2nd Timothy Chapter 4 verse 16 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 16. - Detente for answer, A.V.; no one took my part for no man stood with me, A.V.; all for all men, A.V.; may it not for I pray God it may not, A.V.; account for charge, A.V. Defence (ἀπολογίᾳ). "The technical word in classical Greek for a defence in answer to an accusation;" as Acts 22:1 (where see note for further illustration), and Philippians 1:7. Took my part; παρεγένετο R.T., for συμπαρεγένετο T.R., which occurs elsewhere in the New Testament only in Luke 23:48, in a somewhat different sense. The simple παραγίνομαι is very common in the New Testament, but nowhere in the technical sense in which it is used here. In classical Greek both forms are common in the sense of "coming to aid," "standing by any one," "assisting." Here it represents the Latin assistere or adesse in its technical sense of "standing by" an accused person as friend or assistant, to aid and abet them in their defence. Powerful men sometimes brought such a multitude of assistants as to overawe the magistrate, as Orgetorix the Helvetian, when summoned to trial, appeared with ten thousand followers, and so there was no trial. Paul, like his Lord and Master, of whom it is written, "All his disciples forsook him and fled," had no one to stand with him in his hour of need.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(16) At my first answer no man stood with me . . .--And then, after the mention of what his enemy had done out of hatred to the cause of Christ, the old man passed on to speak of the conduct of his own familiar friends at that great public trial before--most probably--the city praefect: Praefectus Urbi, a nominee of the Emperor Nero. No one friend stood by him; no "advocate" pleaded his cause; no "procurator" (an official who performed the functions of the attorney in an English court) helped him in arranging and sifting the evidence; no "patronus" of any noble or powerful house gave him his countenance and support. The position of a well-known Christian leader accused in the year 66-67 was a critical one, and the friend who dared to stand by him would himself be in great danger. After the great fire of Rome, in A.D. 64, the Christians were looked upon as the enemies of the state, and were charged as the authors of that terrible disaster. Nero, to avert suspicion from himself, allowed the Christians to be accused and condemned as incendiaries. A great persecution, in which, as Tacitus tells, a very great multitude of the followers of Jesus perished, was the immediate result of the hateful charge. It is most probable that St. Paul, as a famous Nazarene leader, was eventually arrested as implicated in this crime, and brought to Rome. His implacable enemies among the Jews might well have been the agents who brought this about, and Alexander of the last verse was possibly principally concerned in this matter. But St. Paul, conscious of his own great peril, knew well that to stand by him now, implicated as he was in this net-work of false accusations, would be a service of the greatest danger; so he pleads for them, these weak, unnerved friends of his, who, through no ill-will to the cause, but solely from timidity, had deserted him, remembering, no doubt, his own Master, who, too, in His hour of deadly peril, had been forsaken. (See John 16:32, "Behold the hour cometh, yea is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and ye shall leave Me alone.") But like his own Master, who proceeded to say, "Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me," so St. Paul went on to tell Timothy neither was he alone, for One greater than any friend on earth stood by him.