Charles Ellicott Commentary 2 Timothy 4:17

"But the Lord stood by me, and strengthened me; that through me the message might me fully proclaimed, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion." — 2 Timothy 4:17 (ASV)

Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me.—Though men deserted him, yet One—even his Lord (Christ), who could do more for him than any friend, advocate, or earthly protector—stood by him and strengthened him by giving him courage and readiness.

That by me the preaching might be fully known.—More accurately rendered, might be fully performed: “impleatur,” as the Vulgate gives it. The strength and courage which the felt presence of his Lord gave him, enabled him on that occasion, when alone, friendless, accused of a hateful crime before the highest earthly tribunal in the capital city of the world, to plead not only for himself but also for that great cause with which he was identified.

He possibly spoke publicly for the last time [we know nothing of the final trial, when he was condemned] the glad tidings of which he was the chosen herald to the Gentile world. It is probable that this great trial took place in the Forum, in one of the Pauline Basilicas—so called after L. Æmilius Paulus. It is certain it was in the presence of a crowded audience. St. Paul evidently intimates this when he tells us how he spoke that all the Gentiles might hear.

This was apparently the culminating point of St. Paul’s labors—the last stone of the laborious edifice of his life’s work. If the courage of the Apostle of the Gentiles had failed him on this most momentous occasion, the spirit of the sorely tried Church of Rome would surely have sunk, and that marvelous and rapid progress of the gospel in the West—which, in a little more than a hundred years, would make its influence felt in nearly every city and village of the empire—would have been arrested.

And that all the Gentiles might hear.—This primarily alludes to the crowded audience that had listened on this solemn occasion to St. Paul’s Apologia pro Christo. However, there is also another and deeper reference to those uncounted peoples in the isles of the Gentiles who, through St. Paul’s work and words, would come to the saving knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.—Expositors in all ages have dwelt much on the question, “Who was to be understood by the figure of the lion?” The fathers mostly believed the Emperor Nero was alluded to here. Others have suggested that St. Paul was referring to the “lions” of the amphitheater, from whom, in any case for the time, he had been delivered.

It is, however, best to understand the expression as figurative, signifying extreme danger.

On that dread occasion, his Master stood by him, gave him strength and superhuman wisdom to speak the words of life, and delivered him for the moment from the imminent peril threatening him. This allowed him not only to speak his Master’s words there but also to write this solemn farewell charge to Timothy and the Church.

Such figurative language was not unusual. For example, compare the Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans 3:8, where the prisoner describes his journey from Syria to Rome as one long “fight with wild beasts,” and speaks of himself as “bound to ten leopards,” thereby designating his soldier guards.