entrusted by God in order to be proclaimed and to be guarded against corruption of any kind. In languages that do not use the passive voice, one may translate, for example, “that God entrusted to me to announce.”

Alternative translation models for this verse are:
• We can find that teaching in the Christian message that God has entrusted to me to announce. This is the Good News that comes from the great (or, wonderful) God whom people praise.

Or:
• … This is the Good News that comes from God, whom people praise, saying, “You are wonderful (or, great)!”

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 .