In the King James Version, 2 Timothy 2:15 is translated as “rightly dividing the word of truth,” a phrase that has sometimes been taken to mean splitting the Bible into different eras or dispensations. But the Greek word behind it, orthotomounta, does not mean “divide” at all. It means “to cut straight” or “to handle correctly,” like a builder laying a straight road or a craftsman making an accurate cut. The point is not separation but precision.
Paul makes this even clearer in the next breath when he contrasts it with people who have “swerved” (astocheo) from the truth—literally missing the target—so the image is not dividing Scripture into parts, but staying on a straight line versus veering off course. Read in context, Paul is urging Timothy to faithfully and accurately teach the gospel in the face of false teachers, not to construct a system that slices the Bible into chronological sections.
Nothing in orthotomeo or in the flow of the passage suggests time-based divisions; that idea has to be brought in from outside the text. The contrast Paul actually gives is simple and sharp: straight handling of the truth versus wandering away from it.
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