“Prepared” is the Greek perfect passive participle ἡτοιμασμένον, from ἑτοιμάζω, appearing over 40 times in the New Testament and understood as “ready” or “prepared.” It has the same semantic range as the root artidzo (αρτίζω) in 2 Timothy 3:17. It can refer to an ordinary preparation or a superlative divine preparation (cf., Matt. 20:23; 22:4; 1 Cor. 2:9). On this issue we beg to differ with Protestant James R. White who claims that there is no relation between the two. He states: “The term “prepared” is not artios or exartizo (as in 2 Timothy 3:16). It is a term that differs markedly in its semantic domain and meaning: ἑτοιμάζω (hetoimazo), which specifically speaks of making preparation, of becoming prepared and ready” (The Roman Catholic Controversy, p. 240). We reply that obviously hetoimazo refers to preparedness. The issue, however, is the degree of preparedness, whether perfect or imperfect, and thus the word contains the same range of applicability as artios, which can refer on the lesser side to being ‘fit” but on the stronger side to being “perfect.” White also attempts to dismiss using 2 Timothy 2:21 because it is not speaking about the “source of the man of God’s ability to engage in the work” but “of sanctification in the person’s life.” By forcing this dichotomy into the discussion, White makes it appear as if “sanctification” cannot be considered a “source” from which the man of God can draw in order to do “every good work.” White conveniently confines “source” to revelatory dimensions and thereby misses the whole point of Paul’s contextual argument – an argument designed not to single out or make exclusive revelatory sources but to direct Timothy to whatever will help him become the man of God he desires to be and to teach others to do the same. (Robert A. Sungenis, "Does Scripture Teach Sola Scriptura?" in Not By Scripture Alone: A Catholic Critique of the Protestant Doctrine of Sola Scriptura, ed. Robert A. Sungenis [State Line, Pa.: Catholic Apologetics International Publishing, Inc., 2013], 107-8 n. 9)
Further Reading:
