2 Timothy 4:21

πάντες. א* 17 omit this word; and it is accordingly placed in brackets by WH.

21. σπούδασον πρὸ χειμῶνος ἐλθεῖν, do thy diligence to come before winter, when travelling would be difficult; cp. Matthew 24:20. See 2 Timothy 4:9 above.

ἀσπάζεταί σε. The verb in the singular followed by the names of a number of individuals who send salutations is the construction adopted also at Romans 16:21; Romans 16:23.

Εὔβουλος. Of this person nothing further is known. The names which follow are those, seemingly, of prominent members of the Roman Church; they are not among Paul’s intimate friends, for of these ‘only Luke’ was with him (2 Timothy 4:10).

Πούδης καὶ Λίνος καὶ Κλαυδία. Linus is the only one of these three who can be identified with certainty. He was the first bishop of Rome after Apostolic days (Iren. Haer. III. 3), and governed the Roman Church, according to tradition, for twelve years after the death of St Peter and St Paul. He seems to be described in Apost. Const. VII. 46 as the son of Claudia (Λίνος ὁ Κλαυδίας), but it is probable that this is a mere guess resting on the juxtaposition of their names in this verse.

With the names of Pudens and Claudia modern ingenuity has been very busy. It has been assumed that they were husband and wife, and that they are identical with a dissolute friend of Martial called Aulus Pudens and a British maiden called Claudia Rufina, whose marriage is recorded in an epigram of Martial which appeared in A.D. 88 (Epigr. IV. 13). The chronological data are plainly inconsistent with this identification, and indeed the names Pudens and Claudia are sufficiently common to make such speculations highly uncertain. Another husband and wife with these names are recorded, e.g., in an inscription quoted by Lightfoot[528] (C.I.L. VI. 15066).

[528] Lightfoot’s Clement, 1, p. 79, where a fall discussion of the matter will be found.

Ingenuity has gone a step further. On an inscription discovered at Chichester it is recorded that one Pudens built a temple there to Neptune, with the sanction of the British king Claudius Cogidubnus, and it has been assumed that this Pudens was the Pudens mentioned by Martial, and that his wife Claudia was the daughter of Claudius Cogidubnus. Thus by a series of hypotheses, none of which is susceptible of proof, we reach a direct connexion between early British Christianity and the teaching of St Paul! It is sufficient to say that we know nothing for certain of the Pudens and Claudia mentioned in the verse before us, and that, inasmuch as the name of Linus is interposed between them, it is even improbable that they were husband and wife.

καὶ οἱ�. See the crit. note, and cp. 1 Corinthians 16:20.