Jensens survey of the old testament adam 545

spring of A.D. 66, his enemies had no
problem arresting him and transporting him
to a prison in Rome.
Read the following verses of 2 Timothy,
which point to the fact of this last
imprisonment: 1:16-17; 2:3, 9-13; 4:6-8, 16.
Study the comparisons of the two
imprisonments, as shown on Chart 100.


CHART 100: PAUL’S TWO IMPRISONMENTS
COMPARED

2 . Occasion and purpose. The immediate
occasion of the letter was Paul’s desire to
see Timothy and Mark again (4:9, 11, 21)
and to have Timothy bring Paul’s cloak,
books, and parchments, which the apostle
had left at Troas (4:13).18 The cloak was for
the damp of the cell and the cold of the
winter. Of the two kinds of writing (books
and parchments) that Paul requested, the
latter no doubt included the Scriptures (Old
Testament), hence the accent, “especially the
parchments” (italics added).
Paul’s main purpose in writing was to


inspire and challenge Timothy to take up the
torch of the gospel ministry left by the
apostle. It is possible that Timothy had left

Ephesus by this time, suggested by 4:12. If
so, he probably was engaged in evangelistic
work in Macedonia or Asia. If Paul was
executed before Timothy could visit him,
the letter was that much more signi cant for
Timothy.19
Try to imagine how Timothy felt when he
received this letter from his friend who just
recently had been torn from him by Nero’s
soldiers. As far as Timothy knew, Paul
already might have been executed by the
tyrant Nero. Here is how one writer has
described the soul of Timothy at that time:
Timothy stood awfully lonely, yet
awfully exposed, in face of a world
of thronging sorrows. Well might
he have been shaken to the root of


his faith. He might almost have
tasted a drop of that last despair
which gives up to God and wishes
that being could cease to be. To
such a heart, when some sad weeks
had passed away, came this Letter
… to pour its mighty sympathies
into his sorrow and to bid him be
strong again in the living Lord
Jesus Christ.20

3 . Tone. Paul’s last inspired writing has
been called “an epistle of mingled gloom
and glory.” True, there is a pathos about
such lines as “I am already being poured
out” (4:6) and “Demas has deserted me”
(4:10). Paul was ever truthful, and exposing
his wounded heart like this could only have
spurred Timothy on to the fellowship of
su ering. But the prominent tone of the
letter, even in references to trials as
mentioned above, is triumph, and glory, and