1: I earnestly testify therefore before the God and the Lord Jesus
Christ who shall judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom
2: Proclaim THE WORD stand in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort
with all patience and teaching
3: For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound teaching but after their own desires they shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears 4: And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto mythos 5: But you watch in all things endure afflictions do the work of an evangelist fully carry out your service diakonia 6: For I am now ready to be offered to die and the time of my departure death is at hand 7: I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith 8: It remains then [that] there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me on that day and not to me only but to all [who] also love his appearing 9: Endeavor to come to me quickly 10: For Demas has forsaken me having loved this present age and is left for Thessalonica Crescens to Galatia Titus to Dalmatia 11: Only Luke is with me Take Mark and bring him with you for he is profitable to me for diakonia service 12: And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus 13: The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus when you come bring with you and the books but especially the parchments 14: Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil the Lord reward him according to his works[1]
15: Of whom you be wary [of] also for he has greatly withstood our words 16: At my first trial no one stood with me but all forsook me I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge 17: Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me that by me the proclamation [of Christ] might be fully made and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion from death by beasts in the Colosseum 18: And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen 19: Salute Prisca[2] and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus 20: Erastus abode at Corinth but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick 21: Make every effort to come before winter Eubulus greets you and Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the adelphos [believers who are with me] 22: The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit Grace be with you Amen
3: For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound teaching but after their own desires they shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears 4: And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto mythos 5: But you watch in all things endure afflictions do the work of an evangelist fully carry out your service diakonia 6: For I am now ready to be offered to die and the time of my departure death is at hand 7: I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith 8: It remains then [that] there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me on that day and not to me only but to all [who] also love his appearing 9: Endeavor to come to me quickly 10: For Demas has forsaken me having loved this present age and is left for Thessalonica Crescens to Galatia Titus to Dalmatia 11: Only Luke is with me Take Mark and bring him with you for he is profitable to me for diakonia service 12: And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus 13: The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus when you come bring with you and the books but especially the parchments 14: Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil the Lord reward him according to his works[1]
15: Of whom you be wary [of] also for he has greatly withstood our words 16: At my first trial no one stood with me but all forsook me I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge 17: Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthened me that by me the proclamation [of Christ] might be fully made and that all the Gentiles might hear and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion from death by beasts in the Colosseum 18: And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen 19: Salute Prisca[2] and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus 20: Erastus abode at Corinth but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick 21: Make every effort to come before winter Eubulus greets you and Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the adelphos [believers who are with me] 22: The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit Grace be with you Amen
[1] Paul did not appear to have a problem
with naming names and expressing sentiments many would characterize as unchristian and making statements that seem to contradict Jesus’ words about
loving your enemies and blessing them instead of cursing them.
[2] In all male-dominated societies [virtually
the entire planet—still today], it is customary, when referencing a married
couple, to mention the husband first and then the wife. This is common protocol
world-wide, including in the democracy of the United States. Yet we see Paul,
in an ancient, and unapologetically androcentric, culture, list the wife’s [Prisca’s] name first. This is not coincidence. Both the
Jewish culture and the Greek culture of the day, esteemed freeborn women only
just above slaves in the social strata. But Jesus elevated the status of women
[that men had lowered—not God] while he walked the earth, and his first followers
continued in his example. The earliest efforts at “organizing” the early Church
and the councils that followed, had everything to do with control in general
and keeping woman in her “place” in particular. All of the early church “fathers”
(this writer disagrees that they were any such thing) were misogynistic and committed to the suppression of women in
leadership. Yet, The great Apostle, in his letter to the young diakonos [servant of the Lord], had the audacity,
not only to mention a woman teacher by name but to mention her before her husband. This is not insignificant.
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