agoge, conduct in BDAG and Spicq-Spicq-Theological Lexicon of The New Testament

ἀγωγή agōgē, conduct agōgē, S 72; TDNT 1.128–129; EDNT 1.25; NIDNTT 3.935; MM 8; L&N 41.3; BAGD 14–15 St. Paul praises Timothy for having followed him “in teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience …” (2 Tim 3:10). Clearly, the nt hapax agōgē, here used in a figurative sense, should be translated “conduct, manner of life.” It is sometimes used in a derogatory sense, for foul schemes, but for the most part it expresses either the culture or the conduct or manner of life peculiar to a given race or a given individual (Diodorus Siculus 5.26), such as Esther, who changed nothing of her ways (Esth 2:20), or the Jews who preferred their particular way of life, or Herod entreating, “Let everyone consider my age, the life that I lead (tēn agōgēn tou biou) and my piety” (Josephus, War 1.462). Frequently—and this nuance is discernible in 2 Tim 3:10—this conduct is adopted in imitation of a master, of a model, of ancestors. This is what St. Paul called “my ways in Christ” (tas hodous mou tas en Christō). The subject for imitation, then, is not the conduct of the person but the manner of life of the apostle. It has to do with conforming to the requirements of the faith that are transmitted in the didaskalia and bear upon customs and specific mores: practical, observable applications. In the Pastorals, which develop a theology of beauty, this agōgē of the apostle seems to involve a sense of the brilliance or splendor (cf. Phil 3:17; 4:9) that this term can connote in the first century, and which is at the same time a characteristic of virtue and a grace of the apostle (2 Cor 4:6).

Ceslas Spicq and James D. Ernest, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994), 29–31.Ceslas Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament | TLNT (3 Vols.), n.d.

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