The only real evidence of this movement of Paul is found in the tenor
of certain passages in the second epistle to Timothy, which seem to
show that it was written during the author’s imprisonment in Rome, but
which cannot be connected with his former confinement there. In the
former epistles written from Rome, Timothy was with Paul;――but this
of course implies that he was absent. In them, Demas is declared to be
with Paul;――in this he is mentioned as having forsaken him, and gone to
Thessalonica. In the first epistle to Timothy, Mark was also with Paul,
and joined in saluting the Colossians; in this, Timothy is instructed
to bring him to Paul, because he is profitable to him in the ministry.
In the fourth chapter, Paul says that “Erastus abode at Corinth;”――an
expression which implies that Erastus abode in Corinth when Paul left
it. But Paul took no journey from Corinth before his first imprisonment;
for when he left that place for the last time before his journey to
Jerusalem,――when he was seized and sent to Rome,――he was accompanied by
Timothy; and there could therefore be no need of informing him of that
fact. In the same passage of this epistle he also says, that he had
left Trophimus sick at Miletus; but when Paul passed through Miletus,
on that journey to Jerusalem, Trophimus certainly was not left behind
at Miletus, but accompanied him to Jerusalem; for he was seen there
with him by the Asian Jews. These two passages therefore, refer to a
journey taken subsequent to Paul’s first imprisonment,――and the epistle
which refers to them, and purports in other passages to have been
written during an imprisonment in Rome, shows that he returned thither
after his first imprisonment.
The most striking passage in this epistle also refers with great
distinctness to his expectation of being very speedily removed from
apostolic labors to an eternal apostolic reward. “I am now ready to
be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought
the good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith:
henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of life, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.” All these expressions
are utterly at variance with those hopes of release and of the speedy
renewal of his labors in an eastern field; and show very plainly that
all the tasks to which he once looked forward were now completed, and
that he could hope for no deliverance, but that which should call him
from chains and toils to an eternal crown.