Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
2 Timothy 4:9-22, The cloak, the scrolls, the first defense, and before winter
Paul asks Timothy to come quickly and bring Mark, the cloak he left at Troas and his scrolls; Alexander the metalworker did him great harm, no one stood with him at his first defense, but the Lord rescued him from the lion's mouth, and Timothy must come before winter.
2 Timothy 4:9-22, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul asks Timothy to come quickly, because Demas has left him and others have gone elsewhere, so that only Luke is with him. He asks for Mark, the cloak he left at Troas and his scrolls and parchments, and warns about Alexander the metalworker. At his first hearing no one stood by him, but the Lord gave him strength and rescued him, and he urges Timothy to come before winter, ending with greetings.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/letters-and-letter-carriers\/","n":"Letters, scribes and carriers","s":"Letters were usually dictated to scribes, carried by trusted travelers because there was no public post, and read aloud to the people they were sent to.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/roman-custody\/","n":"Prison, chains and Roman custody","s":"Roman prisons held people until trial or execution; they were not a punishment in themselves. How a prisoner was kept, in the stocks of an inner cell or lightly chained to one soldier, depended on his rank.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/roman-trials-and-appeal\/","n":"Roman trials, the judgment seat and appeal","s":"A Roman governor heard a case only when someone brought a formal charge, questioned the accused himself, and gave sentence from the judgment seat. In Judea only Rome could put a man to death, and a Roman citizen could ask for his case to go to Caesar.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/sea-travel\/","n":"Travel by sea","s":"Outside winter, ships were the quickest and cheapest way to travel, but they were built for cargo, not passengers, and from mid-September the sea grew dangerous. The great grain ships of Alexandria fed Rome.","r":""}
Paul was held in Rome, where Onesiphorus found him (Carson, Moo and Morris; Wright), and not in the custody of Acts 28, since Timothy and Mark were with him then and he has lately been at Troas, Corinth and Miletus; Robinson's Caesarea must assume that Luke confused Tychicus with Trophimus (Carson, Moo and Morris). Clement of Rome says Paul reached the limit of the West, probably Spain (Carson, Moo and Morris). Keener writes that "Paul is cold and anticipates the approach of winter". The parchments may be codex notebooks (Keener), books in codex form, perhaps a gospel (Wright), or Paul's copies of the Old Testament (the dictionary). Wright thinks Alexander the coppersmith may be the Alexander of the Ephesus riot. The first defense was "a preliminary hearing, a prima actio, before a Roman magistrate" (Keener). The lion's mouth is a biblical figure for deadly danger (Keener and his notes), and Wright adds that a citizen died by the sword, not in the arena. The CSB Study Bible names the Mamertine Prison as Paul's, though Price and House give it as Peter's traditional last lodging.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 2 Timothy 4:13, 4:16 and 4:17
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 2 Timothy 4:13 and 4:17
- CSB Study Bible, photo caption Rome's Colosseum in winter
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters, comment on 2 Timothy 4:9-22
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 15, The Pastoral Epistles: 2 Timothy, Provenance, and notes 45 and 46
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry parchment
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Matthew 16:17, Evidence for Simon Bar-Jonah
