2 Timothy 1.17-Onesiphorus Diligently Searched for Paul in Rome and Found Him
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday March 19, 2015
Second Timothy: Second Timothy 1:17-Onesiphorus Diligently Searched for Paul and Found Him
Lesson # 23
2 Timothy 1:16 The Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains 17 but when he was in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me. (NASB95)
Second Timothy 1:16 May the Lord extend compassion to Onesiphorus’ household because he often encouraged me and in addition he never permitted himself to be ashamed of my imprisonment. 17 But rather when he entered into Rome, he diligently searched for me so that he found me. (My translation)
Second Timothy 1:17 presents an emphatic contrast with the previous statement in verse 16 that Onesiphorus never permitted himself to be ashamed of Paul’s imprisonment.
Therefore, the emphatic contrast is between being ashamed of Paul’s imprisonment and Onesiphorus not being ashamed of it as demonstrated by the fact that he diligently searched for Paul when he was in Rome and in fact found him.
Paul mentions the actions of Onesiphorus in order to encourage Timothy to continue to do the same despite the actions of the majority of Christians in the Roman province of Asia led by Phygelus and Hermogenes who were ashamed of Paul’s imprisonment.
So Paul is asserting here in verse 17 that Onesiphorus who lived in the Roman province of Asia left this province and in particular the city of Ephesus according to Second Timothy 1:18 and traveled to Rome.
He did this of course to obtain information as to where the Roman authorities had imprisoned Paul.
This was a diligent search and thus a very difficult one.
Onesiphorus more than likely had to go to the Roman authorities to obtain this information.
This no doubt would have been a frustrating experience with the great bureaucracy in Rome.
The fact that this search for Paul in Rome involved a lot of effort on the part of Onesiphorus indicates that Paul was not imprisoned in a place which had easy access.
In other words, it was not a public prison or widely known.
It also indicates that unlike his first Roman imprisonment, Paul was not under house arrest with the privilege of receiving visitors during this second Roman imprisonment.
Onesiphorus found Paul languishing in the infamous Mamertine dungeon in the city of Rome which was a subterranean building consisting of two vaulted chambers.
There was one chamber above the other and connected by a small hole.
There are some who believe the lower chamber originally served as a cistern.
When it was converted into a prison, prisoners were lowered through the hole and held in the lower chamber until their execution.
The apostle Paul may have been placed there just prior to his execution but not likely before his final sentencing.
It would have been almost impossible to receive visitors like Timothy if he had been placed in the lower chamber.
Unlike his first Roman imprisonment between 60-62 A.D., he did not receive preferential treatment by the Roman authorities during his second Roman imprisonment (See Acts 28:30-31).
Therefore, it was during these terrible circumstances in which Onesiphorus found Paul and the place where the apostle wrote Second Timothy.
Spurgeon has this excellent comment, he writes “You could not tell in Rome where a prisoner was. The registers were not open to investigation. You had to go from prison to prison, and fee the guards to get admission, or to be told who might be there, and Onesiphorus was determined to find out Paul. I suppose that he went to the Mamertine, a dungeon in which some of us have been—one dungeon under the bottom of another. The first one has no light, except through a round hole at the top, and the second has a round hole through which you drop into the lower one. We think that Paul was there. It is a tradition that he was. And then there is the Palatine prison, which was at the guard-house of the Prætorian guards, near the palace on the Palatine Hill. There Paul certainly was, and Onesiphorus went from one jail to another. ‘Have you seen a little Jew with weak eyes?’ I daresay that was his description of him. ‘He is a friend of mine. I want to speak with him.’ ‘What! that Paul?—the man that is chained to one or another of us every morning? We have twelve hours of it, and he preaches to us most of the time, and we know it by the time that we are let go again.’ ‘Oh! that is the man,’ said Onesiphorus. ‘That is the man. Does he talk about Jesus Christ?’ ‘Oh! nothing else but that. He will not let any soldier go from being bound to him without hearing about Jesus Christ.’ ‘That is my man,’ said Onesiphorus. He sought him out very diligently, and he found him.”
Towner commenting on the actions of Onesiphorus writes “The reflection on his zeal and perseverance underlines his boldness and willingness to be identified with the apostle whatever the consequences and fills out the picture of courageous loyalty Paul has been drawing for Timothy.”
Lenski writes “Now there is mentioned the beginning of it all. When Onesiphorus got to Rome he diligently sought and then found Paul. Some texts read: ‘more diligently’ because Onesiphorus was not ashamed whereas nearly all others were. Was it, then, so difficult to find Paul? Did the Roman Christians not know where he was confined? Remember the conflagration in Rome, because of which so many Christians were executed. Remember Peter’s crucifixion. What Roman Christian dared even to inquire about what had become of Paul? Not that they were ‘ashamed’ of this prisoner but that they would likely precipitate his death or would make his state worse besides bringing dire results on themselves. Cautiously but persistently Onesiphorus made his search.”
Onesiphorus’ actions were in obedience to the command of Hebrews 13:3.
Hebrews 13:1 Let love of the brethren continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. (NASB95)
Williams writes “The name Onesiphorus means ‘profitable’ and he was certainly that to Paul, both as a fellow-believer and as a Christian friend. Paul says, ‘When he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me’. This gracious man went to great trouble on the apostle’s behalf. He had not a clue where Paul was incarcerated, but day after day with grim determination he roamed the streets of the city, asking questions and gleaning every bit of information he could, until eventually he found Paul in his prison cell and was able to refresh him in his soul and spirit. There are people in the church in whose company we feel drained and empty, but there are others who brace us up and come like a breath of fresh air into our lives. Onesiphorus was like that. And it seems he carried out a similar ministry of refreshment in the church at Ephesus. Paul says, ‘You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus’ (2 Tim. 1:18). And we can exercise that refreshing ministry if we have a mind to, since it does not call for any special talent or training. How do we do it? By getting alongside people in their distresses and so refreshing them in their spirit by showing kindness and compassion. Also we do it by giving encouragement to others. Eliphaz, a friend of Job, said to him: ‘Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees’ (Job 4:4). There must be many other ways in which we can bring refreshment of spirit into people’s lives. May God help us to get on with it.”