Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Timothy · About this commentary
Onesiphorus Was Not Ashamed
2 Timothy 1:15-18
15 This you know, that all who are in Asia turned away from me, of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. · WEB
Against a province that turned away stands one man who went looking through Rome until he found the prison.
All who are in Asia turned away from me. The sentence is bleak and unqualified, and two names are attached to it — Phygelus and Hermogenes — men otherwise unknown, preserved in Scripture for this.
Against that, Onesiphorus. The description is exact and cumulative: he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. The verb for refreshed is the one Paul uses of Philemon reviving the hearts of the saints Philemon 1:7, and not ashamed is now the third occurrence of the theme in this chapter 2 Timothy 1:8 2 Timothy 1:12.
Verse 17 makes it concrete. In Rome he sought Paul diligently and found him — which took time, persistence, and a willingness to be recorded asking after a man awaiting execution.
Paul's response is a prayer twice over — mercy on his household now, and mercy for him from the Lord in that day. He can no longer repay anyone, and the only currency left to him is intercession. Verse 18 adds that Timothy already knows how much this man did at Ephesus.
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