Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He adjures Timothy to preach urgently, to admonish, to reprove his people, and that on account of the heresies that are pressing in: for he himself can no longer do this.
Whence, in verse 6, he teaches that death and martyrdom are at hand for him, and the crown of his preaching and labors.
Secondly, in verse 9, he commands that he come to him — who has been abandoned by almost everyone — with his cloak and books.
Thirdly, in verse 16, he recounts how he was delivered by God from Nero and his first imprisonment, and hopes that by the same help of God he will not be delivered from his second imprisonment, but will fly through martyrdom to the heavenly kingdom.
Fourthly, in verse 19, he greets his people and prays for grace.
Vulgate Text: 2 Timothy 4:1-22
1. I charge you before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by His coming and His kingdom: 2. preach the word, be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke, in all patience and doctrine. 3. For there shall be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears: 4. and will indeed turn away their hearing from the truth, but will be turned unto fables. 5. But you, watch, labor in all things, do the work of an Evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Be sober. 6. For I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my dissolution is at hand. 7. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. 8. As for the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day: and not only to me, but also to those who love His coming. Hasten to come to me quickly. 9. For Demas has forsaken me, loving this world, and is gone to Thessalonica: 10. Crescens into Galatia, Titus into Dalmatia. 11. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with you: for he is useful to me for the ministry. 12. But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13. The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when you come, bring with you, and the books, but especially the parchments. 14. Alexander the coppersmith has done me much evil: the Lord will reward him according to his works: 15. whom you also avoid: for he greatly resisted our words. 16. At my first defense no one stood by me, but all forsook me: may it not be charged against them. 17. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, that through me the preaching might be fulfilled, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered from the mouth of the lion. 18. The Lord has delivered me from every evil work, and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. 19. Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. 20. Erastus remained at Corinth. But Trophimus I left sick at Miletus. 21. Hasten to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren. 22. The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.
Verse 1: I Charge You Before God and Jesus Christ, Who Shall Judge the Living and the Dead
1. I charge you before God and Jesus Christ, who is to judge the living and the dead, by His coming and His kingdom, preach the word. — For "I charge" in Greek is διαμαρτυρομαι, that is, I solemnly adjure, and, as Theophylact and Anselm say, I adjure you, O Timothy, before God and through God, and through Jesus Christ, whom I invoke as witnesses (for this is what the Hebrew heid signifies) and avengers of this my adjuration, that you press on to preach the Gospel, in season and out of season, considering that you must render strict account on the day of judgment to Christ the Judge of this preaching done or neglected.
Note: the Apostle here, now about to die, addresses Timothy as it were with his last words: for he gives him final admonitions and as it were composes a testament, in which above all he commends to him as Bishop the office of preaching. For this is the first and greatest office of a Bishop, to which a Bishop is bound by divine right, as the Council of Trent teaches, sess. XXIV, ch. IV. Let those Bishops and pastors who do not preach therefore tremble here, says Theophylact.
Note, "before God," namely the Father: for there follows, "and Jesus Christ," so God is here distinguished from Jesus Christ, and consequently denotes not the essence, but the person of the Father.
Secondly, it is said that "Christ shall judge the living and the dead," that is, the just and sinners, says Chrysostom; but this is mystical. "The living" then he understands literally as men, namely those who will be found alive on the day of judgment; "the dead," those who will have died before that day. See what was said on 1 Thessalonians ch. iv, vers. 16.
Thirdly, the phrase "by His coming" is not that of one adjuring or charging (for in Greek it would have to be διά, not κατά), but only designates the time and manner in which Christ will judge the living and the dead, namely by His coming, or in His glorious advent (for this is the Greek ἐπιφάνεια), when Christ will come not poor and humble, as once, but in glory to judgment, in which He will gloriously enter upon His blessed and eternal kingdom with all the Saints, and as it were be inaugurated before the whole world, says Chrysostom.
Let the Bishop, Parish priest, preacher, and confessor be roused and tremble under such an adjuration. "Who hearing these things," says St. Augustine, bk. I Against Cresconius, ch. vi, "if he serves God faithfully, if he is not a deceitful workman, will rest from this diligence and insistence? who would dare to be sluggish under such a charge?" Justly does St. Gregory complain, hom. 17 on the Gospels: "Behold," he says, "the whole world is full of priests, yet in God's harvest a worker is found very rarely: because we indeed undertake the priestly office, but we do not fulfill the work of the office."
Verse 2: Be Instant in Season, Out of Season; Reprove, Entreat, Rebuke in All Patience and Doctrine
2. Be insistent (in preaching), in season, out of season. — In Greek εὐκαίρως ἀκαίρως, that is, in season and out of season. It is a proverb meaning the same as "continually and insistently," although Primasius following Augustine takes these words strictly: "The word," he says, "is opportune to one who hears willingly, importunate to one unwilling." And St. Caesarius Bishop of Arles, hom. 26: "What is meant," he says, "by in season, out of season, unless in season for those willing, out of season for the unwilling? To those willing to hear the word of God, it must be offered; to those who scorn it, it must be pressed, lest perhaps standing before the tribunal of Christ they say against us that they were not admonished by us, and the blood of their souls be required at our hands." For what one unwillingly hears now, afterwards ruminating he will grasp, willingly receive, be converted, and give thanks. As a sick man whose stone or ulcer is cut while bound, suffers and cries out, and even wants now and then to drive away the doctor: yet once cut and cured he gives thanks. See Augustine, On the Pastors, ch. VII. Hear St. Gregory, part III of the Pastoral, ch. IV: "About to say importunately," he says, "he first said opportunely: because in the hearer's mind it destroys itself by its very baseness, if importunity knows not how to have opportunity."
Reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine. — For "reprove" in Greek is ἔλεγξον, that is, convince by arguments, "For if you rebuke someone without arguments, you will seem rash, and no one will tolerate you," says Chrysostom, and the one whom you rebuke will become shameless, hard, and obstinate.
Secondly, for "entreat, rebuke," in Greek the order is different, for ἐπιτίμησον precedes, that is "rebuke": there follows παρακάλεσον, that is "entreat or exhort." Our translator therefore transposed these words, to better signify the alternation of affection, which Paul here prescribes, namely that the Bishop must now reprove the erring and sinning, now entreat, and soon again rebuke more sharply. For, as Blessed Innocent says, dist. LXXXIII, ch. Error: "Error to which one does not resist is approved; and truth, when it is not defended, is suppressed: indeed to neglect the perverse, when you can put them down, is nothing else than to foster them; nor is he free from suspicion of secret partnership, who, when he can, ceases to oppose a manifest crime." The Apostle therefore says: "Reprove, entreat, rebuke," as if to say: Rebuke is the same as the surgical incision: entreaty is the soothing medicine. Apply this therefore to rebuke, lest, if there be rebuke alone, like cutting, it torment the man with too much pain and drive him to faintheartedness, indignation, or even despair. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others. For just as physicians sometimes use mild medicines, sometimes harsh ones: so the Bishop and every spiritual physician must deal with his people sometimes with caresses, sometimes with harsher words, as did Abraham the monk and Bishop of Carrhae, says Theodoret in his Philotheus, ch. XVII.
But St. Prosper, bk. III On the Contemplative Life, ch. v, refers these to different persons: "Reprove," he says, "equals, entreat elders, rebuke the younger; but he adds for this reason: In all patience; because one mildly chastised shows reverence to the chastiser; but offended by excessive harshness and rebuke, he neither receives the rebuke nor salvation."
Note: the Apostle commands that rebuke be done firstly "in," that is, "with," all patience; and as it is in Greek μακροθυμία, that is, with longsuffering. Secondly, "in," that is, "with," doctrine, by which namely you teach solidly that another has erred, and show him the way of truth. For men wish to be convinced and led by reason. These two qualities are necessary for a teacher, preacher, and admonisher, namely doctrine and patience, lest he be angered at the slowness and hardness of him whom he teaches and admonishes; but let him bear with him, have compassion, and grieve over his fall more than he who has fallen. So Chrysostom. Hence St. Augustine gives a fine instruction to those who wish to admonish or correct others, in his epistle to the Galatians, on that ch. vi, verse 1: "Instruct such persons in the spirit of meekness," namely, that those who are about to correct another, should examine their conscience before the correction, whether they are moved to it by love; and let them not descend to it unless after examining their conscience they find themselves impelled to correct him by love of neighbor. "For whatever you say," he says, "with a lacerated spirit, is the impulse of one punishing, not the charity of one correcting: love, and say what you will." Hence Theophylact rightly notes that it is not said simply: "Rebuke in patience," but: "In all patience," that is, he says, that which is shown in every way, namely by works, words, and money; so that the patience of the teacher and admonisher may be in every direction constant and perfect; so that he may never show his bile and anger, however difficult, troublesome, and rebellious the hearer or sinner be to him. Thus indeed he will imitate God, who admonishes, teaches, awaits sinners with much patience. Hence God is said by the Hebrews to have slow feet, long ears, strong hands, and broad nostrils; and God Himself, although most enraged at His people for their adoration of the calf, commanded and willed to be addressed and invoked by Moses by these very names, Exodus xxxiv, 6: "Lord God, Ruler, merciful and gracious, patient, and of great compassion." Where for "patient" in Hebrew is ארך אפים erech appaim, that is, long of nostrils, that is of wrath, as if to say, slow to anger, slow to be angered; for since anger shows itself most in the face and nostrils, hence the angry are said to wrinkle and curl up the nose, and to puff out anger from the nostrils, hence the Hebrews by appaim, that is nostrils, signify anger. Again, "long of nostrils" is "broad of nostrils," by an enallage of quantity, by which length is put for breadth. Now broad-nostrilled is the same as μακρόθυμος, that is, longsuffering and slow to anger: for those with narrow nostrils are quickly angered, because they more quickly conceive bilious fumes and vapors rising from the stomach, and more slowly puff them out due to the narrowness of the passages in the nostrils: hence in Hebrew the choleric man who quickly grows angry is called קצר אפים ketsar appaim, that is, narrow or strait of nostrils. For such a one, as I have said, is quick to bile. On the contrary, those with broad nostrils are slow to anger: for such persons both more easily puff out bile, and moreover admit much cold air, by which the heat of the bile is tempered: hence they are gentler, and for this reason in Hebrew slow to anger is called erech appaim, that is, long or broad of nostrils, and so God, as most patient and most merciful, is called by anthropopathy.
Verse 3: There Will Be a Time When They Will Not Endure Sound Doctrine, But Will Heap to Themselves Teachers Having Itching Ears
3. There will be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine: but according to their own desires they will heap up teachers for themselves, having itching ears. — He gives the reason why he had said: "Preach the word, be instant, reprove, entreat," namely because many sensual and libertine men will seek teachers like themselves, namely heretics, who, indulging the curiosity and cupidities of men, will lead them away from sound faith and the severity of the Christian life to their own errors and licentiousness of life and morals.
Note the word "they will heap up," that is, rashly, without judgment and discrimination, just as lust and desires of novelty and concupiscence drive them, they will gather to themselves teachers, not ordained and approved by Bishops, but those whom the rabble itself has demanded, just as stones are heaped up tumultuously by many, and gathered into one heap and pile. Hence St. Chrysostom: "The word they will heap up," he says, "signifies a confused crowd and multitude of teachers." Beautifully and truly Tertullian, in his book On Prescription, ch. XXX: "The ordinations of these (heretics) are rash, frivolous, inconstant: for now they appoint neophytes, now men entangled in the world, now our apostates." Add, what in this age we have seen and still now see, cobblers, innkeepers, tailors and undertakers, and persons even baser than these.
Note secondly, the phrase "having itching ears" is to be referred not to the teachers but to the hearers who heap up teachers for themselves. For in Greek it is κνηθόμενοι τὴν ἀκοήν, in the nominative. Add, that teachers itch not in the ears but in the tongue, while disciples itch in the ears. The sense therefore is: those who itch in the ears heap up teachers for themselves accommodated to their itchings and desires, as if to say: These men, full of vain and carnal desires, because they itch in the ears, that is, because they love to hear novelties, curiosities, soft and voluptuous things, hence seek teachers for themselves not such as bite with the word and scrape away vices, but such as flatter them and their vices, scratch the ears, and sew a little cushion to every elbow, while they preach things sweet as honey and popularly applauded. Hence St. Cyprian, bk. III, Testimonies 67 to Quirinus, reads, "they will heap up teachers for themselves, itching in hearing, scratching the ears." Thus the Jews itched in the ears, when they were as it were delighted with the eloquence of the Prophets like a lyre, but neglected, indeed mocked, their commands; because, as the Lord says to Ezekiel xxxiii, 31: "They turn your sermons into the song of their mouth, and you are to them as a musical song, which is sung with a sweet and pleasant sound: and they hear your words, and do them not." Such was the itching of those who said to the Prophets: "Look not for us at the things which are right, speak to us pleasing things (in Hebrew חלקות chalakot, that is, smooth, soft, flattering, sweet), see for us errors," Isaiah ch. xxx, verse 10.
Note: aptly the sensual are said to labor with the disease of itching, which brings long pain for brief pleasure. For, as Plato says in the Philebus: "Just as it is pleasant and delightful to scratch an itch, but afterwards stirs up foul smells and pains: so the pleasure of vices is pleasing to the taste, but afterwards has much gall and aloes."
Verse 5: But You Be Watchful, Labor in All Things, Do the Work of an Evangelist, Fulfill Your Ministry
5. But you be watchful, labor in all things, do the work of an Evangelist, fulfill your ministry. Be sober. — Because, as he said, evil teachers and heretics are at hand, who will turn the people from sound faith to erroneous fables, hence he here enjoins on Bishop Timothy a sharp vigilance against them, that he may observe them as it were an Argus with a hundred eyes, and turn them away as wolves from his flock.
Secondly, for "labor" the Greek is κακοπάθησον, that is, endure evils, bear and harden yourself for the Gospel.
Thirdly, by "the work of an evangelist" he means not the writing, but the preaching of the Gospel: for it is the evangelist's task to evangelize the word of God, both by voice and by holy life, says Anselm.
Fourthly, for "fulfill your ministry" the Greek is τὴν διακονίαν σου πληροφόρησον, which Erasmus, Vatablus, and others render: make full proof of your ministry, that is, of your preaching; so that you may render it fully approved. But more simply, as I said on Rom. xiv, 5, our translator here and elsewhere renders the Greek πληροφόρησον as "fulfill," that is, fully perform your ministry, so that you may perfectly fulfill and discharge your office of teaching, preaching, and ruling: for this is incumbent on you as a Bishop. This will happen if you preach assiduously, and if your life corresponds to your doctrine, so that your people may see that you are not seeking your own advantages, but eagerly enduring all hardships and dread things for the Gospel out of love for Christ: for the eyes of all are fixed upon you. So let the Bishop, Pastor, teacher, and each one see that he adorn this Sparta which he has obtained. Thus St. Cyprian daily taught and exhorted his people, as he himself confesses at the beginning of his book On the Discipline and Good of Modesty, when he says: "I always strive especially by daily treatises on the Gospels to give you increases of faith and knowledge through the Lord. For what else can be done more useful in the Lord's Church, what can be found more suitable to the office of a Bishop, than that, by the doctrine of divine words instilled and conferred through him, believers may attain the kingdom of heaven that has been promised? This indeed is the daily votive task of my office and work, which though absent I strive to fulfill." These things he himself taught his people in exile by letters, whom when present he taught daily by sermon with living voice. Hence Pontius in his Life says of him: "So great," he says, "was his desire of sacred discourse, that he wished the prayers of martyrdom would befall him, so that, while speaking of God, he might be slain in the very act. And these were his daily acts directed toward the victim pleasing to God."
Fifthly, "be sober" is not in the Greek, nor in the Syriac, nor in Ambrose, Primasius, Haymo, and other ancients. Hence it seems to have crept in, especially since after those things which are far more perfect, namely after "in all things labor, do the work of the Evangelist, fulfill the ministry," it seems rather coldly to be subjoined, "Be sober;" the suspicion therefore is, as Franciscus Lucas notes in his Notes, that this has crept in here from another translation of the ambiguous Greek word. For the Greek σὺ δὲ νῆφε, which our translator with the Syriac renders "but you be watchful," can be rendered, "but you be sober": and so in that place where we have, "but you be watchful," Ambrose reads, "be sober," and afterwards does not recognize either "be watchful" or "be sober." And Ambrose explains "be sober" as "be watchful": "He admonishes," he says, "and exhorts him to be watchful."
Verse 6: For I Am Already Being Poured Out as a Libation, and the Time of My Departure Is at Hand
6. For I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand. — Note: the conjunction "for" gives the reason why he so earnestly exhorted Timothy to watchfulness and preaching, and to fulfill his ministry, namely because death was at hand for him, as if to say: These admonitions of mine are sharp, because they are my last: I shall not address you henceforth with living voice. See therefore, O Timothy, that you imprint these last admonitions deeply on yourself, and place them before your eyes for your whole life, as if you always beheld me admonishing in them as though present.
Note: for "I am being poured out as a libation" the Greek is σπένδομαι, that is, "as a libation I am offered and immolated; my blood as a libation I pour out to God, consecrate and sacrifice through martyrdom." It is well known from Leviticus that sacrifices, or victims, had their own libation of wine and oil: for the sacrifices were as it were a banquet of God, in which the victims were as the food of God, and the libation was the drink. Paul therefore here calls "victims" the Gentiles converted by him and offered to Christ; and he calls his blood the "libation," by which he ratified this victim and consecrated it to God. See what was said on Rom. xv, 16, and Philip. II, 17.
Chrysostom and Theophylact note here that Paul does not here call himself a victim but a libation. For this is more worthy: for the victim often was not offered whole, while the libation was always offered whole to God. Add, that the shedding of blood and martyrdom is rather and more clearly signified by "libation" than by "victim." Therefore by God's revelation and inspiration Paul foreknew his death, and moreover that martyrdom was at hand for him. The same St. Peter foreknew, as is clear from epist. II, ch. I, 14: "I am sure," he says, "that the putting off of my tabernacle is at hand."
Hence note secondly: he calls "the time of departure" the time of death. For death is not destruction, but the loosing of man, by which namely the body is returned to the earth as to a mother, and the soul to God as to a father, who in the resurrection will join them, and bind them together for eternity and glorify them. Hence Tertullian, in the Scorpiace, ch. XIII, reads, "the time of my turning away," that is, "of my returning and going back," namely to God, is at hand; and St. Cyprian, epist. 9 to the Martyrs, reads, "the time of my assumption is at hand." These are the words of Paul, says Augustine on Psalm xxxI, "of one rather rejoicing at the presence of death, and panting for the crown, than fearing and tormenting himself." Thus the martyrs at the news of death rejoiced and exulted. Thus St. Cyprian, having heard the sentence of Emperor Valerian against him, "It is decreed that Thascius Cyprian be punished by the sword," replied: "Thanks be to God, who deigns to release me from the bonds of this body."
Note thirdly, the word "is at hand," which Baronius and others explain as "approaches," namely because under this same Caesar Nero after nine years I, Paul, shall be beheaded. For they think he wrote these things not from the second, but from the first imprisonment, as if Paul said: My old age, my labors, my preaching, hardships, persecutions are presaging for me, indeed certainly foretelling, that I shall not live long but shall soon die, namely after a few years, namely eight. This opinion is favored first by what he says in verse 17: "That through me the preaching might be fulfilled," by which he signifies that he still has something more to preach. Secondly, by what he says in verse 11: "Bring Mark with you, for he is useful to me for ministry," namely of my preaching. Thirdly, by the fact that in verse 8 he calls Timothy from Greece to himself; for the latter, called by him in the first year of the first imprisonment, came to him in the second year of those same, as is clear from Philip. I, 1, where Paul from prison with Timothy greets the Philippians. Fourthly, that he says in verse 11: "Luke alone is with me;" for after the first imprisonment Luke left Paul, and preached in Africa and Egypt: unless you say that he then returned to him near the death of Paul to be present at his martyrdom, as the acts of Linus, which are extant in Mombritius in the martyrdom of St. Paul (but of doubtful authority), testify that he was actually present. The same could be said of Timothy and Mark. By these and many other conjectures Baronius, and after him some modern learned men, very probably hold that this epistle was written from the first imprisonment. But the authority of the ancients draws to the contrary. For Eusebius in bk. II Hist., ch. XXII; Jerome, in his book On Eccles. Writers, on Paul; St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Anselm and others here, and the Syriac, which says at the end of the epistle: "Written from Rome, when Paul was again brought before Nero," all hold that it was written from the second imprisonment.
It favors this also that Demas adhered to Paul in the first imprisonment, as Paul says to Philem., verse 24, but here in verse 9 he says that Demas left him, namely in the second imprisonment, as it seems. Again the fact I shall mention about Trophimus, verse 20, favors it. Finally the phrase "For I am already being poured out" is decisive, as if to say: I am already being immolated, death is at hand for me: and so all the ancients already cited understood it. For these words plainly signify this: "The time of my departure is at hand," and: "I have finished my course."
Christians ought to do the same, since even the Gentiles did the same. For Socrates, says Nazianzen to Philagrius, "condemned to death by the Athenians, and being in prison, discoursed with his disciples about the body as if about another workhouse; and when he could have fled, he refused; but after the hemlock was offered him, he received it most willingly, just as if he were not receiving a deadly cup, but inviting friends to drink by drinking a toast." Hence also Cicero, bk. I On the Orator, says that good and wise men, such as Socrates was, die like swans with praise and delight, namely because they foresee and in some way divine what good is in death; and as from Plato and Seneca to Marcia, ch. xxiii: "The mind of the wise man wholly leans toward death, this he wills, this he meditates upon, by this desire he is always carried, tending outward."
Verse 7: I Have Fought the Good Fight, I Have Finished the Course, I Have Kept the Faith
7. I have fought the good fight. — In Greek, τὸν ἀγῶνα τὸν καλὸν ἠγώνισμαι, that is, I have agonized that beautiful agon, namely a strenuous and outstanding one, and therefore decorous and glorious, in which for the spreading of Christ's faith I have nobly overcome very many labors, hardships, persecutions and afflictions; and I trust with most certain hope that I shall easily overcome the imminent martyrdom by God's grace, so that I may set martyrdom as it were as a crown upon my agon. So Bede from Augustine. Paul here alludes, as elsewhere often, to the Olympic contests, in which they strove by wrestling and fighting; and to the stadium, in which they competed by running: where the victor was given the prize and crown by the brabeutes, that is, by the president of the contest, whose office it was to give the prize to him who had overcome others in the contest or race. So here both the agon and the stadium of Paul are his life, state, and office of evangelizing; the wrestling and racing are his labors and sufferings; the victory of the agon is that by which, fighting against the flesh, the devil, the world, heretics, Ethnics, and all Gentiles, he overcame and subjected all to Christ; the victory of his stadium is both that already mentioned, and this, namely that in the propagation of the Gospel he outstripped and surpassed the holy men and other Apostles; the crown is an immense degree and accumulation of heavenly glory, which God the brabeutes was soon to give him.
Like St. Paul, Blessed Agatha, having bravely run her course, when about to die said: "You have seen, Lord, and beheld my contest, how I fought in the stadium; but because I would not obey the commands of the princes, I was ordered to be tortured in my breast. Lord, who have kept me from infancy, who have taken from me the love of the world, who have made me superior to the torments of the executioners, receive my soul."
I have finished my course. — Some think that the course is the same as the contest and agon which preceded; as if Paul, what he had said in general, "I have fought the good fight," here explains in detail, saying: "I have finished the course," as if to say: I have conquered by contesting in the race, and as victor I have reached the goal. But others better distinguish the agon from the course: for the agon was that of boxers and wrestling athletes, contending and fighting; the course was that of runners and stadium-runners. Hence the Apostle distinguishes these in 1 Cor. ch. ix, verse 26: "I," he says, "so run, not as at an uncertainty; so fight, not as one beating the air." Hence also Theodoret, explaining the phrase "I have fought the good fight," says: that is, fighting against the whole army of the devil, with the enemies routed and crushed I have set up a trophy. Paul therefore compares his labors and contests for the propagation of the Gospel partly to an agon, partly to a course, because this course of his was an agon. For in this course and stadium of the Gospel he had to contend against demons, Jews, magistrates, and other Gentiles and impious men, who in this course tried to impede Paul, and to stop him and prevent the propagation of the Gospel. These are the words of Paul, not of one boasting, but of one consoling and exhorting Timothy to follow him in this course, as if to say: I have run from the starting-gates to the goal, as victor I depart from the stadium to the crown, rejoice therefore and follow me as I go before, O Timothy, I hand the torch to you. Thus Chrysostom, who says: "So Paul ran as if a winged creature, indeed swifter than any winged thing, as if he had wings of fire with which he flew through the world, deaths, snares, hardships, delights, allurements, and all the impediments of the Gospel." This course of Paul therefore signifies his progress, both in virtues and rather in labors and the preaching of the Gospel, and finally the course and journeys of Paul through lands and seas to propagate the Gospel throughout the whole world.
Where note: This was the order and course of St. Paul's pilgrimage. First, he set out from Damascus into Arabia, on Galat. I, 17; from Arabia after three years he returned to Damascus, and from there went to Jerusalem to see Peter, on Galat. I, 18; from Jerusalem, through Caesarea, he came to Tarsus; from there with Barnabas to Antioch, whence he was sent by the Church to Jerusalem to bring alms to the poor at Jerusalem; thence returning to Antioch, sent by the Holy Spirit he went to Seleucia, then to Cyprus. From there through Pamphylia, Pisidia, Lycaonia, he again came to Jerusalem, and was present at the first Council of Jerusalem, Acts xv; whence again sent by the Apostles with Silas and Barnabas he traversed Syria and Cilicia; then Phrygia, Galatia and Mysia. Thence he came to Troas, where, called by a vision into Macedonia, having entered Europe he passed through Boeotia, Achaia, Epirus. And thus from Jerusalem all the way to Illyricum he filled all the regions round about with the preaching of the Gospel, Rom. xv, 19. And finally returning to Jerusalem, from there he was sent in chains to Rome; but being dismissed free, he traversed Italy, Spain, and other places; until coming a second time to Rome, with Peter he overcame and overthrew Simon Magus, and at last by Nero's order, beheaded, he obtained the laurel of martyrdom. Therefore Chrysostom rightly says, hom. 73 to the People, vol. V: "As much," he says, "as the sun runs through the earth emitting its proper rays, so much also did this blessed man (Paul) have solicitude and care for all the Churches, which existed (or rather which through him were to exist and be erected) throughout the whole world. You have seen the breadth of his soul, you have seen the greatness of his mind." Emperor Vespasian, as Xiphilinus testifies, suffering from a fatal disease, when he nevertheless handled affairs of state as if in good health, when admonished by the physicians to put them aside and rest, replied: "It befits an emperor to die standing." But Paul died not only standing but even running: for he did not cease to run in this contest of his, until life left him, and so consummated his course in death.
I have kept the faith. — "The faith," namely the Christian, or rather faith, that is fidelity: for this is required in a boxer and stadium-runner. For no one will be crowned in the agon and stadium unless he has contended faithfully and lawfully unto the end. Hence Primasius by "faith" understands perseverance, as if to say: I have been a faithful athlete, I have persevered eagerly in this fight and course undertaken even to the end of life. No one broke or diminished in me constancy, no one courage, no one fidelity, not Jews, not Gentiles, not kings, not Philosophers, not demons, not chains, not blows, not delights, not temptations, not terrors: but rather all these added strength and courage to me as I contended and ran.
Oh how sweet and joyful it will be for one about to die if with Paul in the hour of death, with conscience as witness, he can say to himself: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith!" Let us therefore strive nobly, let us run strenuously while we live and are vigorous; that in that last point and moment of life, in the horizon, I say, of eternity, which will separate and determine us forever from this temporal life, and transcribe us into the other, which is wholly of eternity, we may rejoice over the life lived, hope as best as may be for the future, and say: "I have finished the course, I have kept the faith."
Verse 8: For the Rest There Is Laid Up for Me a Crown of Justice, Which the Lord, the Just Judge, Will Render to Me on That Day
8. For the rest there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just Judge, will render to me on that day. — For "for the rest" the Greek is λοιπόν, that is, "that which remains," as Ambrose translates, what we commonly say, "henceforth."
Secondly, from the fact that Paul constantly asserts that this crown is laid up for him in heaven, Anselm thinks that Paul received a revelation of his predestination and election to glory. But this place neither proves nor requires this. For Paul only asserts this from confidence in his good conscience, just as also from the same and not from divine revelation he said: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." For a conscience well aware of itself, as it can say: "I have fought the good fight," etc., not because it has the certainty of faith or divine revelation about this matter, but only a certain moral security, and a sure opinion and confidence flowing from the memory of past life well lived, and from the testimony of his conscience: so consequently with equal confidence it can say: "There is laid up for me a crown of justice." With similar hope and constancy both others, and St. Ambrose dying, said: "I neither fear to die nor refuse to live; for we have a good Lord." St. Augustine adds, in bk. II On the Merits of Sins, ch. xvi: "Therefore," he says, "with such words Paul rejoiced certain and secure, because He had already made him certain and secure of victory (over death and martyrdom), who had already revealed the same passion to him, not as a fullest reality, but as a most firm hope." For that Paul was not entirely certain, but doubted of his glory and salvation, is clear from I Cor. ch. ix, verse 27: "I chastise," he says, "my body, and bring it into servitude, lest perhaps when I have preached to others I myself become a castaway."
Note thirdly, that he calls a "crown of justice" that which is owed to justice, that is, to any virtue. So Chrysostom and his followers.
Secondly, as Anselm, "crown of justice," that is, a just one, which I have justly merited, and which by the just sentence of the judge will be adjudged to me.
Hence it is clear that we merit beatitude and eternal glory by good works ex condigno (i.e., by condign merit). For this is signified by the "crown of justice," which Christ does not "give" but "renders" for merit, not as a donor but as a just judge. To each virtue therefore will there be its own crown, and these varied according to merits. For, as St. Augustine says, sermon 37 On the Saints: "Among its flowers (of the heavenly Church) neither roses nor lilies are lacking. Let each one now contend, dearest brethren, for both honors, to receive the most ample crowns of dignities, white from virginity, or purple from passion, or laurels from doctrine"; and let them look for and await that of Daniel ch. xii, verse 13: "Those who shall have been learned will shine like the splendor of the firmament; and those who instruct many to justice, like the stars for perpetual eternities." The same St. Augustine, in bk. II of Questions on the Gospel, Quest. XXXIX: "All things," he says, "can be said of that ineffable enjoyment of truth, and the more all things can be said the less can anything be said worthily; for it is the light of the illuminated, the rest of those who labor, the homeland of those returning, the food of the needy, the crown of the victorious; and whatever transitory temporal goods the error of unbelievers seeks through the parts of creatures, more true and abiding for eternity, the piety of sons will find them all together in the Creator of all."
Note, this crown is to be given on "that day," namely a celebrated and public one, namely on the day of the general judgment; not that it is not given before, namely immediately at death in the particular judgment, as the Greeks and Armenians thought, whom the Council of Florence condemns, but that in the universal judgment a full and consummated crown, namely of body and soul, and public before the whole world, will be given.
It is asked here whether God owes this crown to the just out of justice, so that He is bound by a debt of justice to give them this crown, and so what and what sort of justice there is in God? For it seems unworthy to posit any debt in God, and to make God a debtor to man. On the other hand, however, Scripture here says that God will render this crown to the Saints as a "crown of justice," that is, owed to them out of justice. So also in Matt. xx, He commands the workers to be given the stipend which He promised and contracted for their daily labor. Again Scripture often says that God will render to each according to works, that is, for the merits of works, whether punishment or reward, as he has merited; and that He will justly avenge and punish the impious with the fire of hell. Therefore in God there is both vindictive justice, and distributive and commutative justice, by which He does this very thing. More clearly Paul signifies the same to the Hebrews, vi, 10: "For God is not unjust," he says, "to forget your work and love," as if to say: Lest God should seem to be unjust, He will not at all forget your labor, but will repay him the due reward. Whence it follows that God owed this reward to their labor out of justice. So that these and many other similar sentences of St. Paul and Sacred Scripture may be understood,
I say firstly, in God there is vindictive or punitive justice. This is clear, because by it God punishes the damned and sinners. There is also in God distributive and commutative justice. This is clear from this passage in the crown and reward which God distributes to the Blessed, according to each one's merits, and which He commutes with them as it were a price for a thing or work done.
I say secondly, in God there is no debt of vindictive justice, by which God would be bound to punish sinners; nor is there in God any debt of distributive justice, and much less of commutative justice. I understand formal, perfect, and absolute debt, such as exists between men and equals — by which God would be absolutely bound by justice to give the just their reward, as a man is bound to give his hired worker the price he stipulated. This is clear, first, because, as Scripture everywhere teaches, God has absolute dominion over all things and over all His creatures, which He cannot alienate from Himself, nor bind and constrain Himself, especially with such a bond, namely a debt of justice so tight and rigid.
Secondly, because every creature is under the power of God, as a slave under his master, and that by the right of fullest servitude, with respect to each and every thing it possesses. Therefore, just as a master can refuse to give his slave a promised garment, and even take back what he has given, and rescind and annul his promise without injustice — because whatever the slave possesses as a slave belongs entirely to his master — so much more can God do the same with men and His angels. Hence if a master to his slave, and (per impossibile) if God to the just were to refuse the reward He promised, He would indeed be mutable and unfaithful, but not properly unjust.
Thirdly, because our works are not only commanded and owed to God, but they themselves wholly belong to God, and all their merit and every right to a reward belong entirely to God, and the whole depends on God for being and conservation, just as do all other things and creatures. Indeed, the meritorious work receives all its value and merit from the grace of God, and consequently all these things depend intimately on the free will of God, in whose hand it is absolutely whether they exist or not in the nature of things. In no way, therefore, can God be bound or obligated by them, since at any moment He can abrogate, even annihilate them. Add to this that the divine will cannot be bound or determined by anything extrinsic, but only by itself.
Fourthly, because obligation and debt imply imperfection — namely, exigency and a real debt — and so signify a right, eminence, and command of the creditor over the debtor, and that he may by right compel him to pay. This cannot apply to God: for God, as St. Augustine says (Confessions, Bk. II, ch. IV), "renders debts though owing none." So also Anselm (Proslogion, chs. 10-11), St. Thomas, Luis de Molina, and Gabriel Vasquez (I part., Q. XXI, art. 4).
I say thirdly: nevertheless, this merit of good works is called a debt, and their reward is called a crown of justice: First, because the work itself, and the good act itself, is of itself worthy of such a reward, namely eternal life, and proportioned to it; both because grace, and an act proceeding from grace, is the seed of glory; both because Christ merited for us this faculty of meriting; most of all because of God's promise by which He promised both to Christ and to us that He would give a reward for our good works. There intervenes therefore here justice, if not on God's part, certainly on the part of the thing.
Secondly, God is also debtor to the just by fidelity, or truthfulness, which is the performative part of justice. For God is faithful, and He fulfills His pledge, when He gives and renders to the just the reward He promised.
Thirdly, moreover God is here debtor by a certain commutative justice, provided however that His promise stands and remains, by which He promised a reward for such work. By justice, I say, not rigid, but such as can exist between father and son, slave and master, creature and Creator: because God by His mere liberality promised this reward for good works; and consequently, says St. Augustine (sermon 16 On the Words of the Apostle): "He made Himself debtor not only to Himself, but also to Christ and to us, so that we may say to Him: Render what You promised, because we have done what You commanded." So too Chrysostom (hom. 3 on Matthew); Cyprian (tract. On Prayer and Almsgiving); Fulgentius (preface to Monimus) — they all say that God becomes our debtor when we do good works. Therefore, just as, although a son is something of his father's, and is bound by piety to obey his father, yet there is a certain paternal right and justice by which a father is bound by a kind of justice to give the promised reward to obedient sons who labor, contend, and win — so too God, although we are His sons and servants, when we labor and contend, is bound by a similar kind of justice to give the reward He promised. And the reason is that God promised this reward not gratuitously, but on the condition of works, as a reward for their merit. Therefore, when we have performed and fulfilled the work, God owes us this reward as a reward: therefore by justice. For whoever has promised a reward for a work performed is bound to pay it by justice, not merely by fidelity. For by fidelity one is bound to pay what he promised even without any condition or merit of works, that he may be faithful and true. And this is what is here signified by the "crown of justice," which God renders to the good as a just judge — and on this basis, in Matt. 20, God pays the workers the promised denarius as the price of a day's labor: whence it consequently appears that the workers have a right of justice to this denarius. Paul signifies the same when he says in Heb. 6:10: "For God is not unjust," etc., as if to say: God would be unjust if He forgot your work and labor.
You will say: how then does God retain His lofty and absolute right and dominion over all things, if He is altogether bound by justice to give us the reward?
I answer: God always retains this lofty and transcendent right, because without injustice He could and can rescind and annul this His promise and obligation. If, however, He wishes it to remain valid — as He does, since He is immutable and faithful in His promises — then consequently He wills that this obligation and debt of justice should remain, by which God, of His own accord, out of His infinite kindness, has deigned to obligate Himself to us, and wills to remain obligated.
You will say secondly: All our works are God's, therefore we can give nothing to God for which God should reward us.
I answer: although they are God's, they are also ours, because we do them freely, and God made us their masters. If, therefore, we do and refer them to the glory and worship of God, we give to God a certain good, namely worship, which He Himself accepts. For which He in turn promises and pays us a reward. There is therefore between us and God a certain exchange and pact, and consequently a certain debt of commutative justice — though not so great nor so rigid as between men.
You will say thirdly: It is unworthy of God that He should be debtor to man.
I answer: It would be unworthy if He were debtor by necessity or for His own utility; but it is not unworthy in this state of things, in which this debt arises from the infinite kindness of God, who deals so familiarly with His creature, as though she were not naturally a slave but free, and as it were enters into a covenant with her as with an equal, and binds Himself to her by His justice. Whence St. Augustine (serm. 3 On the Words of the Lord): "O great is the goodness of God! to whom we ought to render service as a duty of our condition, being servants to the Lord and bondmen to the Redeemer, He promises us the rewards of friendship, that from us He may obtain the service of the debt-servitude." Whoever wants more on this matter, let him read Francis Suarez in his opuscula, second relectio On Divine Liberty, and the relectio On Justice.
Christ the Judge will give the crown of justice to those who, well aware of themselves, desire — and in life have often desired — His coming, and have prepared themselves for it by living well and prepare themselves daily, as you do, O Timothy, and that you may do so still more ardently I silently exhort you here. "For," says Anselm, "none love the Judge's coming except those who know they have the merit of justice in their cause;" and as St. Gregory says, "none except those who know they have a good cause in judgment;" "and," as St. Augustine says (epistle 80), "those who await Him with sincerity of faith, firmness of hope, and ardor of charity." Again Theodoret: "He loves the coming of the Lord who follows His laws and orders his life by them." Most beautifully here Chrysostom (in his moral hom. 9) asks how we can love the second coming of Christ and prepare ourselves for it; and he answers that we shall attain it if we first love Christ's first coming and procure it for ourselves by doing what He says in John 14:23: "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him." And consequently, if we count all earthly things as filth and mire; if with Christ we patiently and bravely bear injuries and every adversity; if in every temptation we cling steadfastly to God, fixing in Him all our hope and love; if finally we always set this crown of justice before our eyes.
St. Basil narrates (hom. 20 On the Forty Martyrs) that when they had been thrown into a frozen pool, they were surrounded with light from heaven, and heavenly angels adorned each one's crown and held it forth to view: when their guard saw this, he was so kindled that, converted to Christ, he stripped off his clothes and eagerly leapt into the frozen pool and joined the other thirty-nine, so that as the fortieth (in place of the one who had failed and leapt out of the pool) he might obtain the palm and the crown.
Verse 9: Hasten to Come to Me Quickly; For Demas Has Forsaken Me, Loving This World
Hasten to come to me quickly — that, in chains, deserted by almost all and now about to die, I may commend to you alone the public affairs of the Churches, and other things which I can neither commit to writing nor dare to: and that the faithful at Rome may suffer no disturbance at my death, but receive consolation, strength, and courage from you. So Chrysostom.
9. For Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world — that is, preferring to be at leisure, to rest softly, and to luxuriate in the world, rather than to risk himself with Paul for Christ. So Chrysostom and his school, and Primasius: "It was necessary," he says, "that one who loved the pleasures of the world should desert him (Paul) who did not love them." Some think that Demas, repenting, afterwards returned to Paul. For he mentions him as a kind of fellow-helper of his in the epistle to Philemon, v. 24. But this is uncertain, since it is uncertain whether the epistle to Philemon was written after this one: for many hold this to be the very last of all. If we believe Dorotheus in his Synopsis, Demas, falling away from Paul, became a priest of idols. See whither apostates plunge.
Crescens into Galatia — supply: he went, sent by me, to preach the Gospel there. By "Galatia" Theodoret and others understand Gaul: for that this country was called Galatia just as the Gauls were called Galatae by the Greeks, Ammianus Marcellinus teaches in Book XV. Certainly that this Crescens was sent into Gaul and ruled the Church of Vienne is established both from Eusebius (Hist. Bk. III, ch. IV) and from the Roman Martyrology under June 27 — unless you say that from Galatia he went on into Gaul.
Verse 11: Only Luke Is With Me. Take Mark and Bring Him With You
11. Only Luke is with me. — The Romans hand down, on the testimony of Baronius, that in the year of Christ 69, Peter and Paul were shut up at Rome for nine months in the same Mamertine prison, and were thence led out to martyrdom. So when he says that only Luke is with him, he means alone — namely, the only one who is free, who can help himself freely and carry on his affairs. Add that Peter was indeed in the same prison, but in another part of the prison.
Take Mark and bring him with you: for he is useful to me for the ministry — namely, the Gospel, that he may preach here or elsewhere. This Mark is not the same as Mark the Evangelist, but his proper name was John, surnamed Mark, a cousin of Barnabas, as is clear from Col. 4:10. This Mark, out of fear of dangers and toils, had deserted Paul on his missionary journey; whence he was rejected by Paul, as appears from Acts 15:37; but afterwards, when he repented and labored strenuously, Paul received him into his favor and companionship: whence too he studiously commends him to the Colossians.
11. And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus — namely, to fill in at Ephesus for Timothy, the bishop of Ephesus, whom I have summoned to Rome.
Note Paul's solicitude in his chains for the Churches — striving that what he could not do himself, he might do through his disciples to instruct and confirm them. Hence he sent Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia, Tychicus to Ephesus, Mark and others elsewhere.
Verse 13: The Cloak Which I Left at Troas With Carpus, Bring When You Come, and the Books, but Especially the Parchments
13. The cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, bring with you when you come, and the books, but especially the parchments. — By "cloak" Ambrose, Haymo, and Anselm understand a senatorial garment left to Paul by his father, which Roman citizens and foreigners granted citizenship used to wear when they came to Rome. For senators went about clad in the penula, and Romans entered the curia clad in the penula. Paul, being from Tarsus, was a Roman citizen, and because he was a noble, he was of the senatorial order. But what need had a captive about to die for a senatorial garment?
Secondly, the Syriac translates בית כתב bet ketabe, that is, a case of books. Whence Baronius too thinks it was a volume of the law. But this seems to be understood not by the cloak, but by the "books" which the Apostle adds.
Thirdly, others — favored by Tertullian (De Orat., ch. 12) — think the "penula" is the sacred garment which we call the chasuble or planeta, said to be called penula apo tou phainesthai holon, because it is seen whole and surrounds the whole body. Whence too "Planeta" is named apo tou planan, that is, from wandering about.
Fourthly — better, as commonly held by others, such as Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Jerome (Dialogue III Against the Pelagians) — they take "penula" for a cloak or similar outer garment for keeping off cold and rain. So Juvenal writes of the penula in Satire 5: "And the penula dripped with much rain." And Lampridius in his Severus: "He permitted," he says, "that within the city the penula be used by old men because of cold, since that kind of garment had always been for travel or rain." So Lazarus Baysius (De Re Vestiaria, ch. 16). This cloak then Paul asks to be brought to him, both because it was more convenient for him, since he had grown accustomed to it; and lest he be a burden to anyone in prison, but that he might clothe himself and protect his body against the injuries of the bitter winter. For winter was at hand, as is clear from verse 21.
Note: The Carpus whom Paul here mentions seems to be the one whom he praises, and whose marvelous vision of Christ appearing to him and saying — when he was indignant and seeking vengeance on his unbelieving enemies — "Carpus, strike against Me, for I am ready to suffer again to save men," St. Dionysius recounts in epistle 8 to Demophilus; the only difference being that the Carpus of whom Paul here speaks lived at Troas, while the Carpus of whom Dionysius speaks lived at Crete; whence Baronius thinks there were two Carpi. Others, however, with Anselm, make him one and the same Carpus, who was first bishop at Laodicea, which is near Troas, then at Crete.
Note secondly: The Apostle, in prison and near death, asks that books and parchments be brought to him, on which, namely, was written sacred Scripture, that is, the books of the Old Testament. He calls the older ones, written by others, "books"; but the more recent ones, written by himself, "parchments." Note here how Paul fled idleness, and how devoted he was to the study of sacred Scripture, that he wished to die over it — for indeed "we must learn for as long as we live," as Solon used to say. See what was said in epistle I, chapter iv, 13.
Verses 14 and 15: Alexander the Coppersmith Has Done Me Much Evil; Avoid Him You Also
14. Alexander the coppersmith has done me much evil: the Lord will reward him according to his deeds: 15. avoid him you also; for he has greatly withstood our words. — This Alexander first believed in Christ and quieted the tumult raised against Paul at Ephesus (Acts 19:33). From which passage it is clear that he was a Jew, but lived at Ephesus. He is here called "aerarius" not because he was the guardian or receiver of the treasury, as Anselm holds, but because he was a smith of bronze and of bronze vessels. For this is what the Greek χαλκεύς signifies. He afterwards fell away from the faith, as appears from epistle I, ch. 1, last verse, and greatly opposed Paul and the Gospel, and "showed" him much evil — that is, exhibited, did, inflicted. For this is what the Hebrew הראה hera signifies, that is, "he showed," as I said on 1 Cor. 4:9. It is fitly said "showed" rather than "inflicted," because the wicked harm the upright not so much in fact as by their impious will, wish, and desire: for the upright, fortified by their patience, can in fact be harmed or afflicted by no evils, but overcome them all and, with their mind set in the heavens, transcend them.
Note: For "will reward," our text reads in the Greek apodōsei; others read apodōē, that is, "may He reward," as if Paul wished — not from a desire for vengeance, but from zeal for justice — that the wicked Alexander be punished by God.
Verse 16: In My First Defense No One Stood By Me, But All Forsook Me
16. In my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. — Hence Baronius thinks this epistle was written from the first imprisonment, when Paul was about to be released and was almost free. For, as follows, Paul afterwards immediately went throughout the whole world to evangelize — as if to say: When I first pleaded my cause before Nero, I so pleaded it that by no help did I move his mind, that he should judge that I ought to be released. And this was done by God's counsel, that I might still survive for 9 years, and proceed through Spain and other provinces to complete my preaching. But the truer and more common opinion, supported by no fewer — indeed by greater — conjectures than the former, is that this epistle was written from the second imprisonment, as I said on v. 6, and shall say again on v. 20.
Hence secondly, others understand the "first defense" here as the one Paul made when he was first shut up in the second imprisonment, a little before his martyrdom — as if to say: When I first stood in my second chains before Nero, with my companions deserting me, God stood by me, that before him I might dare to preach fully, and that all nations might hear this my free preaching before Nero, and so be confirmed in the faith; chiefly because then I was delivered from the death which Nero was thought to be about to inflict on me at once; but God mollified him, until after nine months Nero, again raging and furious against Paul, killed him. Whence Theophylact takes what follows: "That through me the preaching might be fulfilled" — that is, he says, established — "and that all the Gentiles might hear," namely, the glory of my free confession and preaching. Again, that they might hear the care which God takes for me. But since the Apostle here speaks absolutely of being delivered from the lion's mouth, that is, Nero's, that he might complete his preaching, it seems he was absolutely released from his chains, and survived not nine months, but several more years to complete his preaching.
Hence thirdly, best of all Eusebius (Bk. II Hist., ch. XXII), Bede, Anselm, and others understand the "first defense" here as the one Paul made in his first imprisonment — namely, when, in the second year of Nero, he was seized at Jerusalem and sent to him at Rome, and there remained for two years. For then, deserted by his own who feared Nero's pomp and fury, he had God as his helper, who made Nero benevolent to him, so that he was released from prison, and for nine years went about Spain and other provinces evangelizing, until being captured a second time he made his second defense before Nero: but with a different outcome. For Nero, now made savage by so many of his cruel deeds, and raging against Paul and Peter because they were introducing a new God, Christ, and because by their prayers they had brought down Simon Magus (whom he held in his delights) flying through the air; raging in particular against Paul because he had converted his cup-bearer to Christ, says Chrysostom, and because he had drawn over his concubines from himself to faith and chastity, as Baronius teaches from Ambrose and Chrysostom: for these reasons, I say, the raging Nero condemned Paul to the sword and to death. Paul therefore here writes from his second imprisonment of what had happened to him in his first.
You will say it seems strange that, with so long a time elapsed, namely nine years, he should only now write these things to Timothy, who had long since understood them. I answer: Although Timothy had understood it from elsewhere, yet not from Paul's letters, since Paul, going off into Spain and other regions, was very far from Timothy, and meanwhile had sent no letters to Timothy. Therefore, returning to Rome and to his second imprisonment, Paul aptly recalls what happened in the first, both to animate and rouse Timothy by the memory of them, and rather because he wished to write down and consign these things for future ages.
Morally, St. Ambrose here understands by "defense" Paul's passion and persecution: "For passion," he says, "is life to Christians, and persecution is a defense: for affliction inflicted for justice's sake will defend them on the day of judgment, condemning the perfidious as guilty."
Verse 17: But the Lord Stood By Me and Strengthened Me, That Through Me the Preaching Might Be Fulfilled
17. But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me. — "For it is necessary that the divine be present where human aid fails," says Philo (Bk. II On the Life of Moses). And as Origen says (hom. 9 on Numbers): "Then most of all is God's grace at hand, when men's savagery is roused;" "and there," Ambrose testifies (De Joseph), "is more help where there is more danger."
St. Gregory Thaumaturgus experienced the same: fleeing in the persecution of Decius and hiding with his deacon on a hill, when he had been betrayed and the persecutors had surrounded the hill on all sides and were searching it, "he urged his companion," says Nyssen in his Life, "to stand firm in trust toward God and to commit his safety to Him, just as he himself was doing, stretching out his hands in prayer, even if the persecutors were to come close and his faith should be shaken loose by fear and cast away. He offered himself as an example of the very thing he was urging on the deacon, with eyes unmoved, hands outstretched, and bearing lofty and erect, gazing into heaven. Thus it came about that the searchers — apart from two trees a little distance apart from each other (Gregory, namely, praying with his companion appeared to them to be two trees) — declared they had seen no one. When they had departed, the betrayer, seeing they were not trees but men, fell down at St. Gregory's feet and believed his word, and he who a little before had been a persecutor became one of the fugitives." The same Gregory, when he was praying for his people afflicted in the same persecution, "suddenly filled with anguish, seemed to hear a sound, to which he turned his ears; then he stood erect and motionless, then as if rejoicing over a victory he pronounced that verse of Ps. 123: 'Blessed be God who has not given us as a prey to their teeth.' To those who asked what he had seen, he said that he had seen a great ruin in that hour, the devil being conquered by a certain youth in torments and martyrdom. He added his name, calling him Troadius. Men were then sent down into the city, and reported that it had really happened so." Thus Nyssen.
That through me the preaching might be fulfilled, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered from the lion's mouth. — Some think that Paul was set free from his first imprisonment through the friendship and assistance of the philosopher Seneca, who had been the tutor of Nero. Hence there are extant letters of Seneca to Paul and of Paul to Seneca, but of doubtful, indeed of suspect, authenticity. But Paul here teaches the contrary — namely, that he, deserted by men, escaped this danger by the help of God alone.
Note: The reason which moved God to deliver Paul from his chains was that through him the preaching of the Gospel might be fulfilled — Greek plērophorēthē, which Vatablus and others translate "might be fully persuaded," or, "that full faith in the Gospel might come about." But our text translates more simply, "might be fulfilled," that is, completed and finished, as I said on Rom. 14:5, and this is more apt in this place; for Paul had already produced full faith in the Gospel wherever he had preached: hence it was not necessary for him for this purpose to have his life prolonged. He was therefore preserved by God in life that he might preach in Spain and elsewhere, propagate, and complete the preaching of the Gospel, and that all the Gentiles might hear it.
Chrysostom secondly notes Paul's modesty; for he does not say, "That I might fulfill," but, "that through me the preaching might be fulfilled," as if to say: This preaching committed to me snatched me from my chains and saved me, "just as if one bearing the purple and royal insignia were saved on its account," says Chrysostom.
Note thirdly: "I was delivered from the lion's mouth," that is of the devil, says Ambrose; or of Festus the Governor of Judea, says Primasius. But best of all, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Oecumenius, St. Thomas, and Eusebius (Bk. II Hist., ch. 22) understand by the lion Nero, who was cruel as a lion: of whom that saying of Prov. 19:12 could most truly be said: "As the roaring of a lion, so is the wrath of a king." Nero, therefore, was a lion, because he was beyond what can be said proud and fierce, just as he was lustful, accustomed to use the services of Simon Magus familiarly: hence he was the first (for before him Tiberius, from what was reported, admired Christ and even threatened danger to the accusers of Christians) to stir up a monstrous persecution against the Christians. Hear Tacitus (Bk. XV): "To those perishing," he says, "mockeries were added, that they might die by the tearing of dogs covered with the skins of beasts. Many were fixed to crosses or burned with flame; very many were reserved for this purpose, that when day had failed they might serve for nighttime illumination. Nero had offered his gardens for this spectacle, and was holding a Circensian show, mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer, or standing in the circle." Was he not a lion, who finally killed the chief of the Apostles, Peter by the cross, Paul by the sword? Was he not a lion, who removed his mother and his teacher Seneca from the midst? Was he not a lion, who by his savagery stirred up against himself the sedition of the whole people? — which, while trying to escape, at the third milestone from the City he killed himself by his own hand, saying: "I have lived disgracefully, more shamefully shall I perish." See Severus Sulpicius (Bk. II Hist.).
Verse 18: The Lord Has Delivered Me From Every Evil Work, and Will Save Me Unto His Heavenly Kingdom
18. The Lord has delivered me from every evil work, and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom. — "From every evil work," that is, from every danger and hostile attack, such as those he enumerates in 2 Cor. 11:23.
Secondly, and rather, "from every evil work," that is, from every sin — as if to say: Not only from the bodily lion threatening me with death, namely from Nero, has the Lord delivered me, but also from sin, who is a spiritual and more savage lion killing the soul, so that in any temptation, tribulation, and terror whatever, strengthened by God, neither by word nor by deed nor by any other sign, even the least, would I deny God or the faith; but rather both by word and by life I have everywhere professed and celebrated the name and glory of God.
Note: For "has delivered," the Greek text, the Syriac, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and the ancients generally read rhusetai, that is, "will deliver." And this fits better with both what precedes and what follows — as if to say: Just as the Lord delivered me from the mouth of the bodily lion, namely Nero, so I plainly trust that hereafter He will deliver me from the spiritual lion, that is from every evil work, namely from every sin, and so He will "save" me — Greek sōsei, that is, will preserve — "unto His heavenly kingdom," so that, namely, preserved from sin and innocent and unhurt by it, I may undergo martyrdom in defense of this innocence, and so deserve to enter the kingdom of heaven. The preposition "into," therefore, when he says "into the kingdom," does not signify a place, as if it were the same as "in the kingdom of heaven," but signifies the final cause — as if to say: He will save me to this end, namely that I may attain the kingdom of heaven. So Theophylact, Anselm, Bede, and others.
Verse 20: And I Left Trophimus Sick at Miletus
20. And I left Trophimus sick at Miletus. — Miletus is a city of Asia, not far from Ephesus, famous for its excellent wool and coverlets, which from there are called Milesia. Hence again it is clear that this epistle was written from the second imprisonment, not from the first. For in the first imprisonment (which was inflicted on Paul by the Jews at Jerusalem on the occasion of Trophimus, since they thought that Paul had brought Trophimus, an uncircumcised Gentile, into the temple, Acts 21:29), when Paul was bound at Jerusalem and sent to Rome, he did not pass through Miletus, as is clear from Acts 27. But when he was released from the first imprisonment, as he traveled through various places, so Paul revisited Miletus, and there left Trophimus sick, and coming to Rome was captured a second time: for it is not likely that there were two Trophimi, or that for "Miletus" we should here read "Melita" — as though it were not at Miletus but at Melita, that is at Malta (which, when Paul was first sent bound from Jerusalem to Rome, he passed through, as is clear from Acts 28:1), that he left Trophimus sick, as Baronius holds; for both the Greek, the Syriac, and the Latin consistently read "at Miletus," not "at Melita."
From this passage it is clear that Paul, after his first imprisonment, not only went to Spain and other new provinces, but also revisited Asia and other older provinces and Churches, that he might perfect and confirm them in faith and morals, and if anything wrong had grown up, he might correct and cut it away. That this is so is clear from the fact that Paul, foreseeing from his chains his approaching liberation, wrote and promised the same thing to the Syrians and the others, not once, but a second and a third time. For in the last chapter of Hebrews, at the end: "Know," he says, "that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he comes more quickly, I will see you." And to the Philippians 2:24: "I trust in the Lord that I myself shall come to you shortly." And to Philemon, v. 22: "Prepare a lodging for me: for I trust through your prayers I shall be granted to you." From which passages our Salmeron (vol. XV, tract. 59) rightly concludes that Paul, free from his chains, not only visited Spain, but also revisited Syria, Asia, Macedonia, and Greece.
Verse 21: Eubulus and Pudens and Linus Greet You
21. Eubulus and Pudens and Linus greet you. — This Pudens was a Roman Senator, a most noble and illustrious man, the father, namely, of Novatus and Timothy, of St. Praxedes and St. Pudentiana (or Potentiana), in whose house the assemblies were held, which afterwards, being converted into a church, was called the "title," that is, the church of the Shepherd. This Pudens, then, the Roman Senator, was the host of Saints Peter and Paul. The place was shown to me in what was once his house, now a church, where St. Peter is said to have celebrated. In the same I saw the well into which St. Pudens with St. Praxedes his sister deposited the blood which they pressed out with a sponge from the wounds of the Martyrs, and their other relics. For so reads the inscription cut in capital letters on the stone at the very entrance of the church:
IN THIS HOLY MOST ANCIENT CHURCH, DEDICATED UNDER THE TITLE OF THE HOLY SHEPHERD BY ST. PIUS THE POPE, ONCE THE HOUSE OF ST. PUDENS THE SENATOR AND THE LODGING OF THE HOLY APOSTLES — THREE THOUSAND BODIES OF BLESSED MARTYRS REST, WHICH THE HOLY VIRGINS OF CHRIST PUDENTIANA AND PRAXEDES BURIED WITH THEIR OWN HANDS.
Linus, however, was first Paul's companion. Whence St. Ignatius, in his epistle to the Trallians, says of him: "St. Stephen ministered to Blessed James; Timothy and Linus to Paul; Anacletus and Clement to Blessed Peter." Afterwards, however, Linus attached himself to Blessed Peter, and when he was absent from the City, took his place there. Whence too he succeeded immediately after St. Peter in the pontificate. So Baronius and others.
Verse 22: Grace Be With You. Amen.
22. Grace be with you, Amen. — He understands the grace of God, by which they may be pleasing to God, and may powerfully work the works of virtues pleasing to Him. See Chrysostom here in the moral application of homily 10, and Theophylact, on what and how we ought to seek the grace not of men, but of God.
Closing Benediction
Deliver us, O Christ, from every evil work, and save us unto Your heavenly kingdom: grant that perpetual light may shine upon us, and the ETERNITY of times. Amen.