2 Timothy 4:17

Contextual Overview

¹⁶At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. ¹⁶ At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. ¹⁶ At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. ¹⁶At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them. ¹⁶When I was on public display against him, nobody stood up and helped me. The silence of the supporters hurt worse than anything, but I pray nothing is held against them. Fear drives people to silence, but I will not be silent. ¹⁶ At my first meeting with my judges, no one took my part, but all went away from me. May it not be put to their account. ¹⁶ At my first defence no man stood with me, but all deserted me. May it not be imputed to them. ¹⁶ At my first defense, no one stood by me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be counted against them. ¹⁶ At my first defense, no one took my part, but all left me. May it not be held against them. ¹⁶ At my first defence no man was with me, but all forsook me: may it not be laid to their charge?

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

the Lord: Psalms 37:39, Psalms 37:40, Psalms 109:31, Jeremiah 15:20, Jeremiah 15:21, Jeremiah 20:10, Jeremiah 20:11, Matthew 10:19, Acts 18:9, Acts 18:10, Acts 23:11, Acts 27:23, Acts 27:24

strengthened: Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 41:14, 2 Corinthians 12:9

by: Luke 21:15, Acts 9:15, Acts 26:17, Acts 26:18, Romans 16:25, Romans 16:26, Ephesians 3:8, Philippians 1:12-14

and I: Psalms 22:21, Proverbs 20:2, Proverbs 28:15, Jeremiah 2:30, Daniel 6:22, Daniel 6:27, Hebrews 11:33, 1 Peter 5:8, 2 Peter 2:9

Reciprocal: Genesis 28:12 - ladder Genesis 49:24 - his bow Exodus 18:4 - delivered Deuteronomy 3:21 - so shall Joshua 1:5 - as I was Joshua 6:27 - the Lord Joshua 10:25 - Fear not 1 Samuel 17:35 - smote him 1 Samuel 17:37 - The Lord 1 Samuel 23:14 - but God 2 Samuel 4:9 - who hath 2 Samuel 22:18 - delivered 2 Chronicles 32:8 - with us Ezra 7:28 - as the hand Job 4:11 - old lion Psalms 7:2 - like Psalms 17:12 - Like Psalms 27:9 - thou Psalms 29:11 - give Psalms 37:33 - will not Psalms 59:1 - Deliver Psalms 69:20 - but there Psalms 91:13 - tread Psalms 91:15 - I will be Psalms 94:17 - Unless Psalms 142:5 - Thou art Proverbs 29:25 - fear Ecclesiastes 4:1 - they had Ecclesiastes 8:1 - boldness Isaiah 38:6 - General Isaiah 41:13 - will hold Isaiah 43:2 - I will be Isaiah 45:24 - strength Jeremiah 1:8 - for I am Jeremiah 30:11 - I am Jeremiah 38:28 - General Jeremiah 42:11 - for I Jeremiah 46:28 - for I am Daniel 2:18 - they would Haggai 1:13 - I am Haggai 2:4 - for Zechariah 10:5 - because Matthew 1:23 - God Matthew 6:13 - deliver Matthew 10:18 - be Matthew 14:30 - when Matthew 28:20 - I am John 8:29 - he that sent John 14:21 - and will John 16:32 - that Acts 4:24 - they Acts 4:29 - that Acts 20:24 - none Acts 26:22 - obtained Acts 28:31 - with Romans 1:13 - even Romans 10:14 - and how shall Romans 15:19 - fully 2 Corinthians 1:10 - General Ephesians 3:9 - to Ephesians 3:16 - to be Ephesians 6:10 - be 2 Thessalonians 3:2 - delivered 1 Timothy 1:12 - who 2 Timothy 1:8 - according 2 Timothy 1:12 - the which 2 Timothy 3:11 - but Titus 2:11 - hath appeared Revelation 13:2 - and his mouth

Cross-References

Genesis 4:4
But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering,

Genesis 4:4
And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering,

Genesis 4:4
Abel, on his part, also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And Yahweh had regard for Abel and for his offering;

Genesis 4:4
Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and for his offering;

Genesis 4:4
Habel also brought of the firstlynges of his sheepe, & of the fatte thereof: and the Lorde had respect vnto Habel, and to his oblation.

Genesis 4:4
and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering,

Genesis 4:4
and Abel offride of the first gendrid of his floc, and of the fatnesse of tho. And the Lord bihelde to Abel and to the yiftis of hym;

Genesis 4:4
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flocke, and of the fat thereof: and the LORD had respect vnto Abel, and to his offering.

Genesis 4:4
And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

Genesis 4:4
And Abell brought also of the firstlinges of his shepe, and of ye fat of them. And the LORDE had respecte vnto Abell and to his offerynge:

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me,.... Either personally appearing to him, as in Acts 23:11 or by the ministry of an angel, Acts 27:23 or else by granting him his gracious presence, which was what Christ had not when he was forsaken by his disciples: the presence of God or Christ is more than all friends whatever, and is often enjoyed by the believer, when they drop him; and is a bulwark against all enemies and fears of them; if God is with him, and on his side, though friends fail, and enemies rage, he has nothing to fear:

and strengthened me; inwardly with strength in his soul, with might in his inward man, unto all longsuffering with joyfulness: he was weak in himself, and could do nothing without Christ; Christ was his strength, in him it lay, and to him he looked for it; of which he often had experience, and now afresh; he strengthened him to plead his own cause, to make his defence without fear; he gave him presence of mind, boldness, courage, and intrepidity, freedom of thought and expression; and put it into his heart what he should say, and gave him a mouth and wisdom, which his adversaries could not resist. All which he takes notice of with thankfulness, admiring the divine goodness to him, and taking nothing to himself: and the end of this was,

that by me the preaching might be fully known; that is, that the doctrine of the Gospel, preached by him, might be made fully known by him; as to the author and original of it, to be of God, and not of men; and as to the matter of it, to be spiritual, and not concerning the things of the world; and as to the effects and consequences of it, to have no tendency to raise sedition and disturbances in commonwealths, but, on the contrary, promote peace and love:

and that all the Gentiles might hear; in Caesar's palace, or in the courts of judicature at Rome, and all over Rome, and from thence in other parts of the empire, what a Gospel it was that was preached by the apostle; and if not by his personal ministry, at least by his epistles he afterwards wrote in prison: however, the effect of his defence, the Lord being with him, and strengthening him, was his deliverance:

and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion; from death he was threatened with, which, like a lion, gaped upon him to devour him; or from Satan the roaring lion, who desired to have had him, and sought to have intimidated him, and brought him to have denied his Lord, to have deserted his cause, and blasphemed his name; or else from Nero the Roman emperor, so called from his power and fierceness. So Tiberius is called by Marsyas, Agrippa's freeman, when he brought the news of his death to his master g; and Ahasuerus by Esther h; and Nero himself is called a civil beast by Apollonius Tyanaeus i; though some think that not Nero, but Helius, whom he had appointed governor in his room, he being at this time in Greece, is here meant, before whom Paul was tried, and out of whose hands he was delivered.

g Joseph. Antiqu. l. 18. c. 7. sect. 10. h Apocryph.

"Give me eloquent speech in my mouth before the lion: turn his heart to hate him that fighteth against us, that there may be an end of him, and of all that are likeminded to him:'' (Esther 14:13)

i Philostrat. Vit. Apollon. l. 4. c. 12.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me - Though all “men” forsook me, yet “God” did not. This expresses a universal truth in regard to the faithfulness of God; see Psalms 27:10; compare Job 5:17-19; Isaiah 14:1-2.

That by me the preaching might be fully known - The word “preaching,” here probably means “the gospel as preached by him.” The word rendered “might be fully known” - πληροφορηθῃ plērophorē̄thē - means “might obtain full credence;” that is, might be fully confirmed, so that others might be assured of its truth. The apostle doubtless means that on his trial, though forsaken by all men, he was enabled to be so steadfast in his profession of the truth, and so calm in the prospect of death, that all who witnessed his trial saw that there was a reality in religion, and that the gospel was founded in truth. He had maintained as a preacher that the gospel was able to support the soul in trial, and he was now able to illustrate its power in his own case. He had proclaimed the gospel as the true system of religion, and he was now able to bear testimony to it with the prospect of approaching martyrdom.

The sentiment of this passage then is, that the truth of the gospel is made known, or that men may become fully assured of it, by the testimony which is borne to it by its friends in the near prospect of death. One of the most important means of establishing the truth of the gospel in the world has been the testimony borne to it by martyrs, and the spirit of unwavering confidence in God which they have evinced. And now, one of the most important methods of keeping up the knowledge of the value of religion in the world, and of convincing men of the truth of Christianity, is the spirit evinced by its friends when they are about to die. Men judge much, and justly, of the value of a system of religion by its power to comfort in the day of calamity, and to sustain the soul when about to enter on an untried state of being. That system is of little value to mankind which leaves us in the day of trial; that is of inestimable worth which will enable us to die with the firm hope of a brighter and better world. A Christian, having served his God faithfully in life, may, therefore, be eminently useful when he comes to die.

And that all the Gentiles might hear - Paul was at this time in Rome. His trial was before a pagan tribunal, and he was surrounded by Pagans. Rome, too, was then the center of the world, and at all times there was a great conflux of strangers there. His trial, therefore, gave him an opportunity of testifying to the truth of Christianity before Gentile rulers, and in such circumstances that the knowledge of his sufferings, and of the religion for which he suffered, might be conveyed by the strangers who witnessed it to the ends of the world. His main object in life was to make the gospel known to the Gentiles, and he had thus an opportunity of furthering that great cause, even on what he supposed might be the trial which would determine with him the question of life or death; compare the notes on Romans 1:10.

And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion - This may either mean that he was delivered from Nero, compared with a lion, or literally that he was saved from being thrown to lions in the amphitheater, as was common in Rome; see the notes on 1 Corinthians 15:32.

It is not uncommon in the Scriptures to compare tyrants and persecutors with ravenous wild beasts; compare Psalms 22:13, Psalms 22:21; Jeremiah 2:30. Nero is called a “lion” by Seneca, and it was usual among pagan writers to apply the term in various senses to princes and warriors; see Grotius, in loc. The common interpretation here has been, that this refers to Nero, and there is no improbability in the interpretation. Still, it is quite as natural to suppose that the punishment which had been appointed for him, or to which he would have been subjected, was to be thrown to lions, and that in some way, now unknown to us, he had been delivered from it. Paul attributes his deliverance entirely to the Lord - but what instrumental agency there may have been, he does not specify. It seems probable that it was his own defense; that he was enabled to plead his own cause with so much ability that he found favor even with the Roman emperor, and was discharged. If it had been through the help of a friend at court, it is hardly to be supposed that he would not have mentioned the name of him to whom he owed his deliverance.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 17. The Lord stood with me — When all human help failed, God, in a more remarkable manner, interposed; and thus the excellency plainly appeared to be of God, and not of man.

That by me the preaching might be fully known — When called on to make his defence he took occasion to preach the Gospel, and to show that the great God of heaven and earth had designed to illuminate the Gentile world with the rays of his light and glory. This must have endeared him to some, while others might consider him an opposer of their gods, and be the more incensed against him.

I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. — I escaped the imminent danger at that time. Probably he was seized in a tumultuous manner, and expected to be torn to pieces. The words εκ στοματος or εκ βρυγμου λεοντος ῥυεσθαι, to be rescued from the mouth or jaws of the lion, are a proverbial form of speech for deliverance from the most imminent danger. Several writers think Nero to be intended by the lion, because of his rage and oppressive cruelty. But Helius Caesarinus was at this time prefect of the city; Nero being in Greece. He was a bloody tyrant, and Nero had given him the power of life and death in his absence. The apostle may mean him, if the words be not proverbial.