CHAP. IV.] THE LORD SHALL DELIVER ME.

f

e

d

307

might be Acts ix. 15. & xxvi. 17, 18. Eph. iii. 8. e Ps. xxii. 21.

2 Pet. ii. 9. Ps. cxxi. 7.

and strengthened me; that by me the preaching fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. 18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 19 Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the house- Acts xviii. 2. hold of Onesiphorus.

i

g Rom. xi. 36. Gal. i. 5.

Heb. xiii. 21.

Rom. xvi. 3. i ch. i. 16.

18. "And the Lord." So E., F., G., K., L., P., most Cursives, Syriac, Eth.; but A., C., D., d, e, f, g, Vulg., Copt., Arm., omit "and."

because the Father is with Me." Similarly the Lord strengthened him at Corinth with the words, "Be not afraid; I am with thee" (Acts xviii. 9).

"That by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear." This trial of the Apostle seems from this to have presented an opportunity which he never had had before of preaching the Gospel before the highest ones of the earth. It has even been supposed that Nero was present in person, and that the "lion " from whose mouth St. Paul was delivered was the emperor. It seems to have been somewhat of a proverbial saying to express deliverance from some tyrant or oppressor. Mr. Blunt gives two instances from the Apocrypha.

18. "And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will," &c. This is accounted by almost all commentators to be a reminiscence of the Lord's Prayer: "But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom." Some notice that if this be the fact (and it seems very likely), the doxology was in the earliest times appended to the Lord's Prayer.

There was in the Apostle's belief but a very short time intervening between this utterance and his death by the sword: so that this deliverance cannot be one from martyrdom, but must be God's upholding him in the crisis he had to undergo. It seems parallel to that in our burial service: "Suffer us not at our last hour for any pains of death to fall from thee."

19. "Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus." For Prisca (Priscilla) and Aquila, see notes on Acts

20

k

Erastus abode at Corinth: but 'Trophimus have I

* Acts xix. 22. left at Miletum sick.

Rom. xvi. 23.

1 Acts xx. 4.

& xxi. 29.

m ver. 9.

21 "Do thy diligence to come before winter.

20. "Miletum;" rather, "Miletus."

xviii. 2. St. Paul from his first acquaintance with them kept up kindly and Christian communication with them all through his life. When he wrote his First Epistle to the Corinthians they were with him, and sent greetings to the Church of Corinth (1 Cor. xvi. 19). In Romans xvi. 3, 4, he greets them from Corinth, and here, at the close of his life, he desires to be remembered to them.

"The household of Onesiphorus." See notes on i. 16 of this Epistle.

20. "Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick." If Erastus is the same as the chamberlain or treasurer of Corinth (Rom. xvi. 23), then Corinth was his home. He stayed then at Corinth after (as Bishop Wordsworth conjectures) St. Paul had paid some visit to that city, and evidently at the desire of the Apostle. It is conjectured, and with some probability, that as St. Paul had mentioned with deserved blame the defection of Demas, he made particular mention of these two companions for the purpose of exonerating them from any possible imputation of unfaithfulness. Trophimus could only have been left at Miletus in some interval between the first and second imprisonments. That he was left there in a state of sickness shows that the Apostle's gift of healing was not permitted by God to be employed for private needs, even for the purpose of securing to him the services of his closest friends, but was only to be used when there was some clear intimation of the Spirit that it was fitting.

21. "Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens." This is the only mention of Eubulus. Nothing is known of him. His name does not appear in the

Calendar.

"Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia." Pudens was an officer of the Roman army, who married Claudia, the daughter of the British king, Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus. He with his wife and Linus are mentioned frequently by the poet Martial; and probably Pudens' name occurs in an inscription discovered in 1723 in

CHAP. IV.]

PUDENS, LINUS, CLAUDIA.

309

Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.

Chichester. I give in a note the substance of the article in Smith's "Dictionary of the Bible."1 A far more exhaustive account the reader will find in a note in Lewin's "Life of St. Paul," vol. ii., p. 392.

"And Linus." This man was no doubt the first Bishop of Rome. Irenæus thus speaks of him: "After that the blessed Apostles had founded the Church at Rome they committed the Bishoprick of that city to Linus. This Linus is mentioned by St. Paul in his Epistles to Timothy." Eusebius also mentions him as first Bishop of Rome: "After the martyrdom of Paul and Peter, Linus was the first that received the Episcopate at Rome" (bk. iii., ch. 11). In the Canon of the Mass his name is commemorated immediately

1 About the end of the sixteenth century it was observed that Martial, the Spanish poet, who went to Rome, A.D. 66, or earlier, in his twenty-third year, and dwelt there for nearly forty years, mentions two contemporaries, Pudens and Claudia, as husband and wife (Epig., iv. 13); that he mentions Pudens or Aulus Pudens in i. 32, iv. 29, v. 48, vi. 58, vii. 11, 97, Claudia or Claudia Rufina in viii. 60, xi. 53, and, it might be added, Linus in i. 76, ii. 54, iv. 66, xi. 25, xii. 49. That Timothy and Martial should have each three friends bearing the same names at the same time and place is at least a very singular coincidence. The Pudens of the poet was his intimate acquaintance, an admiring critic of his Epigrams, an immoral man if judged by the Christian rule. He was an Umbrian and a soldier; first he appears as a Centurion aspiring to become a Primipilus; afterwards he is on military duty in the remote north, and the poet hopes that on his return thence he may be raised to Equestrian rank. His wife Claudia is described as of British birth, of remarkable beauty and wit, and the mother of a flourishing family. A Latin inscription found, in 1723, at Chichester, connects a [Pud]ens with Britain and with the Claudian name. It commemorates the erection of a temple by a guild of carpenters, with the sanction of King Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, the site being the gift of [Pud]ens, the son of Pudentinus. Cogidubnus was a native king appointed and supported by Rome (Tacitus, Agricola, 14). He reigned, with delegated power, probably from A.D. 52 to A.D. 76. If he had a daughter she would inherit the name Claudia, and might, perhaps, as an hostage, be educated at Rome.

Another link seems to connect the Romanizing Britons of that day with Claudia and with Christianity. The wife of Aulus Plautius, who commanded in Britain from A.D. 43 to A.D. 52, was Pomponia Græcina, and the Rufi were a branch of her house. She was accused at Rome, A.D. 57, on a capital charge of "foreign superstition," was acquitted, and lived for nearly forty years in a state of austere and mysterious melancholy (Tacitus, Ann., xiii. 32). We know, from the Epistle to the Romans, xvi. 13, that the Rufi were well represented among the Roman Christians in A.D. 58.

On the whole it is difficult to believe that these facts add nothing to our knowledge of the friend of St. Paul and Timothy. They are treated at great length in a pamphlet entitled "Claudia and Pudens," by Archdeacon Williams, Llandovery, 1848; and more briefly by Dean Alford, "Greek Testament," iii. 104, ed. 1856.

n Gal. vi. 18. Philem. 25.

† Gr. Cæsar Nero, or, the emperor.

n

22 The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.

The second epistle unto Timotheus, ordained the first bishop of the church of the Ephesians, was written from Rome, when Paul was brought before + Nero the second time.

22. "The Lord Jesus Christ." So C., D., E., K., L., P., most Cursives, d, e, f, g, Vulg., Syriac. A. reads, "the Lord Jesus." N, F., G., reads, "the Lord," without addition.

after that of the Apostles: "As also of the blessed Apostles and martyrs, Peter and Paul . . . Simon and Thaddeus, Linus, Cletus, Clement," &c.

"And all the brethren." This shows that the names just mentioned were 66 of note among the brethren."

22. "The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you." These are the last words written by the Apostle in the New Testament. They echo his first words to the Thessalonian Church, to which he wrote, "Grace be unto you, and peace."

To

Bishop Jackson remarks: "The salutation is two-fold. Timothy, and to his flock: The Lord Jesus be with THY spirit' (μεтà Tоv πvεúμarós σov); and to the flock, 'Grace be with you¿ (ἡ χάρις μεθ' ὑμῶν).”

EXCURSUS ON THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

PART I.

The first act of the Lord after His Baptism was the designation of certain men to be His ministers (John i. 35-40). He inaugurated the ministry of the Church long before He founded the Church itself. A great principle is involved in this: it is that the Church is in no sense its own creation, neither is the ministerial office the creation of the Church. Now it is quite clear that if it had been His Will matters might have been ordered very differently. The Church might have been left to itself to choose its own ministry. Instead of appointing the ministry Himself, the Lord might have gathered together all His followers, and bid them select from themselves those whom they esteemed the most highly. On the Ascension of the Lord it might have been in a state like the Society of Friends, or, as I understand it, that of the Plymouth Brethren, having no settled ministry, but each assembly of the Christians in the upper rooms of particular houses (and several thousand persons must have required very many places of assembly), might have been left to assert its own independence, and to frame its doctrine and worship according to its own ideas of what is right and fitting. Such would have been the assertion of the absolute freedom of the Gospel, as some understand it, from its very outset. But the very contrary to this took place. The Lord appointed twelve, to whom He spoke very extraordinary words, "As my Father sent me, so send I you,' "Whoso receiveth you receiveth me," &c. These twelve founded the Church. They preached the salutary words, the Holy Ghost pricked the hearts of the elect to receive those words, and then the Church commenced. Its beginning is described in the words, "Then they that (gladly) received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, and in (their)

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