2 Timothy 4:17

2 Timothy 4:17. The Lord stood by me. The words may imply only, as they would with us, the consciousness of help and comfort coming as from a Divine friend; but, looking to such records as those of the visions of Acts 18:9; Acts 23:11, it is at least possible that they may point to a more immediate intuition.

Fully known. The English explains rather than translates. Literally, ‘ might be carried to its full measure.'

That all the Gentiles might hear. The words sound like an exaggeration, but the naturalness of such an exaggeration is the best proof of the genuineness of the letter. To the apostle standing before Cæsar or Cæsar's delegate, in the mother-city of the world, the event seemed, as indeed it was, of infinite importance. Not perhaps as he thought, but beyond his thoughts, strength was given him that all the nations, then, and throughout the centuries that followed, might hear.

From the mouth of the lion. The words admit of many interpretations, between which it is hard to choose, (1) The lion may be Nero, or the judge acting under him. (2) The words may mean that St. Paul, claiming his rights as a Roman citizen, was delivered from the doom which fell on other Christians of being thrown to the lions in the circus. (3) It may be a figure for the jaws of death. (4) The lion may be the devil tempting him through the sense of desertion to despair. In favour of (1) we may appeal to the use of the term ‘lion' as applied to Artaxerxes in the apocryphal Esther 14:13, while (4) is supported by 1 Peter 5:8. On the whole, (1) commends itself most to me.