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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Hebrews 13:23 - 13:23
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
23. γινώσκετε. Either “ye are aware”; or “know ye,” i.e. let me inform you.
ἀπολελυμένον. The word probably means (as in Act 3:13; Act 4:21) “has been set free from prison.” It is intrinsically likely that Timothy at once obeyed the earnest and repeated entreaty of St Paul, shortly before his martyrdom, to come to him at Rome (2Ti 4:9; 2Ti 4:21), and that, arriving before the Neronian persecution had spent its last force, he had been thrown into prison. His comparative youth, and the unoffending gentleness of his character, together with the absence of any definite charge against him, may have led to his liberation. All this however is nothing more than reasonable conjecture. The word ἀπολελυμένον may mean no more than official, or even ordinary, “sending forth” on some mission or otherwise, as in Act 13:3; Act 15:30; Act 19:41; Act 23:22.
τάχιον. Lit., “if he come sooner,” i.e. earlier than I now expect (comp. κάλλιον, Act 25:10; βέλτιον, 2Ti 1:18). This again is an allusion to circumstances unknown to us. Böhme said “non est comparativa stricte intellegenda,” but it always refers to some special fact. Comp. Joh 13:27.