ὑποτύπωσις

From the study of 2 Timothy 1:13

Range of meaning

An outline, sketch or rough draft. The basic lines of something, a model or prototype, a standard to work from. It is built on typos ('imprint, pattern, model'), and the prefix hypo- gives the sense of a preliminary sketch or base drawing.

Against the English

KJV 'form' and NASB 'standard' make it sound fixed and formal. BSB, WEB, YLT and ESV say 'pattern', which is closer. NIV takes the whole phrase as 'keep [what you heard] as the pattern'. None of them fully gets across that this is an outline: a set of guiding lines, not a word-for-word script.

How it drifted

Since the KJV, 'the form of sound words' has often been heard as a fixed verbal formula, a creed to be repeated exactly. The KJV's 'form' follows the Latin Vulgate's forma. In modern English 'form' also suggests mere outward shape or formality.

Used elsewhere in the period

The New Testament uses it only twice, both times in the Pastorals. In 1 Tim 1:16 Paul is a hypotypōsis, a prototype or model, for later believers. In wider Greek the word is used for outlines: Sextus Empiricus (2nd century AD) called his summary of Skeptic philosophy Pyrrhōneioi Hypotypōseis, 'Outlines of Pyrrhonism'. Ancient rhetoric teachers used the same term for a vivid sketch in words. BDAG gives 'model, example' and, for this verse, 'standard'.

From the study of 1 Timothy 1:16

Range of meaning

Outline, sketch, rough draft; pattern, model, prototype. Related to typos (stamp, impression, model). In rhetoric it can also mean a vivid sketch, a word-picture.

Against the English

'Pattern' (KJV) and 'example' (BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV) are both fair. 'Example' can suggest a moral example to imitate. The Greek is closer to a template or prototype: a first impression that others will follow, not mainly a model of behaviour to copy.

Used elsewhere in the period

In the NT only here and 2 Tim 1:13 ('hold the pattern of sound words'). Hellenistic writers used it for an outline or sketch; the rhetorical handbooks used it for vivid portrayal. Galen and others use it of a summary outline.