2 Timothy 4:10

2 Timothy 4:10. The letter comes to a close. The exhortation ends, and with a singular naturalness St. Paul passes to a condensed summary of news.

Demas. From the manner in which his name is joined with Luke's in Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24, and from the mention of Thessalonica, it is probable that he was a Macedonian disciple. He was with St. Paul in his first imprisonment, and is mentioned, though with no special epithet of honour, as a fellow-worker with him at Rome. Now, when persecution was keener, he deserted him. St. Paul is content to record the fact and the motive. The religion of Christ would have interfered with his worldly prospects. The position of his name in Colossians 4 seems to imply that he was a Gentile convert.

Crescens. Nothing is, or can be, known of him, and it is doubtful whether the Galatia is the province of that name in Asia Minor, or Gaul. Traditions, of no authority, connect his name now with one, now with the other.

Titus. Assuming this to be the latest of St. Paul's Epistles, we must assume that Titus, after receiving the Epistle addressed to him, had started from Crete for Nicopolis, had then pressed on to join St. Paul at Rome, and had afterwards started to carry on his work as an evangelist at Dalmatia. It would seem from St. Paul's mention of Illyricum in Romans 15:19 as if he had already founded churches on the east coast of the Adriatic.