Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
"Incontinent" listed among the vices of the last days refers to a lack of bladder control
"Incontinent" meant lacking self-control generally, especially over fleshly appetites.
2 Timothy 3:3, in every translation this tool compares.
2 Timothy 3:3 lists "incontinent" among traits of people in the last days: "Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good." This is a moral vice list, and "incontinent" here means someone who can't restrain their appetites or passions, from Latin "continere," to hold together or restrain. "Continent" once simply meant self-controlled in general.
In the twentieth century, "incontinent" narrowed almost entirely to a medical term for loss of bladder or bowel control, so a modern reader can badly misjudge what Paul is actually condemning: unrestrained, undisciplined living, not a physical condition.
