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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 2 Timothy 2:9 - 2:9
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9. ἐν ᾧ, in which, sc. in the preaching of which good tidings.
κακοπαθῶ μέχρι δεσμῶν ὡς κακοῦργος. I suffer hardship unto bonds, as a malefactor. Timothy must be ready to take his share of hardship; and St Paul here introduces for his encouragement this notice of his own sufferings.
κακοπαθεῖν (see 2Ti 2:9 and 2Ti 4:5) occurs in the N.T. outside this Epistle only at Jam 5:13.
μέχρι δεσμῶν. This degradation seems to have been deeply felt by St Paul, as was natural in a man of his ardent and generous nature. See Php 1:7 and Col 4:18, and also 2Ti 1:16 with the note thereon. μέχρι has the force of even unto; the δέσμοι were among the worst indignities to which he, a Roman citizen and an innocent man, was subjected.
ὡς κακοῦργος, as a malefactor, the word used only occurring again in the N.T. at Luk 23:32-33; Luk 23:39. Such an expression suggests that St Paul’s second imprisonment was more rigorous than his first (see Act 28:30-31). And it has been supposed by some[517] that the phrase ὡς κακοῦργος explicitly describes the charge under which Paul lay in prison, and that it refers to the flagitia for which Christians were condemned under Nero (Tacitus Ann. xv. 44). In 1Pe 4:15 we have in like manner μὴ γάρ τις ὑμῶν πασχέτω ὡς φονεὺς ἢ κλέπτης ἢ κακοποιός (cp. 1Pe 2:12). In such phrases indications have been found of the date of writing; for (it is argued) the persecution of Christians with which the writer was acquainted was a persecution instituted not against the mere profession of Christianity, but against the Christians as persons convicted of disgraceful crimes (flagitia). And as Christianity was not proclaimed a religio illicita until the time of Domitian, when the ‘Name’ was absolutely proscribed, a persecution of the Christians, not eo nomine but as flagitiosi, such as is suggested to us in the words ὡς κακοῦργος, must be ascribed to an earlier date and, probably, to the reign of Nero. The argument is, however, a little precarious; we know too little about the details of the early persecutions to be quite sure of our ground, and, further, the charge of flagitia was brought against Christians at all periods, whether early or late.
[517] E.g. by Prof. Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, p. 249.
ἀλλὰ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ οὐ δέδεται, but the Word of God is not bound, i.e. the Gospel message (see Addit. Note on 1Ti 4:5) is still being preached to the nations, despite the imprisonment of the Apostle of the Gentiles. Others were carrying on the work which he began; and he himself, even if not by speech as during his first imprisonment (Php 1:13) yet by letter could do much for the furtherance of the Gospel. The paronomasia will be observed, δεσμῶν suggesting δέδεται in the next line.