Ezekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 2 Timothy 4:16 - 4:16

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Ezekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 2 Timothy 4:16 - 4:16


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Ver. 16. The apostle now comes to speak of his own case in its judicial aspects: In my first defence, no one stood forward with me, but all forsook me. What is meant here by his first defence can only be understood of his first appearance before a tribunal at Rome to answer to the charge recently brought against him; not, as some, of what happened under his first imprisonment. We have spoken of the probable nature of this charge in the Introduction. It was, in all likelihood, an indictment against him as the setter forth of a new religion, which was forbidden by the laws of the Empire, though there may possibly have been some other accusations mixed up with it; so that, even as regards the matter of the indictment, it might have admitted of falling into two separate parts. Or, if the proper charge was only one, the trial may have been distributed into two distinct stages—the one called, according to the Republican practice, the actio, the other the ampliatio. It is disputed whether this practice still continued in judicial proceedings under the Empire (see Conybeare and Howson, vol. ii. p. 488); and our knowledge of the circumstances is too scanty to enable us to speak definitely on such minor points. Evidently, from what the apostle himself says, there was somehow a twofold cause to be adjudicated upon, calling for a double pleading or vindication on his part. He had already passed the first, yet with a saddening impression of the forlornness, humanly speaking, of his position. He had to stand all alone, without a patron, without an advocate, without even the sympathy and support of trusty and confidential friends, so disreputable and perilous, on grounds of law, seemed to be the cause with which he was identified. The conduct of friends, deserting him in the hour of need, he naturally felt most. Yet he pities rather than condemns them, and he prays for their forgiveness: May it not be laid to their charge! He would have it to be reckoned as a proof of weakness, not of falseheartedness.