On the whole, it is believed that the evidence pre- ponderates strongly in favor of the later date, and that the epistle, if we admit its genuineness, is therefore a strong argument for believing that the imprisonment of Acts xxviii was followed by a period, first of renewed activity, and then of suffering.
II. Place. — On this point the second epistle is free from the conflict of conjectures. With the solilary ex- ception of Bottger, who suggests Caisarea, there is a coiigenstis in favor of Rome, and everything in the cir- cumstances and names of the epistle leads to the same conclusion. We may suppose that Paul was appre- hended at Nicopolis (1 Tit, iii, P2), and thence convey- ed to Rome, where this epistle was written, shortly be- fore his death. Where Timothy was at the time it is impossible to say ; most probabh" at Ephesns.
III. Object and Contents. — The design of the .second epistle is partly to inform Timothy of the apostle's try- ing circumstances at Rome, and partly to utter a last warning voice against the errors and delusions which were corrupting and disturbing the churches.
It consists of an inscription (i, l-.'j^; of a scries of e.xhortalions to Timothy, to be faithful in his zeal for sound doctrine, patient under afHiction and persecution, careful to maintain a deportment becoming his office, and diligent in his endeavors to counteract the unhal- lowed efforts ofthe false teachers (i, (>; iv, 8); and a conclusion in which Paul requests Timothy to visit him, and sends the salutations of certain Christians at Iv(mie to Timothy, and those ofthe apostle him,self to some believers in Asia Minor.
IV. Commentaries. — The following are the special exegetical helps on the whole ofthe second epistle ex- clusively: IJarlow, Exposition ( Lond. 1624, 4to; 1(532, fol.) ; Hall. Commentari/ [on ch. iii an<t iv] (ibid. 1658, f'ol. ); Feufking, Tlliistratio [ includ. 2 and 3 .John ] (Yitemb. 17()5. fol.); Urocknex, Commentarius ( Hafn. 1820, 8vo). See Epistle.
Tin ('"^"l?! bedil, from ?'13, to divide; so called ap- parently from its separation as an alloy [Lsa. i, 25] ; Sept.
TIN"
425
TINDAL
KaffcriVfpof ; Yulg.slaimum'). Among the various met- als fuuiul among the spoils of the Midianites, tin is eiui- nieratcd (Numb, xxxi, 22). It was known to the He- brew metal-workers as an alloy of other metals (Isa. i, 25 ; Ezek. xxii, 18, 20). The markets oC Tyre were su))- plied with it by the ships oFTarshish (Ezek. xxvii, 12). It was used for plummets (Zech. iv, 10, marg. "stone of tin," as the Heb. is), and was so plentiful as to furnish the writer of Ecclesiasticus (xlvii, 18) with a figure by which to express the wealth of Solomon, whom lie apos- trophizes thus: '"Thou didst gather gold as tin, and ilidst nudtiply silver as lead."
In the Homeric times the Greeks were familiar w ith it. Twenty layers of tin were in Agamemnon's cinrass given him by Cinyres (Homer, //. xi, 25), and twenty bosses of tin were upon his shield (ibid, xi, 34). Copper, tin, and gold were used by Hephaestus in welding the famous shield of Aehilles (ibiil. xviii, 474). The I'ence rounil the vineyard in the device Lipon it was of tin {ibid. 5(54), and the oxen were wrought of tin and gold (ibid. bli). The greaves of Achilles, made by Hephaestus, were of tin beaten fine, close-fitting to the limb (ibid. 612; xxi, 592). His shield had two folds, or layers, of tin between two outer layers of bronze and an inner layer of gold (ibid, xx, 271). Tin was used in ornamenting chariots (ibid, xxiii, 503), and a cuirass of bronze overlaid with tin is mentioned (ibid. 5(51). No allusion to it is found in the Odii.ixcjj. The melting of tin in a sraclting-pot is mentioned bv Hesiod (Theoij. 8(52).
Tin is not found in Palestine (Kitto, P/?//.«. Uist. of Piilest. ell. iii, p. Ixxiii). Whence, then, did tlie ancient Hebrews obtain their sup|i]y ? "Only three countries are known to contain any considerable quantity of it: Spain and Portugal, Cornwall and the adjacent j)arts of Devonshire, and the islands of Junk, Ceylon, and Banca, in the Straits of Malacca" (Kenrick, Phanicici, p. 212). According to Diodorus Sicidus (v, 4G), there were tin- mines in the island of Panchaia, off the east coast of Arabia, but the metal was not exported. There can be little doubt that the mines of Pritaiu were the chief Source of supjily to the ancient world. Mr. Coole}-, in- deed, writes very positively (Maritime and Inland Dis- forer//, i, 131), "There can be no difficulty in determin- ing the country from which tin first arrived in Egypt. That metal has been in all ages a principal export of India: it is einimerated as such by Arrian, who found it abundant in the ports of Arabia at a time when the supplies of Iiome flow^ed chiefiy through that channel. The tin-mines of Banca are probably the richest in the world; but tin was unquestionably brought from the West at a later period." But it has been shown con- clusively by Dr. (ieorge Smith (The Cassiterides, Lond. 18(53) that, so far from such a statement being justified by the authority of Arrian, the facts are all the other way. After examining the commerce of the ports of Abyssinia, Arabia, and India, it is abundantly evident that, "instead of its coming from the East to Egypt, it has invariably been exported from Egypt to the East" (p. 23). With regard to the tin obtained from Spain, although the metal was found there, it does not appear to liave Ijeen produced in sufficient quantities to supply the Phcenician markets. Posidouius(in Strabo, iii, 147) relates that in the country of the Artabri, in the ex- treme north-west of the peninsula, the ground was bright with silver, tin, and white gold (mixed with sil- ver), wliich were brought down by the rivers; but the (juantity thus obtained could not have been adequate to the demand. At the present da\' the whole surface l)ored for mining in Spain is little more than a square mile (Smith, Cassiterides, p. 4tS). We are therefore driven to conclude that it was from the Cassiterides, or tin districts of Britain, that the Phoenicians obtained the great bulk of this commodity (Lewis, JJist. Sur- rfi/ of the Asfr. of the Anc. p. 451), and that this was done by the direct voyage from (iades. It is true that at a later period (Strabo, iii, 147) tin was conveyed over-