probably (Acts xx. 25) sent Timothy there, perhaps intending to follow him; but, from ciroumetancee with which we are unacquainted, he thought it better to go straight to Macedonia (1 Tim. i. 3), and wrote 1 Timothy from TroaH, wl,ere he had hie writing apparatus (2 Tim. iv. 13). He had intended tu go back from Macedonia to Ephesus (1 Tim. iii. 14; iv. 13), but again his inten- tions were frustrated, and poBsiblg he sent for Timothy to Macedonia (2 Tim. :. 4) before he proceeded to Corinth. Be this as it may, he certainly went to Corinth (2 Tim. iv. 20), and thence to Nicopolis, situated in Epirus, but in the province r,f Achaia. There Titus joined him, say in the month of July, having been relieved by Artema.s (1'itus iii. 12), Nicopolis being the general rendezvous, and was sent by him into Dalmatia. At the same time, Urescens went to Galatia. Demas, who had ali;o come there among others, or who may have been Paul's travelling companion, on the appearance of danger, returned precipitately to his native place of Thessalonica, and St. Paul proceeded with Luke to Rome, where he may have arrived in August. As his settled plan had been to winter in Nicopolis (Titus iii. 12), it seems most probable that his journey to Rome was not a voluntary one. There is not the slightest hint in Scripture, or in any history, as to the place or the circumstances of his arrest. But knowing that he went to Nicopolis in Epirus, intending to pass the winter there, and that very shortly after he was a prisoner at Rome, the natural inference is that he was arrested by the authorities of the province uf Achaia, and by them sent to Rome for trial. His route would be from Aulon, the seaport of Illyria, to Brun- dusium, and thence by the Via Appia to Rome. The cause of the arrest of St. Paul is not far to seek. The great fire of Rome, supposed to have been the work of Nero himself, took place "on the night of July 19, A.D. 64" (Lewin, vol. ii. p. 359). Nero, according to the well-known narrative of Tacitus (' Annals,' xv. 44), to divert suspicion from himself, laid the blame of the fire upon the Christians, and inflicted the most atrocious punishments upon them. The persecution, which at first affected only the Christians at Home, was afterwards extended to Christians in the provinces, and it was made criminal to profess the Christian faith (see the passages quoted by Lewin from Tacitus, Sulpitius Severns, and Orosius). The frequent allusions to persecution and suffering in the First Epistle of St. Peter (1 Pet. ii. 12; iii 16; iv. 1, 12-16; v. 8, 9) seem tu point distinctly to this general persecution. It only required t.he active malice of any one or more persons to bring any Christian before the Rowan governors on a charge of impiety. It is very likely that the bitter enmity of the Jews of Corinth, who plotted against bis life a few yearli before (Acts xx. 3), took advantage of these persecuting edicts to accuse him before the Proconsul of Achaia. Be this, however, as it may, what is certain is that St. Paul was once more a prisoner at Rome, and may have arrived there iu August, as above suggee\ed. It would appear, from 2 'fiw. iv. 16, 17, thi.t his case had come before Nero soon after his auival-1:1ay in the end of August or Septewber- P.&a'1'. 11:1•1,,1'. b xvi INTRODUCTION TO
and that he did not expect it to come on again before the winter vaoation (2 Tim. iv. 21). He accordingly wrote the ::iecond Epistle to Timothy, in which the uppermost thought was to encourage Timot.hy, and exhort him not to be co.et down by the calamitous state of the Church, and the apostle's imprison- t:ient, of which the news had doubtless spread rapidly from Corinth to Ephesus, but to be ready to endure hardness as a. good soldier of Jesus Christ. St. Paul expres~es in touching language bis own unmoved faith and constancy s.nd trust; complains gently of the defection of false friends; makes loving mention of old kindnesses received from faithful followers now departed; gives earnest connsel to Timothy; foretells coming dangers; presses home faithful warnings and loving exhortations to fearlessness in the duties of his great office; and then ends with a brief statement of the chief events of interest which had occurred since they parted, including his own defence before Nero, together with an earnest request, twice repeated, to Timothy to come to him before the winter. He s.lso mentions that he had sent Tychfous-he does not say when, or from whence-to Ephesus, doubtless for the purpose of taking Timothy's place when he came to Rome. Here, however, it may be well to emphasize one or two points. One, ths.t the news of St. Paul's being a prisoner must have been communicated to Timothy by some previous message,.either from St. Paul himself or, with his privity, possibly by Tychicus, or in some other way, as this Epistle clearly supposes Timothy to be already acquainted with the circumstance. The other, that St. Paul did not expect to be called for his final trial for the next three months at least, since it would take so long for his letter to reach Timothy and for• Timothy to travel to Rome. A third point is important to note, viz. that the details given in the last chapter are a distinct proof that the journey to which those details refer--embracing Miletus, Troas, Macedonia, Corinth, and Rome--was a very recent one, and that as the last stage in that journey was Rome, it is demonstrated that this was not the same visit to Rome as ths.t related by St._ Luire, which was by way of Malta, Syracuse, Rhegium, and Puteoli. Still treading upon uncertain ground, we go on to observe that, taking the Epistle to the Hebrews as written at this time, it would appear that Timothy, on receipt of St. Paul's Second Epistle, immediately started to come to Rome, but was arrested on the way, the persecution of Christians being now active in the provinces. The place of his arrest is not indicated, but it may probably have been Achaia, through which he would be passing on his way from Ephesus to Rome. The welcome intelligence, _however, had now reached the writer of the Hebrews that Timothy wea set at liberty, and was on his way (apparently) to Rome. If St. Paul was the writer of the Epistle, it would appear, further, that at this time-some three or four months later than 2 Timothy-he had hopes of his own speedy libera- tion. Upon what these hopes were built we have no means of deciding. But several months had elapsed since his "first defence;" Timothy was releued; perhapa there was some slackening in the persecution, and some THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.