Ezekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 2 Timothy 4:13 - 4:13

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Ezekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 2 Timothy 4:13 - 4:13


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Ver. 13. The cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, bring when thou comest, and the books, especially the parchments. It would seem from this that Timothy was still somewhere in Asia Minor; if he had indeed left Ephesus, he could not have been very far from it, as Troas lay on his way. The kind of cloak mentioned öåëüíçí , Latin, penulam—was a long thick cloak, understood to be without sleeves, enwrapping the whole body. The derivation is not quite certain (see in Ellicott). As to the reason for wishing such a cloak, there is no need for looking further than the mention of approaching winter in 2Ti_4:21. If his destination to suffer martyrdom should anyhow be postponed till that season, he would need the garment to protect him from the cold. The books, as contradistinguished from the parchments, were probably written on papyrus, and less valuable than those written on the more costly and enduring material. Hence a request that the latter especially be brought. But what respectively might be their nature and contents cannot be known, further than that, being urgently sought at such a moment, they must have related to things of highest interest—if not Scripture itself, writings more or less bearing on its revelations of truth and duty. When the articles had been left by Paul at Troas we know not; but, as noticed in the Introduction, it could scarcely be on the occasion noticed in Act_20:6, which belonged to a period about six years earlier. From the passing nature of the reference, and the things themselves which were left, the probability is, that the leaving of them behind was comparatively recent.