Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
At my first answer—that is, "defense" in court, at my first public examination. Timothy knew nothing of this, it is plain, till Paul now informs him. But during his former imprisonment at Rome, Timothy was with him (Philippians 1:1, Philippians 1:7). This must have been, therefore, a second imprisonment. He must have been set free before the persecution in AD 64, when the Christians were accused of causing the conflagration in Rome; for, had he been a prisoner then, he certainly would not have been spared. The tradition [EUSEBIUS, Ecclesiastical History, 2.251] that he was finally beheaded, accords with his not having been put to death in the persecution, AD 64, when burning to death was the mode by which the Christians were executed, but subsequently to it. His "first" trial in his second imprisonment seems to have been on the charge of complicity in the conflagration; his absence from Rome may have been the ground of his acquittal on that charge; his final condemnation was probably on the charge of introducing a new and unlawful religion into Rome.
stood with me—Greek, "came forward with me" [ALFORD] as a friend and advocate.
may it not be laid to their charge—The position of "their," in the Greek, is emphatic. "May it not be laid to THEIR charge," for they were intimidated; their drawing back from me was not from bad disposition so much as from fear; it is sure to be laid to the charge of those who intimidated them. Still Paul, like Stephen, would doubtless have offered the same prayer for his persecutors themselves (Acts 7:60).
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 2 Timothy 4:16:
Acts 25:23
Galatians 2:14
2 Timothy 1:15
2 Timothy 4:10
2 Timothy 4:14
2 Timothy 4:17
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