Reference: Science
Fausets
gnoosis, rather "knowledge falsely so-called" (1Ti 6:20). There was a true "knowledge," a charism or "gift" of the Spirit, abused by some (1Co 8:1; 12:8; 13:2; 14:6). This was counterfeited by false teachers, as preeminently and exclusively theirs (Col 2:8,18,23). Hence arose creeds, "symbols" (sumbola), i.e. watchwords whereby the orthodox might distinguish one another from the heretical; traces of such a creed appear in 1Ti 3:16; 2Ti 1:13-14.
The germs of the pretended gnoosis were not developed into full blown gnosticism until the second century. True knowledge (epignoosis, "full accurate knowledge") Paul valued (Php 1:9; Col 2:3; 3:10). He did not despise, but utilizes, secular knowledge (Php 4:8; Ac 17:28, etc.); and the progress made in many of the sciences as well as in the arts (as in that of design, manifested in the vases and other works of that description), was evidently very great.
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For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your [own] poets have said, For we are also His offspring.
Now about food offered to idols: of course we know that all of us possess knowledge [concerning these matters. Yet mere] knowledge causes people to be puffed up (to bear themselves loftily and be proud), but love (affection and goodwill and benevolence) edifies and builds up and encourages one to grow [to his full stature].
To one is given in and through the [Holy] Spirit [the power to speak] a message of wisdom, and to another [the power to express] a word of knowledge and understanding according to the same [Holy] Spirit;
And if I have prophetic powers ( the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God's love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).
Now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in [unknown] tongues, how shall I make it to your advantage unless I speak to you either in revelation (disclosure of God's will to man) in knowledge or in prophecy or in instruction?
And this I pray: that your love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight [that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment],
For the rest, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is worthy of reverence and is honorable and seemly, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely and lovable, whatever is kind and winsome and gracious, if there is any virtue and excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think on and weigh and take account of these things [fix your minds on them].
In Him all the treasures of [divine] wisdom ( comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God) and [all the riches of spiritual] knowledge and enlightenment are stored up and lie hidden.
See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).
Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit,
Such [practices] have indeed the outward appearance [that popularly passes] for wisdom, in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight in self-humiliation and severity of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh (the lower nature). [Instead, they do not honor God but serve only to indulge the flesh.]
And have clothed yourselves with the new [spiritual self], which is [ever in the process of being] renewed and remolded into [fuller and more perfect knowledge upon] knowledge after the image (the likeness) of Him Who created it.
And great and important and weighty, we confess, is the hidden truth (the mystic secret) of godliness. He [ God] was made visible in human flesh, justified and vindicated in the [Holy] Spirit, was seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, [and] taken up in glory.
O Timothy, guard and keep the deposit entrusted [to you]! Turn away from the irreverent babble and godless chatter, with the vain and empty and worldly phrases, and the subtleties and the contradictions in what is falsely called knowledge and spiritual illumination.
And this account of them is [really] true. Because it is [true], rebuke them sharply [deal sternly, even severely with them], so that they may be sound in the faith and free from error, [And may show their soundness by] ceasing to give attention to Jewish myths and fables or to rules [laid down] by [mere] men who reject and turn their backs on the Truth.
Hastings
The word 'science' occurs in AV only twice (Da 1:4; 1Ti 6:20), and in both places it simply means 'knowledge'; as in Barlowe's Dialoge, p. 109, 'There is no truthe, no mercye, nor scyence of god in the yerth.'
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Youths without blemish, well-favored in appearance and skillful in all wisdom, discernment, and understanding, apt in learning knowledge, competent to stand and serve in the king's palace -- "and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.
Morish
Both in the Hebrew and in the Greek the words signify 'knowledge,' and are generally so translated. They are rendered 'science' only in Da 1:4, where 'knowledge' and 'wisdom' are also mentioned; and in 1Ti 6:20, where it is science, or knowledge, 'falsely so called,' doubtless alluding in Daniel to the speculations of the Magi, and in the Epistle to Timothy to the philosophers or Gnostic heretics, whose 'knowledge' had no real foundation.
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Youths without blemish, well-favored in appearance and skillful in all wisdom, discernment, and understanding, apt in learning knowledge, competent to stand and serve in the king's palace -- "and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.
O Timothy, guard and keep the deposit entrusted [to you]! Turn away from the irreverent babble and godless chatter, with the vain and empty and worldly phrases, and the subtleties and the contradictions in what is falsely called knowledge and spiritual illumination.