“May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain, but when he was in Rome, he sought me diligently, and found me (the Lord grant to him to find the Lord's mercy in that day); and in how many things he served at Ephesus, you know very well” (2 Timothy 1:16-18, HNV).
Paul had written Timothy, that certain people in Asia had turned away from him (1:15)—Asia, being the Roman province of Asia (western Asia Minor), now Turkey, is the area the apostle was referring to. The Roman proconsul (governor) resided in Ephesus, as it was the capital of the province of Asia during the early church-age. Both the Morphological Greek New Testament (MGNT), and the Online Greek Bible, say that those who were where both Phygelus and Hermogenes were at are the ones that deserted him, but many English versions give the impression that everyone in the Roman province of Asia turned away from Paul. If all the Christians in Asia turned away from Paul this would mean that even all the believers in the area of the seven churches of the Revelation would have been part of the desertion—this letter to Timothy was written almost twenty-seven to twenty-eight years before the revelation of Jesus Christ was given to the apostle John. The deserters would have included the church of Ephesus that Timothy was the elder of at the time of Paul’s correspondence to him. So, it is not likely that Paul was meaning that all the believers in the province of Asia had turned away from him, but only the ones that were under the influence of Phygelus and Hermogenes, as the Greek versions above seem to indicate. We do not know in which area in Asia that Phygelus and Hermogenes had influence with the believers, but whatever area and exactly who the followers of these two men were the text reveals that they were of great disappointment to Paul. Some people think that maybe Phygelus and Hermogenes had a connection to a court hearing Paul had at around the time Second Timothy was written (ca. AD 67-68)—this was during his second Roman imprisonment believed to be at the Mamertine prison,[1] which led to his ensuing death (4:6-8), during his fourth missionary journey (ca. AD 62-67). He was released from his first imprisonment about AD 62, after his house arrest (Acts 28:16-31). In 2 Timothy 4:16, Paul writes that at his hearing no one helped him, everyone deserted him, they forsook him. Phygelus and Hermogenes may have very well been among those that forsook Paul’s need at that hearing and influenced others to stay clear of Paul, fearing it could have reigned down the fury of the Roman government upon them—it was dangerous in Rome to be associated with the Christian church at that time. This could have been what Paul meant in 2 Timothy 1:15 when he accused Phygelus and Hermogenes of being responsible for some believers turning away from him.
Onesiphorus was different though, because he took care of Paul’s needs while the apostle was at the Mamertine dungeon, so Paul had expressed hope that the Lord would show him and his family mercy (1:16). In fact, Onesiphorus searched for Paul when he went to Rome (1:17). I am not sure if Onesiphorus travelled to Rome from his home in Ephesus to specifically look for and help Paul, or if he was already there for business and decided to search for the apostle. Nevertheless, he made sure that he found the apostle and then helped him in whatever way he could. Since it was dangerous to be a Christian in Rome during this period – because of Nero who according to Tacitus[2] blamed the Christians for the Great Fire of Rome in July of 64 – Onesiphorus did not care, he was not hesitant to help Paul unlike Phygelus and Hermogenes and some others.
Paul repeats his expression of hope for Onesiphorus, writing that he may receive mercy from ὁ κύριος (ὁ kyrios) the Lord (1:18). He mentions that the Lord’s mercy would be granted to him ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ (en ekeíni tí iméra) on that day (1:18a). What day is Paul referring to? He is referring to the last day of the church-age, when the body of Christ’s salvation is completed by being raptured into the eternal realm—the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30; 1 Thess. 4:16-17; 1 Cor. 15:50-53). The Greek term ἡμέρᾳ (iméra) is used in the New Testament to refer to: the daytime; or a twenty-four-hour day; it is a broad term representing a period; it is used to represent the time when Jesus was raised from the dead— τῇ τρίτῃ ἡμέρᾳ [tí tríti iméra] on the third day (1 Cor. 15:4); it is used to represent the day when Christ comes to redeem the remnant Jews of Israel (Matt. 24:29-31; Mk. 13:24-27); it is also used to represent the last day of the church-age when Christ comes to rapture his church out of the world (Matt. 24:36-44, 50; 25:13). When Paul had written the Corinthian believers about a man in their assembly who was having sexual relations with his father’s wife, they were instructed to hand him over to Satan, in other words, hand him back to the world by expelling him from the congregation, in hopes that his sinful nature would be destroyed and in the hope his spirit would be saved the day when Jesus raptures the church (1 Cor. 5:1-5). When Paul hopes that Onesiphorus will be granted mercy from the Lord, he is referring to the same day, the day of the Lord. Then the apostle reminds Timothy also, how Onesiphorus helped him greatly while he was ministering in Ephesus (1:18b).
Picture: Mamertine Prison
Time of India
