Medepote (G3368) is a compound adverb combining me (not), de (now/but), and pote (at any time) — never, under no circumstances. It appears in 2 Timothy 3:7 in Paul's description of false teachers who lead 'weak women' who are 'always learning and never [medepote] able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.' The word carries the force of an absolute negative applied to a continuous action that yields no result.
The medepote of 2 Timothy 3:7 diagnoses a spiritual pathology relevant to every generation: perpetual learning without transformation. The people Paul describes are intellectually active (always learning, aei manthanonta) but spiritually unchanged (medepote able to come to the knowledge of truth). This is not an indictment of learning but of learning disconnected from the gospel's transforming power. True knowledge of truth (epignosis aletheias) is not mere data accumulation — it is an encounter with the living God that changes everything. James 1:22 echoes this: 'Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.'