2 Timothy 4.21-Paul Presents A Final Request of Timothy and Passes Along Greetings to Him
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday November 11, 2015
Second Timothy: Second Timothy 4:21-Paul Presents a Final Request of Timothy and Passes Along Greetings to Him
Lesson # 112
2 Timothy 4:21 Make every effort to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, also Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren. (NASB95)
“Make every effort to come before winter” is composed of the following: (1) second person singular aorist active imperative form of the verb spoudazō (σπουδάζω), “make every effort” (2) preposition pro (πρό), “before” (3) genitive masculine singular form of the noun cheimōn (χειμών), “winter” (4) aorist active infinitive form of the verb erchomai (ἒρχομαι), “to come.”
The apostle Paul is employing the figure of asyndeton in order to mark a transition from Paul discussing the circumstances and location of Erastus and Trophimus in verse 20 and his request here in verse 21 that Timothy make every effort to come to him in Rome before winter.
The figure also emphasizes the urgency of this request.
The verb spoudazō means “to make every effort, to try hard to” doing something or “to proceed quickly” in doing something expressing the idea of urgency and here it speaks of Timothy “making every effort” in his power to come to visit Paul in Rome before winter and expresses urgency.
The aorist imperative form of the verb is an ingressive aorist imperative which is a command to begin an action.
The emphasis is upon the urgency of the action.
Here in Second Timothy 4:21, the pure ingressive aorist imperative form of the verb spoudazō indicates that Paul is urging Timothy to begin the action of making every effort to visit him in Rome before winter and expresses a sense of urgency.
The imperative form of this verb is an imperative of request indicating that Paul is not ordering Timothy to make every effort to visit him in Rome before winter but is rather requesting that he do so.
Once again, Paul employs the figure of asyndeton however this time he is using it in order to mark a transition from his previous request that Timothy make every effort to visit him in Rome before winter and the greetings he passes along to Timothy which were from various Christians in Rome.
He uses this figure since he wants to emphasize with Timothy that these individuals should be honored by him since they remained faithful to Paul during his time of greatest need.
It emphasizes with Timothy that Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and other unidentified Christians in Rome had remained faithful to Paul despite his imprisonment.
“Greets” is the third person singular present middle passive indicative form of the verb aspazomai (ἀσπάζομαι), which means “greet” or “gives his regards” and is used of Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and other unidentified Christians in Rome giving their regards or greeting to Timothy through this Paul’s second canonical letter to Timothy.
“All the brethren” is composed of the articular nominative masculine plural form of the noun adelphos (ἀδελφός), “brethren” and the nominative masculine plural form of the adjective pas (πᾶς), “all.”
The noun adelphos means “brothers and sisters” and refers to believers in the Christian community in Rome who remained faithful to Paul’s apostolic teaching and visited him during his imprisonment.
It indicates that these Christians, Paul and Timothy were all related to each other and the Lord Jesus Christ through regeneration.
The noun adelphos is modified by the adjective pas which pertains to the totality of faithful Christians in Rome who were passing along their regards to Timothy through Paul.
Second Timothy 4:21 Please don’t delay, make every effort to come before winter. Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia as well as all the brothers and sisters give their regards to you. (My translation)
Second Timothy 4:21 contains a request and greetings from faithful believers in the Roman Christian community.
Paul requests that Timothy would not delay in making every effort to come to visit him in Rome before winter.
This request echoes the one he made of Timothy in Second Timothy 4:9.
Second Timothy 4:9 Please don’t delay, make every effort to come to me soon. (Author’s translation)
The difference between the two verses is that Paul does not mention Timothy arriving before winter in verse 9 as he does here in verse 21.
Also in verse 9 Paul uses the word “soon” whereas he does not do so in verse 21 since coming before winter is what he means by coming to Rome soon.
The reason why Paul wanted Timothy to visit him in Rome before winter was that the weather during winter would have prohibited travel whether on foot or by sea.
Also another reason could have very well been that he would soon be executed before winter.
Travel by land was dangerous in the winter and unpredictable in the winter since mountain passes became treacherous.
So this second epistle to Timothy was probably meant to reach Timothy by early autumn at the latest which would allow the time he would need to make the trip to Rome before winter arrived and thus, it would have been written in the spring or summer.
After this request, Paul names four Christians who were passing along their greetings to Timothy.
He also passes along to Timothy greetings from an unidentified number of unnamed individuals in the Christian community in Rome.
“Eubulus” was a Christian who was in Rome with Paul when the latter wrote Second Timothy and thus, he was one of the few Christians willing to risk being identified with Paul.
By naming this individual would indicate that Timothy knew who Paul was referring to.
Eubulus and Timothy met during Paul’s first Roman imprisonment since the latter was with the former during that period of time.
“Pudens” also refers to a Christian who was in Rome with Paul when the latter wrote Second Timothy and thus, he was another one of the few Christians willing to risk being identified with Paul.
By naming this individual would indicate that Timothy knew who Paul was referring to.
Pudens and Timothy met during Paul’s first Roman imprisonment since the latter was with the former during that period of time and church tradition reveals that he was executed by Nero as well.
“Linus” also refers to another Christian who was in Rome with Paul when the latter wrote Second Timothy and thus, he was another one of the few Christians willing to risk being identified with Paul.
By naming this individual would indicate that Timothy knew who Paul was referring to.
Linus and Timothy met during Paul’s first Roman imprisonment since the latter was with the former during that period of time.
Church tradition reveals that he was the son of Claudia who is also mentioned here in Second Timothy 4:21.
He became a pastor for twelve years and was ordained to the office of overseer by Peter and Paul and preceded Clement in this position (Irenaeus Adv. haer. iii.3.3; Eusebius HE iii.2, 13).
“Claudia” was another Christian who was also in Rome with Paul when the latter wrote Second Timothy and thus, she was yet another one of the few Christians willing to risk being identified with Paul.
By naming this individual would indicate that Timothy knew who Paul was referring to.
Claudia and Timothy met during Paul’s first Roman imprisonment since the latter was with the former during that period of time.
Church tradition reveals that she was the wife of Pudens and the mother of the Linus mentioned here in Second Timothy 4:21.
Her name would also suggest that she belonged to the imperial household and maybe as a slave or possibly as a member of the house of Claudia.
No doubt Paul was comforted by the fact that were still many faithful Christians in Rome who were not afraid to identify with him.
Timothy would be encouraged as well since if you recall, Paul informs Timothy in Second Timothy 1:15 and 4:16 that the majority of Christians in the Roman province of Asia upon his arrest and imprisonment.
Onesiphorus was one of the few who was not afraid to visit Paul in Rome.
The reason why the majority of Christians deserted Paul was to save their own skin.
It was dangerous to identify with Paul because one could be arrested for such an association.
Therefore, Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia and these other unidentified Christians were risking their lives by visiting and identifying with Paul who was considered an enemy of the state.
These Christians were also trusting in the Lord which produces courage.
Unbelief produces cowardice.