Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

240 Second Timothy IV. 12, 13.
and Tycliicus, who are here mentioned expressly as absent. This
epistle therefore, must, if it belonged to that earlier imprisonment,
have been written before or after those ; but both hypotheses are
involved in difficulties which force us to assume a second imprisonment.
We then sup[)Ose that Mark, who had gone to Colosse, still
lingers in that region, whence Timothy, who is at Epliesus, is to
summon him, and bring him with him. " For he is useful to me,"
elg diaKoviav. EvxpTjoro^ = serviceable, useful, ii. 21 ;
Philem. 11.
Elg diaK.j not of the apostolical office, but of the personal service
of Mark, though, doubtless, in the vocation of the apostle, comp.
Acts xiii. 5, xv. 38. If the epistle was written at the commencement
of the Roman imprisonment, we cannot see how the apostle
comes to this judgment regarding Mark.""'-
Ver. 12.— " And Tychicus I sent to Ephesus." As our epistle
cannot possibly be contemporaneous in composition with that to the
Ephesians and Colossiaus, the sending mentioned here, must be different
from that mentioned Col. iv. 7 ; Eph. vi. 21 ; and hence the
same mission, must, assuming but one imprisonment, have been laid
upon Tychicus twice, or else it must have been repeated in a second
imprisonment ;
comp. the Introd. The mention of him forms not,
perhajjs, as Wieseler supposes, a contrast to the words, Luke alone
is with me ; for overleaj^ing Mark to recur to Luke, seems wholly
unnatural. It seems rather occasioned by what is said of Mark ; lie
wishes Mark as being useful dg diaKoviav^ because he had sent oflf
Tychicus his faithful diuKovog in the Lord (Eph. vi. 21). The express
naming of Ephesus is regarded by some (among them De
Wette), as proof that this was not the present abode of Timothy.
Were Tychicus, as supposed by Wieseler, the bearer of this letter,
the language would indeed be unnatural (comp. Tit. iii. 12, npug
at); but if the mission had no immediate reference to Timothy, and
as is very possible, preceded the composition of the epistle, the
mention of the name is in no way surprising ; -rrpug at' would then,
in fact, be scarcely a^jpropriatc, comp. 1 Cor. xvi. 8, where the
apostle also names Ephesus, although he himself resides there.f
Besides the above-cited passages, Tychicus is named Tit. iii. 12 ;
Acts XX. 4, 5.
Ver. 13.—On the supi)ositiou that Timothy comes in compliance
with his wish, the apostle commissions him to bring the effects
which he had left in Troas at tlie house of Carpus. Tbv (pekovTjv.
What (lin/MVTjg = (l}atvuk7]g (pienula) and ^au.ui'rjg, as some read, here
* Baur traces thia mention of the Paulino Luko, and tho Potrino Mark to the conciliatory
purpose of the epistle ; an acuto remark no doubt from his point of view, but
by no means established unless it bo also proved that tho state of facts exhibited in the
epistle cannot bo historical.
f True, but the passage itself implies that he resides there. More to Wiesinger's purpose
perhaps would bo 1 Cor. xv. 32.— [K.