TOM · The Owner's Manual · New Testament

2 Timothy 4

Chapter 4 in 30 seconds

Preach the word whether people like it or not. Paul is ready to die: I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith. Then it gets personal. Come quickly before winter, bring Mark, and do not forget my coat and my books.

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In this chapterField Notes · ArchaeologyScrolls and Parchments · after verse 8 Field Notes · ArchaeologyThe Tomb of Paul · after verse 18

Preach the Word

¹I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom: ²Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction.

2TI 4:1[PROPHECY]The Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom → STILL TO COME
2TI 4:2[NOTABLE]Preach when it is popular and when it is not, when it is convenient and when it is not. The next verses explain why: people will want teachers who tell them what their itching ears want to hear, 4:3.

³For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. ⁴So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

2TI 4:3[PROPHECY]The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but heap up teachers according to their own desires → HISTORY: An early example is Marcion, who cut the Bible down to fit his own ideas and was put out of the church in Rome about AD 144. Recorded by Tertullian, Against Marcion.MEDIUM

⁵But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. ⁶For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. ⁷I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but to all who crave His appearing.

2TI 4:6[PROPHECY]The time of Paul's departure, his death, was at hand → HISTORY: Paul was beheaded in Rome under Emperor Nero, about AD 64 to 68. Recorded by Tertullian and by Eusebius, Church History 2.25, and his death is noted in 1 Clement 5.MEDIUM
2TI 4:6[NOTE]POURED OUT. A drink offering was wine poured out on the altar, Numbers 28:7. Paul sees his death as his last offering, Philippians 2:17. Departure is a word for a ship untying to sail. Later writers say he was beheaded under Nero. See The Tomb of Paul Field Notes page, and compare 4:7 with 1 Timothy 6:12.
2TI 4:7[NOTABLE]Paul's own epitaph, written as he waited to die. Years before he told Timothy to fight the good fight, 1 Timothy 6:12. Now he can say he did it. The goal is not a fast start but a faithful finish.
2TI 4:8[PROPHECY]There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord will give me on that Day, and to all who have loved His appearing → STILL TO COME

Field Notes · Archaeology

Scrolls and Parchments

2 Timothy 4:9 to 13

Wall painting from Pompeii, about AD 55 to 79. National Archaeological Museum, Naples. Photo Jebulon, public domain.

WHAT IT IS: A painted portrait of a married couple from a house in Pompeii. She holds a stylus to her lips and a little notebook of wax tablets. He holds a papyrus scroll.
HOW OLD IT IS: It was painted in the last years before the volcano buried Pompeii in AD 79, probably under Nero, the same years Paul wrote this letter.
SCROLLS AND PARCHMENTS: Paul asks for his scrolls, especially the parchments, 4:13. Scrolls were usually papyrus rolls like the one in his hand. The word parchments is a Latin word in Paul's Greek, membranas, notebooks of animal skin pages. The poet Martial, about AD 85, sold his poems in small parchment books you could hold in one hand.
WHAT WERE THEY?: Nobody knows. Maybe Old Testament scrolls, notes, copies of his own letters, or his papers proving he was a Roman citizen. Paul wanted his books even on death row.
THE CHRISTIAN BOOK: Most books in Paul's world were scrolls. But the first Christians loved the page book, the codex. Almost every early Christian copy of the Bible we have is a codex, like Codex Sinaiticus on the title page.
THE COAT: The cloak was a heavy wool travel cloak. Winter was coming, 4:21, and stone cells are cold.
WHAT IT DOES NOT PROVE: This couple has nothing to do with Paul. The painting shows what scrolls and notebooks looked like in his day.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH FOR THE OBJECTS · PAUL'S BOOKS ARE UNKNOWN

Personal Concerns

⁹Make every effort to come to me quickly, ¹⁰because Demas, in his love of this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia. ¹¹Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is useful to me in the ministry. ¹²Tychicus, however, I have sent to Ephesus. ¹³When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, and my scrolls, especially the parchments.

2TI 4:10[NOTE]DEMAS. Once Paul's coworker, Colossians 4:14, he loved this world and left. For Galatia, Codex Sinaiticus and some old copies say Gaul, today's France.
2TI 4:11[NOTE]ONLY LUKE. Luke the doctor, Colossians 4:14, stayed to the end. And Mark, the young man Paul once refused to take along, Acts 15:37 to 39, is now useful. See the Colossians 4:10 note.
2TI 4:13[FIELD NOTES]See the Scrolls and Parchments Field Notes page.

¹⁴Alexander the coppersmith did great harm to me. The Lord will repay him according to his deeds. ¹⁵You too should beware of him, for he has vigorously opposed our message.

2TI 4:14[NOTE]ALEXANDER THE COPPERSMITH. Maybe the Alexander of 1 Timothy 1:20 or Acts 19:33, but the name was common. The Lord will repay him echoes Psalm 62:12.

The Lord Remains Faithful

¹⁶At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them. ¹⁷But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion. ¹⁸And the Lord will rescue me from every evil action and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Field Notes · Archaeology

The Tomb of Paul

2 Timothy 4:6 to 8 · 4:17 to 18

Under the main altar of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, Rome: remains uncovered in the dig under glass, and the grille over the tomb. Photo Fczarnowski, CC BY SA 3.0.

WHAT IT IS: The place under the main altar of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome where a large marble coffin, a sarcophagus, was found. A marble slab above it reads PAULO APOSTOLO MART, to Paul, apostle, martyr.
HOW OLD IT IS: Emperor Constantine built the first church here in the 300s, and it was made much bigger about AD 390. The slab is from about that time. The coffin is at the level of that old church.
THE OLD TRADITION: About AD 200, a Roman church leader named Gaius said he could show visitors the trophies, the monuments, of the apostles: Peter's on the Vatican hill and Paul's on the road to Ostia. Writers like Tertullian, about AD 200, say Paul was beheaded.
THE DIG: From 2002 to 2006, Vatican archaeologist Giorgio Filippi dug under the altar and found the sarcophagus. A small opening now lets visitors see one side of it.
WHAT WAS INSIDE: On June 28, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI announced that a probe slipped into a tiny hole found purple linen with gold, blue cloth, red incense, and tiny pieces of bone. Carbon dating put the bones in the first or second century.
WHAT IT DOES NOT PROVE: The bones fit Paul's time, but nothing can prove whose they are. This is a very old and strong tradition, not proof.

CONFIDENCE: MEDIUM · AN ANCIENT TRADITION, NOT PROVEN

Final Greetings// Ephesians 6:21–24; Philippians 4:21–23

¹⁹Greet Prisca and Aquila, as well as the household of Onesiphorus.

²⁰Erastus has remained at Corinth, and Trophimus I left sick in Miletus.

²¹Make every effort to come to me before winter.

Eubulus sends you greetings, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and all the brothers.

2TI 4:21[NOTE]LINUS AND CLAUDIA. Irenaeus, about AD 180, says Linus, named here, led the church in Rome after Peter and Paul. A legend makes Claudia a British princess, from a poem by Martial about a British Claudia married to a Pudens; most scholars doubt it.

²²The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all.

2 Timothy 4

Preach the Word

Personal Concerns

The Lord Remains Faithful

Final Greetings// Ephesians 6:21–24; Philippians 4:21–23

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