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About this book

2 Timothy

About this book
Chapter 1

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to further the promise of life in Christ Jesus, 2 to Timothy, my dear child. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord! 3 I am thankful to God, whom I have served with a clear conscience as my ancestors did, when I remember you in my prayers as I do constantly night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I recall your sincere faith that was alive first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am sure is in you. 6 Because of this I remind you to rekindle God’s gift that you possess through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control.⁠ 8 So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me, a prisoner for his sake, but by God’s power accept your share of suffering for the gospel. 9 He is the one who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not based on our works but on his own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began, 10 but now made visible through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. He has broken the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel! 11 For this gospel I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher. 12 Because of this, in fact, I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed because I know the one in whom my faith is set and I am convinced that he is able to protect what has been entrusted to me until that day. 13 Hold to the standard of sound words that you heard from me and do so with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 Protect that good thing entrusted to you, through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. 15 You know that everyone in the province of Asia deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes.⁠ 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the family of Onesiphorus because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my imprisonment.⁠ 17 But when he arrived in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me. 18 May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day! And you know very well all the ways he served me in Ephesus.

Texts in conversation

Compare 2 Timothy 1:15 and 2 Timothy 4:10 and Acts of Paul and Thecla 1

New Testament · Early Christian

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Summary

In 2 Timothy, Hermogenes, Demas, and Alexander are named as men who deserted or harmed Paul. The Acts of Paul and Thecla expands these references, describing Demas and Hermogenes as hypocritical companions who betray Paul.

Passages

2 Timothy 1:15

New Testament
14 Protect that good thing entrusted to you, through the Holy Spirit who lives within us. 15 You know that everyone in the province of Asia deserted me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the family of Onesiphorus because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my imprisonment.
70–80 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Timothy

2 Timothy 4:10

New Testament
9 Make every effort to come to me soon. 10 For Demas deserted me, since he loved the present age, and he went to Thessalonica. Crescens went to Galatia and Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you because he is a great help to me in ministry.
70–80 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Timothy

Acts of Paul and Thecla 1

Early Christian · Paul and Thecla
1 When Paul went up to Iconium after he fled from Antioch, Demas and Hermogenes the coppersmith traveled with him, men full of hypocrisy who flattered Paul as though they loved him. But Paul, looking only to the goodness of Christ, did them no harm but loved them dearly, so that he tried to make all the sayings of the Lord sweet to them, and the teaching and the interpretation (of the Gospel), and the birth and resurrection of the Beloved, and told them word for word all the great works of Christ, how they had been revealed to him (Copt. adds: that Christ was born of Mary the virgin, and of the seed of David).
160–190 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Acts of Paul and Thecla

References

... (A man named Hermogenes the coppersmith is mentioned in the Acts of Paul and Thecla, 3:1, where he is a companion of Paul but a hypocrite and flatterer. Onesiphorus is also mentioned in the next paragraph.) ...
John Barton and John Muddiman, eds., The Oxford Bible Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 1228.
... Paul is presented in these verses as being held in a prison in Rome, where he was visited by the faithful Onesiphorus. The example of Paul's faithfulness and that of Onesiphorus (cf. also 4:10) is contrasted with the behaviour of those in Asia who have turned against Paul, including two individuals, Phygelus and Hermogenes. Nothing else is known about these two men, but the verb used for 'turn away' is found also in 4:4 and Titus 1:14 where it has a sense implying the rejection of true teaching, rather than personal rejection. The latter is referred to as a coppersmith in the beginning paragraph of the second-century Acts of Paul and Thecla. He and Demas, it says, "were full of hypocrisy and flattered Paul as if they loved him" (Hennecke, New Testament Apocrypha 2:353; see Explanation), but the account is apocryphal. ...
William D. Mounce, Word Biblical Commentary: Pastoral Epistles (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009), 487–488.
... Demas, whose name is found together with Luke's and Mark's in Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 24 has actually deserted him (Demas is also named in Acts of Paul and Thecla, as is Hermogenes, as Paul's travelling companions). Alexander the coppersmith did Paul a great deal of harm; but who this Alexander was is uncertain. The author may have taken these names from Pauline traditions. ...
John Barton and John Muddiman, eds., The Oxford Bible Commentary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 1230.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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2 Timothy 1:15 and 2 Timothy 4:10 and Acts of Paul and Thecla 1

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