Loading…
VRSZ
This sets the art on your cards and whose commentary you read on each verse. You can change it later in settings.
Translation
Loading…
What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
John Chrysostom
"Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, Luke, my fellow-workers." Why then does he put Luke last? And yet he elsewhere says, "Only Luke is with me" (2 Tim. iv. 11), and "Demas," he says, was one of those who "forsook him, having loved the present world." (2 Tim. iv. 10.) All these things, although they are mentioned elsewhere, yet nevertheless ought not to be passed over here without enquiry, nor ought we merely to hear them as things of course. But how comes he to say that he who forsook him salutes them? …
Theophylact of Ohrid
Demas at first enjoyed respect, as is attested here concerning him as a fellow worker of Paul, but afterwards through frivolity he fell away from Paul, as indeed Paul writes about this in the epistle to Timothy, written evidently after this epistle. "For Demas has forsaken me; only Luke is with me" (2 Tim. 4:9). Thus Luke, placed here last, became first of all when Demas fell away. So no one should place hope in himself, but let him who stands take heed lest he fall. …
Oecumenius
"Aristarchus, Demas". About this, Paul wrote to Timothy, "Demas abandoned me." (2 Tim. 4:10) [PHOTIUS] They say that this Demas again turned away to Hellenism and became a priest of idols. [end of the Photius excerpt] [OECUMENIUS] And if that was at first, now he has repented. But if later, after these things he became negligent. [end of the excerpt by Oecumenius] "Luke". The last became first. For if in the second letter to Timothy he says, Luke is the only one with me. (2 Tim. …
Western Saints
Thomas Aquinas
But this can be doubted since he mentions Demas. How can this be, since he said in 2 Timothy 4:10, 'For Demas has deserted me, loving this world'? How, then, can he use his name? It might be said that he returned to him, but this does not seem to be the case, because this letter was written after that to Timothy and here he says, I hope that through your prayers, and there he foretells his death, saying, 'The time of my deliverance is at hand.' Therefore it should be said that Paul was in Rome for nearly nine years, and this letter …
Translation