My previous articles have run a bit long even for me, but this one will be much shorter. This particular “false friend” claim is so simple to refute that it wouldn’t be worth writing about except for the fact that it perfectly demonstrates the poor quality of Mark Ward’s scholarship.

As I’m going through Mark Ward’s list of “false friends” in the KJV, I’ve gotten a few requests for reviewing particular words on his list. One of those requests was for the word study in II Timothy 2:15. Ward claims that modern readers are incapable of reading this word as a reference to anything other than the acquisition of knowledge. The word used in this passage actually means “to earnestly endeavor” or “to pursue diligently.” The Greek word translated here literally means “to put feet to something.” It was a euphemism similar to our English phrase “put your back into it.” Thus, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God” could be written as “Earnestly endeavor to shew thyself approved unto God.”
 
There are many people who misunderstand this verse because they read it with the wrong definition of study in mind, and if Ward had merely pointed this out, I would have no disagreement with him on this verse. Ward’s claim, however, goes far beyond the idea that many people misread this verse. He claims that the correct definition of study in this verse is so obsolete that it has passed out of use entirely, and modern readers are hopelessly bound to read this verse as a command to acquire more knowledge. I’ll focus mostly on the word study in this article, but stick with me to the end for some hilarious observations of other claims Ward made in his videos.

I am in the process of going through Mark Ward’s list of “false friends” in the KJV. These are words that Ward has determined no longer mean today what they meant when the KJV was translated. As I pointed out in the previous article, Ward has practically zero literary training or experience to prepare him for this task. I am going through his list using my extensive knowledge of English literature combined with the tools that I use as a researcher to determine which if any of Ward’s “false friends” actually fit in that category.