Titus 3:12

ὅταν πέμψω Ἀρτεμᾶν πρὸς σὲ ἢ Τυχικόν. Whenever I shall have sent Artemas or Tychicus to thee, sc. probably to supply the place of the Chief Pastor of Crete during the absence of Titus. We learn from 2 Timothy 4:12 that, at a later date, Tychicus, who was a trusted friend of the Apostle, was sent to Ephesus; so there is just a slight probability that it was Artemas who was sent to Crete, but we do not really know anything certain of the course of events (see Introd. p. xxxii.). Of Artemas we have no knowledge; though there is a late tradition that he was bishop of Lystra.

For the construction of ὄταν with the aor. subj. see on 1 Timothy 5:11.

σπούδασον ἐλθεῖν πρός με εἰς Νικόπολιν, ἐκεῖ γὰρ κέκρικα παραχειμάσαι. Use diligence (cp. 2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Timothy 4:9; 2 Timothy 4:21) to come to Nicopolis, for there I have determined to winter.

There were at least three cities called Nicopolis, in Cilicia, in Thrace, and in Epirus respectively. Of these the third seems in every way more likely to be the city where St Paul proposed to winter (see Introd. p. xxxii.) than either of the other two. It was an important place, built by Augustus after the battle of Actium, and deriving its name ‘the City of Victory’ from that event. The use of ἐκεῖ (‘there’ not ‘here’) plainly indicates that the Apostle was not at Nicopolis at the time of writing. Despite this, the colophon appended to Titus 3:15 of the rec. text reports that the Epistle was written ἀπὸ Νικοπόλεως Μακεδονίας (see crit. note), which makes the further mistake of identifying the Nicopolis of this verse with the Macedonian or Thracian city of that name.

See further on 2 Timothy 4:10, where Titus is said to have gone to Dalmatia, a notice which agrees well enough with the present verse if, as we have assumed, the Nicopolis in Epirus on the Ambracian Gulf is the place whose name is recorded. It is worth adding that, as no such city is mentioned anywhere else in connexion with St Paul’s history, the detail has the appearance of truth, and is extremely unlikely to be the invention of a forger of a later age, who would be careful to confine his allusions to places already associated with the name of St Paul.

For the construction of κέκρικα followed by an infinitive cp. 1 Corinthians 5:3; 1 Corinthians 7:37.