2 Timothy 1:17

But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(17) But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.—But, on the contrary, instead of fear—far from being ashamed—he, when he arrived in Rome, sought me out. This must have been a much more rigorous captivity than the one alluded to in the last chapter of the Acts when St. Paul dwelt in his own hired house with the soldier who guarded him. Now he was rigidly imprisoned, and the very place of his captivity was not, apparently, easily found.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:15-18 The apostle mentions the constancy of Onesiphorus; he oft refreshed him with his letters, and counsels, and comforts, and was not ashamed of him. A good man will seek to do good. The day of death and judgment is an awful day. And if we would have mercy then, we must seek for it now of the Lord. The best we can ask, for ourselves or our friends, is, that the Lord will grant that we and they may find mercy of the Lord, when called to pass out of time into eternity, and to appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But when he was in Rome - What was the employment of Onesiphorus is not known. It may have been that he was a merchant, and had occasion to visit Rome on business. At all events, he was at pains to search out the apostle, and his attention was the more valuable because it cost him trouble to find him. It is not everyone, even among professors of religion, who in a great and splendid city would be at the trouble to search out a Christian brother, or even a minister, who was a prisoner, and endeavor to relieve his sorrows. This man, so kind to the great apostle, will be among those to whom the Saviour will say, at the final judgment, "I was in prison, and ye came unto me;" Matthew 25:36.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. found me—in the crowded metropolis. So in turn "may he find mercy of the Lord in that day" when the whole universe shall be assembled.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

But when he was in Rome, whither he might go upon his private occasions, and, being there,

he sought me out very diligently and found me; he made it his business to find out Paul, and rested not until he found him, either at his inn, or in the prison where he was put.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But when he was in Rome,.... Upon some business or another, where the apostle was a prisoner:

he sought me out very diligently, and found me; as there might be many prisons in Rome, he went from one to another, till he found him; and was one of those to whom Christ will say hereafter, "I was in prison and ye came unto me", Matthew 25:36 or the reason of his going from place to place in quest of him was this; the apostle was not in any particular place of confinement, but had a lodging where he was kept by a soldier, and which with some difficulty Onesiphorus found out: the manner of his bonds was this; he had a long chain fastened at one end to his right arm, and at the other to the left arm of the soldier that kept him, who constantly attended him in this form, wherever he went; and it is possible that in this way he might have liberty to go about and visit his friends; and this might still make it more difficult for Onesiphorus to find him.

Geneva Study Bible

But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

2 Timothy 1:17 γενόμενος ἐν Ῥώμῃ: The reference is most likely to the apostle’s first Roman imprisonment, Ephesians 6:20. Whichever it was, πολλάκις implies that it had lasted some time.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

17. when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently] It is the simple verb, and, according to the best mss., the positive not the comparative adverb, he sought me diligently. What ‘close confinement’ could be under the Emperor Tiberius we see from Suet. Tib. 61 (quoted by Lewin) ‘quibusdam custodiae traditis non modo studendi solatium ademptum sed etiam sermonis et colloquii usus.’ What it could be under Nero’s lieutenant Tigellinus, who succeeded Burrus as praefectus praetorii a.d. 63, we learn from Tacitus, who says of him (Hist. i. 72) ‘crudelitatem mox deinde avaritiam et virilia scelera exercuit corrupto ad omne facinus Nerone.’

Where did Onesiphorus find St Paul? Nero to screen himself had given the word for the most virulent animosity against the Christians (Tac. Ann. xv. 44). When St Paul then was brought prisoner to Rome, he must have been known as one of their chief leaders, and as such would be confined now not in any ‘hired house,’ not in any ‘guard house’ of the praetorium, or any minor state prison, such as that of Appius Claudius if it still existed, or even the ‘Stone Quarry Prison,’ lautumiae, at the furthest north-west corner of the Forum, but (we may believe) in the Carcer itself, the Tullianum or ‘Well-Dungeon,’ at the foot of the Capitol. This last with its chill vault and oozing spring was the worst, as we gather from Seneca Controv. ix. 3, where one Julius Sabinus asks to be removed from the ‘Carcer’—the Prison par excellence—to the lautumiae. See Burn, Rome and the Campagna, p. 80, and his fuller account of the ‘Carcer’ in Excursus.

Bengel's Gnomen

2 Timothy 1:17. Καὶ εὗρε, and found) by Divine aid. A great thing in so great a city, where not many would care for Paul a prisoner. The word, find, in 2 Timothy 1:18, corresponds to this expression. He found me in so great a crowd: may he find mercy in that day of the general assembly of all men. A similar allusion occurs twice, ch. 2 Timothy 2:9, note.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 17. - Sought for sought out, A.V.; diligently for very diligently, A.V. and T.R. 2 Timothy 1:17