Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 2 Timothy · About this commentary
The Cloak and the Parchments
2 Timothy 4:9-13
9 Be diligent to come to me soon, · WEB
The most human paragraph Paul wrote: a defection, a restoration, and a request for a coat before the cold comes.
Be diligent to come to me soon. The reason follows immediately, and it is loneliness. Demas left me, having loved this present world, and went to Thessalonica — the same Demas who had been listed among the fellow workers when Paul wrote to Philemon Philemon 1:24. The diagnosis is given in four words and no more is said about him.
Others had gone on errands: Crescens to Galatia , Titus to Dalmatia , Tychicus to Ephesus . Only Luke is with me.
Then the line worth stopping at. Take Mark and bring him, for he is useful to me for service. Mark's leaving had once caused so sharp a disagreement that Paul and Barnabas separated over it Acts 15:37–39; he appears as a fellow worker when Paul writes to Philemon; and here, at the end, Paul asks for him by name. The New Testament records the quarrel and the repair without smoothing either.
Verse 13 is the most ordinary sentence in the letter: bring the cloak I left at Troas with Carpus, and the books, especially the parchments. A cold cell, and something to read.
settled What this mark means