Bible Commentaries
2 Timothy 4

Verse 1

Chapter IV

Ver. 1. I solemnly charge thee before God, and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge living and dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom. (On the διαμαρτύρομαι , see at 1 Timothy 5:21. Here, as there, the correct reading is undoubtedly, “before God and Christ Jesus” the received text inserting on very slender authority (only K, L, Syr.), τοῦ Κυρίου before Χριστοῦ . It also inserts, on equally poor authority, οὖν ε ̓ γώ after διαμαρτ .; but the best MSS. omit them, א , A, C, D, F, L, also the Latin and Syriac versions.) This is, so to speak, the apostle’s last charge to Timothy the last in this epistle, and not improbably the last absolutely; and he therefore puts it in the most solemn form, not only delivering it as in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ, but also the appearing of Christ ( τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν , the usual accusative after verbs of religiously charging or adjuring, Deuteronomy 4:26; Mark 5:7; Acts 19:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:27, and requiring by to be prefixed in our idiom; as also the Lat. Vulg., per adventum ejus) and His kingdom. These are obviously added for the purpose of bringing before Timothy the great realities of the future world, which should infinitely outweigh all the present: Christ’s appearing, when everything in the past shall be brought into judgment, and His kingdom, when His faithful servants shall reign with Him in glory. Our translators have been quite misled here by the κατὰ , which in the received text stands before τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν , but which is omitted by א , A, C, D, F, also by the Vulg. (according to the better copies) and Copt, versions, and is rejected by all the leading critical authorities.

Verse 2

Ver. 2. Here follow, in a series of imperative sentences, the several things which Timothy was taken bound to do; the imperatives all in the aorist, as noted by Ellicott, indicating rapidity of action, or the vivid nature of the address (Winer, Gr. § 43, 3, a). Preach the word the word of God generally, no doubt, but that word more especially as connected with the realities, obligations, and hopes of the gospel. Be instant ( ἐπίστηθι , lit. stand by, or near; and when used here in a moral sense, with reference, no doubt, mainly to what goes before, the preaching of the word, implying an ever wakeful, ready attitude: be at it) in season, out of season that is, at all times; for what may seem to the careless or lukewarm unseasonable occasions for making mention of the truth, will often by the zealous and faithful pastor be found opportunities of usefulness. It means, says Chyrsostom, “Have no definite time; let it be always time for thee: not in peace alone, or in quietness, or when sitting in the church. And if you should be in perils, if in prison, if compassed about with chains, if even going forth to death, at that very time convince, withhold not the word of rebuke. For then even rebuking is in season, when the work meets with success.” Truly and beautifully said, only somewhat too exclusively with reference to the circumstances of the pastor; for, as Calvin remarks, the reference should also be made to the people. “To the pastor, indeed, lest he should give himself to the function of teaching only at his own times, and when it suits his own convenience; but let him apply himself, sparing no labour and trouble. As regards the people, there is this importunate diligence, when they are entreated though in a state of slumber, when the hand is laid upon them while they are hurrying elsewhere, when they are chid as to the vain occupations of the world.” Then, as required by the various conditions of those addressed, a corresponding variety in the mode of address is enjoined: reprove, exhort, rebuke, in all long-suffering and teaching διδαχῇ , which occurs only here and in Titus 1:9, of the Pastoral epistles, while διδασκαλία is of pretty frequent occurrence: the former having respect mainly to the work or mode of teaching; the latter to the thing taught the instruction. This concluding part of the charge clearly implies that in his ministerial vocation Timothy should have to lay his account with much in the condition of those he had to deal with that would try his patience, and call for earnest pleading and remonstrance. Instead of listening with attentive ears and willing hearts to the gospel message, ready to hail what it taught, and comply with its requirements of duty, the corrupt tendencies of nature, the sluggishness of the flesh, the love of ease and the world, would present to his efforts too often a resisting medium, which would call for something else than soft and honeyed words what might rather be likened to a sharp and two-edged sword. All faithful ministers must lay their account to a measure of the same, and must consequently know how to reprove and admonish as well as to win, to exhort as well as encourage. But it is of unspeakable importance for the success of their mission, that, when those severer methods have to be resorted to, all should be done in a gentle and patient spirit, or, as it is here, in every kind of long-suffering and teaching, continuing at the work in a forbearing, steady, peaceful manner, if haply the truth may thus find its way into the heart, and bring the stubborn will into captivity to the obedience of Christ. The more any one can carry on his ministerial work in such a spirit, the more is the conviction likely to take hold of his hearers that he really seeks their good, and that it will be well for them to listen to his counsels; whereas, if he should but mock their follies, fiercely denounce their sins, or flare up in passion at their opposition to the calls addressed to them, it is next to certain that no progress will be made a prejudice rather will be created against the work of the ministry. He must act, as Chrysostom says again well, “not as one provoked, not as inflamed with hatred, not as insulting or as having found an enemy: let all such things be absent. But what? As one who loves and condoles, as sorrowing even more than the other, and grieved at the things which concern him.”

Verse 3

Ver. 4. And so is it also in regard to the further statement concerning the errorists in question made in this verse: and they will turn away their ears (lit. their hearing) from the truth, but be turned aside to fables. We can scarcely believe, with Ellicott, that this indicates as the result “a complete turning away from every doctrine of Christian truth;” for if such were the result, there would necessarily be an abandonment of the Christian profession a going over to the ranks of unbelief. But it is rather a depravation within the professing church that the apostle appears to be speaking of, than a formal forsaking of its communion such a depravation as would disincline the minds of men to sound doctrine; consequently such a turning away from the truth as would cause this to lose its proper character, and by mixing it up with error and fable, would prevent it from effecting its proper aim upon the heart and conduct. Even the Gnostic sects, who shortly became so prominent in this line of things, did not go further than has just been stated they still retained many Christian elements in their systems; but these did not save their doctrine from being justly denounced as a corruption of the truth, and held as a whole to be essentially antichristian. In a modified sense, the same may be said of the false worship and discipline which now bears the name of Popery: it undoubtedly has many Christian elements in it; but these are so intermingled with error, that the system as a whole is a grievous departure from the truth of Christ. And how large a part fable played in accomplishing that departure, tales of lying wonders concerning reputed saints and their adversaries in this world and the next, no one acquainted with the history of the subject, and even with the present state of Catholic belief, can need to be told. The modern tendency in Protestant countries, even when turning away the ear from the truth, can scarcely be said to take this particular direction; the substitute is not fables, but rather science falsely so called science, not in its ascertained results, but in its speculative processes and rash deductions.

Verse 5

Ver. 5. But watch thou in all things; endure hardship; do the work of an evangelist; fully perform thy ministry. It is as much as to say: Whatever others may do, and whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear, this is what thou must do. First, watch, νῆφε , or be sober, in all things. The being sober is the primary meaning of the word sober in the literal sense; but when used metaphorically, as it is here, it denotes more than we commonly understand by being sober a vigilant, wakeful, considerate frame of mind, which takes good heed to what is proceeding around, and with calm and steady aim pursues its course. It is an exhortation to maintain the clear perception and even balance of the mind, so as not to be entrapped by false appearances, or by undue excitement turned aside from the onward path of truth and duty. Suffer hardship, or tribulation, in respect to which the apostle had already referred to himself as an example (2 Timothy 2:9). In such times Timothy would plainly be required to show that he had somewhat of the same resolute and hardy spirit. Do the work of an evangelist much the same as a preacher or missionary of the gospel, a carrier of its good tidings, without, as in the case of a pastor, being fixed to any definite locality. In the apostolic age, persons recognised as evangelists seem to have occupied a position between apostles and pastors (Ephesians 4:11), and to have stood in a certain relation to the former with regard to the diffusion of the gospel and the planting of churches. In some respects, therefore, “they were nearest to the apostles, and had an office cognate to these; in respect to dignity alone they were inferior. For at the command of the apostles [sometimes, indeed, without this; Acts 8:5, Acts 8:40 ] they went forth to various churches in order to preach the gospel, and to perfect the work which had been begun by the apostles “(Suicer). Or it might be in the inverse order, the apostles came to perfect what the evangelists had begun; for the relations so far do not seem to have been exactly determined. Fully perform thy ministry, πληροφόρησον not, as in the Authorized Version, after Beza, “make full proof of;” but as the Vulg. ministerium tuum imple fill it up, perform it fully, or make it, as far as you can, a complete and effective service.

Verse 6

Ver. 6. The course of active, faithful, devoted labour in the work of the ministry thus enjoined upon Timothy is now enforced by a reference to the apostle’s own case, his approaching departure from the field, coupled with a brief retrospect of the manner in which he had fulfilled his calling, and the prospect that lay before him of the coming recompense. Commentators have traced the connection variously some laying stress on one point, some on another. I agree with Alford, that there appears no propriety in confining it to any one; and it may well be put, as he does it, so as to include several weighty considerations: “I am no longer here to withstand those things: be thou a worthy successor of me, no longer depending on, but carrying out for thyself, my directions; follow my steps, inherit their result, and the honour of their end.”

For I ( ε ̓ γὼ γὰρ emphatic with respect to the thou, σὺ , in the preceding verse) am already being offered ἤδη σπένδομαι , already poured out as a drink-offering. He contemplates himself in the light of a sacrifice, yielding up his life for the cause of the gospel a sacrifice which might be said to have already begun in the sufferings of a preliminary kind he was called to endure; and the drink-offering, or libation, was thought of as the special kind of sacrifice under which he presented the surrender, because of the resemblance it would be seen to carry to the shedding of his blood. This is so much the most natural explanation of the reference, that it is not worth while noticing any other. The same thought, and expressed in the same language, was employed at an earlier period by the apostle, in Philippians 2:17. But in the following clause he gives it without a figure: and the time of my departure is at hand departure, namely, from life; without reference, as some would have it, to leaving the sacrificial feast with a libation, or, as others, to withdrawal from the battle-field. Such allusions are too far-fetched, and instead of adding to the beautiful simplicity and force of the language, tend rather to spoil it. From what he had already seen in the treatment of his case, and the obvious temper of those he had to deal with, he was convinced that the final stage was approaching.

Verse 7

Ver. 7. I have fought the good fight or more exactly, as at 1 Timothy 6:12, though one is unwilling to alter such familiar words, I have maintained the good contest τὸν καλὸν ἀγῶνα ἠγώνισμαι referring to the contest for the mastery in the public games; and the perfect tense having here its full significance, for the contest was now in a manner over: he could look back on it as a thing of the past. And why does he speak of having maintained the good contest? “It is (says Chrysostom beautifully) as if a father should console his little son seated beside him, and unable to bear the bereavement, saying: My son, weep not; we lived honourably, and having come to old age we left you; our life has been blameless, we depart with glory; you can also acquire honour from the things that have been done by us.” And why emphatically the good contest? Let Chrysostom again answer: “Nothing better than this contest; this crown takes no end. It is not a thing of wild olives; it has not a man for presiding arbiter, nor has it men for spectators [of the contest]; the theatre is replenished with angels. There they labour for many days, and are fatigued, and in a single hour they receive the crown, and the pleasure presently is gone. But here it is not so; for they are always in brightness, in glory and honour.” I have finished the course the race being the contest which here, as elsewhere (Philippians 3:12; 1 Corinthians 9:24; Hebrews 12:1), presented itself to the apostle’s mind as the fittest of the Grecian games to symbolize the Christian struggle; so that to finish the course, only expresses in a more specific form the thought contained in the preceding clause. I have kept the faith that, namely, which had been entrusted to him as a sacred deposit faith objectively, as the great treasure of gospel verities. As to meaning, it is much the same thing over again: the apostle, as Bengel notes, having expressed the matter twice by metaphor, now gives utterance to it in direct speech. Through all trial, and mockery, and persecution, and suffering, he had held fast by the saving truths which he received by special revelation from above, and which as a chosen vessel he was sent forth to declare to a perishing world (Galatians 1:12; Acts 9:15). In doing this he maintained the good contest, and finished the course.

Verse 8

Ver. 8. Henceforth ( λοιπὸν , quod reliquum est, Beza) there is laid up (or aside, ἀπόκειταί , reserved) for me the crown of righteousness; not a crown merely, but the crown that which is associated with righteousness, either as its proper object or its destined possession. A return is made to the figure of the contest; and as the victor in each particular species of game wrestling, running, etc. got the crown appropriated to it, so the apostle designates his reward as the crown of righteousness: therefore the righteous crown, or the crown which by divine appointment belongs to it, which is (prospectively) its own. In plain words, it is that kind and measure of bliss which the wrestler in righteousness alone is either entitled or prepared to enjoy the destiny, as it is put in Revelation 3:21, to share in Christ’s throne, as having previously shared in His triumph over sin. It is reserved, therefore, till this triumph is completed; and then, in that day, the terminating point of the believer’s struggles and exertions, it shall be awarded by the Lord as the judge the righteous judge or arbiter of the contest. Considered in the light of a recompense, the future inheritance of bliss and glory is fitly connected with the Lord’s righteousness or justice as it is also elsewhere (2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 3:6; Ephesians 6:8, etc.) because the bestowal of it shall be in accordance with the just and holy principles on which the divine government is conducted toward men. Yet grace is not hereby superseded or made of no account. On the contrary, it is regarded as the basis on which the whole administration of reward proceeds in the kingdom of Christ. It is an economical arrangement, made by God in Christ for carrying out the purposes of His salvation; but as the salvation itself, so the bestowal of reward connected with it, is all of grace to be thankfully received, but never to be claimed as a debt. For without the Spirit of grace working both to will and to do in them that believe, there could be neither righteousness nor reward; and so, while those who, as partakers of grace, have faithfully done their part here, shall all, like the apostle, in the great day receive their crowns from the Lord, they shall again lay them at His feet, in lowly and grateful acknowledgment of the source whence they have been derived, ascribing to Him, as alone worthy, the honour and the glory (Revelation 4:10, Revelation 5:9-10). (Comp. Delitzsch on Hebrews 6:10.)

The apostle gracefully concludes by noticing this participation of others with him in the anticipated good: the crown which the Lord the righteous judge shall award, he says, not only to me, indeed, but to all those that love His appearing ἠγαπηκόσι τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν αὐτοῦ , the second appearing, doubtless, as the connection requires; and the action of the loving being put in the perfect, betokens it as a thing commenced in the past, but continuing on till the proper completion is reached: who have fixed their love on His appearing, and so still love (Winer, Gr. § 40:4, b). A remarkable characteristic! How rarely is it possessed by believers as it ought to be! If they might justly be represented as loving Christ, yet how seldom should we think of describing them as loving precisely His appearing when He shall come to wind up the affairs of His administration, and distribute to every one as his case may be! To love Him in this particular aspect bespeaks not only faith, but such a full assurance of faith and hope in Him as casts out fear, and carries with it the confidence that, when He appears, we shall also appear with Him in glory. Why should the followers of Christ fail of this peaceful and loving anticipation, when even Old Testament believers hailed the prospect of the Lord’s appearing to judgment with songs of joy and hope? (Psalms 94:11, Psalms 94:13, Psalms 98:9)

Verse 9

Ver. 9. From here to the end of the chapter a few notices are given by the apostle of his own condition and prospects, also of some of his companions in the gospel, with the free expression of his feelings and desires in respect to them. Do thy endeavour to come to me quickly. An earnest desire had already been expressed for Timothy’s coming (2 Timothy 1:4), and now there is the command to hasten it forward: σπούδασον , do it promptly and diligently, lose no time about it. The apostle seemed to have no doubt whatever in his mind as to Timothy’s willingness to come: he could thoroughly count on his affectionate fidelity, even while others were falling away from him; which surely implies that nothing had yet occurred to shake the apostle’s confidence in the hearty and stedfast devotedness of his disciple.

Verse 10

Ver. 10. The reason follows why he would have Timothy to make such haste to come to him: he now peculiarly needed his sympathy and support. For Demas forsook me, having loved this present world ἀγαπήσας , the participle as expressive of the cause = because he loved, or, through his love of, the present world. There can be no doubt, therefore, that this withdrawal of Demas was the result of carnal influences, and was regarded by the apostle in the circumstances as a dereliction of duty a kind of desertion of his post. It must have been all the more painful to Paul, as Demas had formerly stood near to him, and had once and again been mentioned with honour among his fellow-workers (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24). Yet we should perhaps press what is said here too far, if we inferred from it that Demas had made total shipwreck of the faith in Christ. His unworthy conduct at this time may have been the temporary result of the violent measures which in the last mad days of Nero had begun to be taken against Christians at Rome. Demas was meanwhile alarmed at these, and under servile fear withdrew to a safer region: he is gone (says the apostle) to Thessalonica. But with what view we are not informed. It may have been, as Chrysostom states, his home; or it may have been to do some ministerial work, where it could be done with less risk; or, finally, to look after some worldly interest. The stress laid by the apostle on his love to the present world, renders the last supposition fully the most probable. And in that painful uncertainty as to his real state and future career, the notices we have respecting him leave us; and to make positive affirmations, either on the favourable or on the unfavourable side, is unwarrantable.

Crescens [ is gone ] to Gaul, (This is the reading of א , C, εἰς Γαλλίαν, also 23, 31, 72, 73, 80, several Latin codices, and has the distinct testimony of Euseb. Hist. iii. 4, Epiph. H. 51. Tisch. adopts it in his eighth edition. Even if Galatia were retained in the text, as it undoubtedly is in the larger number of authorities, we should probably have to understand by it Gaul, as Theodoret expressly states: εἰς Γαλατι ́ αν· τα ̀ ς Γαλλι ́ ας οὑ ́ τως ἐκα ́ λεσε adding that the ancients were wont so to call it. So, for example, Plutarch, Cers. c. 20; Polybi us, iii. 77, 87. Coupled with Thessalonica on the one side, and Dalmatia on the other, it is more likely that Gaul was meant by the word (whichever form was used) than the province in Asia Minor.) Titus to Dalmatia the latter a part of the province of Illyricum, on the eastern side of the Adriatic coast. Why these brethren left is not stated. They are not included in the blame associated with the name of Demas, yet we cannot say with Theodoret that they were absolutely free from blame, and that they were sent into those regions to preach the gospel. The probability is, that they did go with this design; but the language of the apostle implies that they went of their own accord, not that they were sent by him. Of Crescens no mention is made elsewhere, nor have we any reliable traditions of him.

Verse 11

Ver. 11. Luke alone is with me the beloved physician, as he is called in Colossians 4:14; there also, and in Philemon 1:24, coupled with Demas in salutations but now different in the relations they now occupy! All the names mentioned in the passage of Philemon referred to again recur here, except that of Aristarchus. De Wette asks what has become of it? and Alford justly replies, that while we have no means of answering the question, “a forger, such as De Wette supposes the writer of this epistle to be, would have taken good care to account for him.”

Mark take up ( ἀναλαβὼν , here, the literal sense the best, implying that he was to be picked up on the way), and bring with thee; for he is serviceable to me for the ministry. There can be no reasonable doubt that the Mark here is John Mark, the evangelist, who caused the unfortunate split between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:36-41), but who at a later period became reconciled to the apostle, and was in close fellowship with him (Colossians 4:10). By being serviceable for the ministry εἰς διακονίαν cannot be understood otherwise, when spoken in this absolute manner, than of the ministry of the gospel. There is a similar omission of the article at 1 Timothy 1:12, where, beyond doubt, it is that kind of ministration which is meant. Mark, probably, had been more at Rome than most of the other evangelists known to Paul, and was hence better acquainted both with the language (whence not a few Latin words have crept into his Gospel) and the manners of the place. If so, the apostle might see his peculiar adaptation for evangelistic work there, and naturally wish to have him again employed in it.

Verse 12

Ver. 12. But Tychicus I sent to Ephesus not and I did so, for in the δὲ there is plainly a certain adversative meaning, though it may be regarded as of the slighter kind. If connected with what immediately precedes, it may have respect to a thought not unlikely to arise in the mind of Timothy when asked to bring Mark with him: Haven’t you Tychicus? But I had occasion to despatch him to Ephesus for what specific purpose is not said. There must have been some urgent business to attend to when he was sent at such a time; and it seems to imply that Timothy himself was not now there. He appears to have been also sent, during Paul’s first imprisonment, with special greetings and friendly communications to Ephesus and Colosse (Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7).

Verse 13

Ver. 13. The cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, bring when thou comest, and the books, especially the parchments. It would seem from this that Timothy was still somewhere in Asia Minor; if he had indeed left Ephesus, he could not have been very far from it, as Troas lay on his way. The kind of cloak mentioned φελόνην , Latin, penulam was a long thick cloak, understood to be without sleeves, enwrapping the whole body. The derivation is not quite certain (see in Ellicott). As to the reason for wishing such a cloak, there is no need for looking further than the mention of approaching winter in 2 Timothy 4:21. If his destination to suffer martyrdom should anyhow be postponed till that season, he would need the garment to protect him from the cold. The books, as contradistinguished from the parchments, were probably written on papyrus, and less valuable than those written on the more costly and enduring material. Hence a request that the latter especially be brought. But what respectively might be their nature and contents cannot be known, further than that, being urgently sought at such a moment, they must have related to things of highest interest if not Scripture itself, writings more or less bearing on its revelations of truth and duty. When the articles had been left by Paul at Troas we know not; but, as noticed in the Introduction, it could scarcely be on the occasion noticed in Acts 20:6, which belonged to a period about six years earlier. From the passing nature of the reference, and the things themselves which were left, the probability is, that the leaving of them behind was comparatively recent.

Verse 14

Ver. 14. Alexander the coppersmith (or, simply smith; for latterly χαλκεὺς came to signify a worker in metals of any sort, and particularly in iron, as being the most frequently used) did me much evil ἐνεδείξατο , exhibited it, but which is all one with doing it. Where he did it, however, is not said; nor how, though the language seems to betoken outward, active malignity. He may have been the same Alexander who is mentioned along with Hymenaeus in 1 Timothy 1:20; but it is just as probable that he was not; and possibly the more precise designation here of the person by his trade may have been meant to distinguish him from the other. The Lord will requite him according to his works ἀποδώσει seems clearly the correct reading (being that of א , A, C, D, F, also the Vulg., Cop., Syriac versions, Chrysostom, Theodoret; while the α ̓ ποδω ́ͅ η of the received text has the support only of K, L, at first hand, and of many cursives). The future, as compared with the optative, may be called popularly the milder sense; and Theodoret seems to lay some stress on so explaining: “It is a prediction, not an imprecation; and it was given forth for the purpose of consoling the blessed Timothy, and teaching him not to be disconcerted by the assaults of the adversaries.” In a theological respect, however, there is no material difference; and if the optative were the correct reading, no one need stumble at it. For, surely, what it is perceived God is going to do, a believer, an apostle, nay, even the purest of angelic natures, may fitly desire to see accomplished. “Thy will be done” is the prayer of all saints, alike in heaven and on earth; only, when the thing to be done is the execution of deserved judgment upon the wicked, the difficulty is to breathe the prayer without any intermixture of wrathful feeling with nothing but a pure and simple regard to the glory of God and the interests of righteousness. This may, however, be done even on earth by the ripened Christian, such as the apostle, who might now be said almost to stand midway between earth and heaven. From what he had seen in the behaviour and suffered at the hands of Alexander, he had come to understand that it was meet this man should, in some marked way, receive the due recompense of his misdeeds: the cause of the gospel required it why should not God do it, and righteous men desire it to be done? It might be the best thing even for the man himself possibly the one chance for him of being brought to a better mind; as many adversaries and persecutors of the truth have been led to see, only when humbled to the dust by chastisement and rebuke, how vain it is to contend with the Almighty.

Verse 15

Ver. 15. Of whom be thou also on thy guard, for he exceedingly withstood our words. That is, he made himself extremely obnoxious as an opponent of the gospel testified and pleaded for by St. Paul; had shown a bitter and determined spirit of resistance, so that Timothy could have no hope of winning him over, and should only beware of falling into his hands.

Verse 16

Ver. 16. The apostle now comes to speak of his own case in its judicial aspects: In my first defence, no one stood forward with me, but all forsook me. What is meant here by his first defence can only be understood of his first appearance before a tribunal at Rome to answer to the charge recently brought against him; not, as some, of what happened under his first imprisonment. We have spoken of the probable nature of this charge in the Introduction. It was, in all likelihood, an indictment against him as the setter forth of a new religion, which was forbidden by the laws of the Empire, though there may possibly have been some other accusations mixed up with it; so that, even as regards the matter of the indictment, it might have admitted of falling into two separate parts. Or, if the proper charge was only one, the trial may have been distributed into two distinct stages the one called, according to the Republican practice, the actio, the other the ampliatio. It is disputed whether this practice still continued in judicial proceedings under the Empire (see Conybeare and Howson, vol. ii. p. 488); and our knowledge of the circumstances is too scanty to enable us to speak definitely on such minor points. Evidently, from what the apostle himself says, there was somehow a twofold cause to be adjudicated upon, calling for a double pleading or vindication on his part. He had already passed the first, yet with a saddening impression of the forlornness, humanly speaking, of his position. He had to stand all alone, without a patron, without an advocate, without even the sympathy and support of trusty and confidential friends, so disreputable and perilous, on grounds of law, seemed to be the cause with which he was identified. The conduct of friends, deserting him in the hour of need, he naturally felt most. Yet he pities rather than condemns them, and he prays for their forgiveness: May it not be laid to their charge! He would have it to be reckoned as a proof of weakness, not of falseheartedness.

Verse 17

Ver. 17. Though alone in one sense, however, the apostle was far from being alone in another: he had better and nobler defences than, human advocates or intercessors could provide: But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me ἐνεδυνάμωσέν με , replenished me with might; that is, inspired him with a holy boldness and energy for the occasion. And this, in order that through me the preaching [ of the gospel ] might be fully accomplished: πληροφορηθῇ , not “fully made known,” as in the Authorized Version, which the word never signifies, but, as at 2 Timothy 4:5, fully accomplished or performed not left, so to speak, as an imperfect, half-executed work: and that all the Gentiles might hear. This seems strong language to use of a single address of St. Paul, delivered before a judicial tribunal in Rome. It could only have been used by him on the supposition that there was a very great, in some sense a representative, Roman audience present to listen. And the cause, we can easily conceive, did excite a considerable interest there, and bring into court a vast assemblage, partly no doubt composed of Christians and Jews, but still more of the Gentile population of Rome, who usually crowded the Forum. In that case, it was most probably in one of the large Basilicas connected with the Forum, which were capable of accommodating a vast concourse of spectators, that the cause was heard. And Paul, seizing the noble opportunity it presented, and specially assisted by divine grace for the occasion, made his defence by unfolding the great theme of that gospel which had been committed to him; proclaimed the wonderful facts of Christ’s life, and death, and resurrection, and of the solemn and momentous bearing which these were destined to have on the present well-being and eternal destiny of mankind. Such a vindication of the blessed gospel, and of his own connection with it, in such a place, and to such an audience, he might not unnaturally regard as the culmination of his work as an ambassador of Christ to the Gentiles.

As regards the immediate design of this great effort, it had the desired result, as is here added: And he that is, the Lord delivered me out of the mouth of the lion. There can be no doubt it means that he was rescued from the immediate danger that threatened him got his acquittal on the first count, or in respect to the first stage of the charge brought against him. But when one goes to inquire what precisely is to be understood by being delivered out of the lion’s mouth, a great variety of answers present themselves: Nero, say some (most of the Fathers); the lions in the amphitheatre, others; others, again, his Jewish accuser (so Wieseler), or the jaws of death ( ex praesenti incendio, vel ex faucibus mortis Calvin, Ellicott); perhaps the farthest-fetched of any of them, and in sense the feeblest, is Alford’s, from or “in spite of desertion and discouragement.” It seems to me that the most natural way is to take the words as an appropriation of figurative language frequently occurring in the Psalms in those Psalms which describe the experience of the writers in their darkest seasons of danger and distress. Lion or lions was the sort of personification under which at such times they often expressed the fierce and remorseless adversaries or crushing calamities that were ready to devour them; and to be delivered from the lion’s mouth was, in plain terms, to be set in a position of safety (Psalms 22:21, Psalms 35:17, Psalms 57:4, etc.). So here: deliverance from the lion’s mouth was simply escape from the complication of adversaries and intriguers that were gnashing, as it were, their teeth at him: for the moment he was free. Nothing, I believe, will ever be gained by pressing the language closer; on the contrary, by doing so we rather impair its force, and get, besides, into a region of uncertainties.

Verse 18

Ver. 18. From the past the apostle turns to the future, giving expression in this respect also to his filial confidence: The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and preserve me safe to His heavenly kingdom. The and ( καὶ ) with which in the received text this utterance of faith and hope is introduced, is more than doubtful. It is wanting in א , A, C, D, Vulg., Copt., Arm. versions. The καὶ appears only in F, K, L, and is represented in the Syriac versions. While in this reference to the future the apostle uses the same verb as in regard to his late deliverance, he changes the preposition: it was there ε ̓ ρύσατο ἐκ ; here it is ῥύσεταί ἀπὸ , pointing, as Ellicott notes, “more generally to the removal from all the evil efforts that were directed against the apostle, and the evil influences around him not merely all that threatened him personally, but all that in his person thwarted the gospel.” Clearly, what he means by deliverance in this connection is a safe issue, as regards all that is really great and important, out of the endless machinations and troubles with which he had to contend here as the servant of Christ in the gospel. He should be so delivered, that none of them would be allowed to bear down his intrepidity, or make him flinch from the path of obedience, so that he should reach in safety the kingdom of everlasting bliss and glory. The expression βασιλείαν τὴν ἐπουράνιον , with respect to Christ’s kingdom, is found only here in St. Paul’s epistles, and has consequently been deemed un -Pauline by the opponents of the genuineness of this epistle. But it is a frivolous objection, as in other places he associates Christ’s existence in glory with a present reigning or kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:25; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1).

The passage fitly ends with a doxology: to whom be glory for the ages of ages that is, for ever and ever (1 Timothy 1:17) Amen. The context obliges us to connect this ascription of divine glory with Christ; for it was He, doubtless, of whom the apostle spake as standing by him, strengthening and delivering him.

Verse 19

Ver. 19. Salute Prisca and Aquila with whom the apostle maintained a long, very endearing, and intimate fellowship (Acts 18:1; Romans 16:3-4, etc.) and the household of Onesiphorus. See at 2 Timothy 1:16.

Verse 20

Ver. 20. Erastus abode at Corinth, but Trophimus I left behind at Miletus sick. It was shown in the Introduction that these notices could not refer to anything recorded in the history of the Acts, and that they must be understood of later, and indeed quite recent events. On his last visit to Asia Minor and Jerusalem, as related in the Acts, Trophimus, so far from having been left at Miletus sick, went with Paul to Jerusalem, and his appearance there with the apostle gave occasion to the disturbance and accusation that were raised by the Jews (Acts 20:4, Acts 21:29).

Verse 21

Ver. 21. Do thy endeavour to come before winter that is, while still the sea was open for navigation, according to the usages of the time; at the approach of winter, vessels were for the most part laid up till the return of spring (Acts 27:9-10). Ex die tertio Iduum Novembris, usque in diem sextum Iduum Martiarum, Maria clauduntur, is a passage quoted by Mr. Smith, from Vegetius, in his Voyage and Shipwreck of St. Paul, p. 45. He has others to the same effect. So that, if Timothy did not reach Rome before winter, his visit would in all probability have to be postponed till the following year; and by that time the apostle should very possibly have finished his course. Eubulus saluteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren. The names mentioned here occur nowhere else in New Testament Scripture. Tradition in one form connects with this Linus the first presidency of the church of Rome after the apostles, while another tradition assigns that honour to Clemens. The Pudens and Claudia here associated have been supposed to be the same mentioned as man and wife in an Epigram of Martial, 4:13, comp. with 11:34; and much learned labour has been employed of late to make out the identity. An outline of the discussion may be found in Alford’s Prolog, to this epistle Appendix; also in Conybeare and Howson, vol. ii. pp. 500-2. But the story is woven together by so many slender threads, and has to be eked out by such a variety of hypothetical, sometimes not very probable conjectures, that I confess, with Ellicott, the identification appears to me “very doubtful.”

Verse 22

Ver. 22. The Lord be with thy spirit. (This is the shortest and probably the correct reading, that of א , F, G; some authorities add Jesus after Lord, and others Jesus Christ.) Grace be with you.