2 Timothy 1:16

ἐπαισχύνθη. So אcACD2LP; א*K have ἐπῃσχύνθη of the rec. text, a natural grammatical correction of the true reading.

16. δῴη ἔλεος. This phrase only occurs here in the N.T.; we have ποιεῖν ἔλεος elsewhere (Luke 1:72; Luke 10:37; James 2:13). δῴη is the incorrect, late, form for δοίη.

ὁ κύριος, sc. Christ, as appears from 2 Timothy 1:8 and also from v.18.

τῷ Ὀνησιφόρου οἴκῳ, to the household of Onesiphorus. Onesiphorus also figures (see above 2 Timothy 1:15) in the Acts of Paul and Thecla, where he is represented as a householder of Iconium who shewed hospitality to St Paul on his first missionary journey, his wife’s name being given as Lectra (see crit. note on 2 Timothy 4:19 below). A martyr called Onesiphorus seems to have suffered at Parium in Mysia between the years 102 and 114 A.D.[513], but there is no ground for identifying him with the friend who shewed kindness to St Paul. See further below on 2 Timothy 1:18.

[513] See W. M. Ramsay, Expository Times (1898), p. 495.

ὅτι πολλάκις με�, for he oft refreshed me, no doubt with the consolations of his staunch friendship, as well as by bodily relief. ἀναψύχειν does not occur again in the N.T., but cp. ἀνάψυξις (Acts 3:20).

καὶ τὴν ἅλυσίν μου οὐκ ἐπαισχύνθη, and was not ashamed of my chain. St Paul spoke of himself during his first captivity at Rome as being ἐν ἁλύσει (Ephesians 6:20). It is possible that we have here an allusion to the chain by which, according to the prison rules of the time, he was bound to his guard; but it would not be safe to press the singular, so as to insist on this. Onesiphorus was not ashamed of Paul’s bonds, his state of durance; this sufficiently brings out the point. Others turned away from the poor prisoner, whether through fear of a like fate at Nero’s hands, or through the dislike which many people have to associate with the unfortunate more intimately than is necessary; not so Onesiphorus.