2 Timothy 4:16

2 Timothy 4:16. At my first answer. The words point to a formal defence or ‘apology' before some tribunal, probably at a first hearing of his cause in his second Roman imprisonment.

No one stood with me. The Greek word is more or less technical. No one was with him as an advocate. He could not pay for such help, and there were none to volunteer it. He was allowed to stand before the judge alone, as a man who had no friends.

I pray God. The Greek is simply optative, ‘ May it not be laid.' The prayer came doubtless from the depth of his soul, but the fact that he uttered it at all shows how deep a wound the desertion had inflicted.