2 Timothy 1 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~AD 64 to 67, during Nero's persecution of Christians in Rome after the great fire of AD 64
Location
Written from a Roman prison, probably harsher confinement than Paul's earlier house arrest, to Timothy who was leading the church in Ephesus on the west coast of what is now Turkey
Audience
Timothy personally, and behind him the churches he oversaw, though the letter was read publicly like Paul's others
Situation
Paul, expecting to die, writes to his younger colleague to stir up the gift given him and not to be ashamed of the gospel or of Paul's chains. He notes that people from the province of Asia have deserted him, and singles out Onesiphorus, who searched Rome until he found him.
Key Background
Roman prisons did not feed or clothe inmates, so a prisoner depended entirely on friends bringing supplies, and visiting someone charged under Nero risked being counted an associate, which is why Paul praises Onesiphorus so warmly. Association with a condemned criminal carried real public shame in Roman society, making the repeated theme of not being ashamed a concrete social demand rather than an abstract one. Paul's mention of Timothy's grandmother Lois and mother Eunice reflects the household structure of early faith, where religious instruction passed through the women of a family, and Timothy's mixed Jewish and Greek parentage is noted elsewhere in Acts.
Paul, an of the Jesus, by God's will — sent to announce the promise of that comes through the Jesus —
To Timothy, my and from God the Father and the One, Jesus, our
I'm to God — the God I with a the way my ancestors did — as I constantly remember you in my prayers, night and day.
I remember your tears, and I to see you so I can be filled with joy.
I'm reminded of your — the kind that first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. And I'm convinced it in you too.
That's why I'm reminding you to the God gave you when I my on you.
Because God didn't give us a of He gave us power, love, and a
So don't be to speak up about our Master. And don't be of me, his Instead, join me in suffering for the powered by God.
He's the one who us and called us to a not because of anything we did, but because of his own purpose and He gave us this in the One, Jesus,
But now it's been made visible through the of our the One, Jesus — who death and brought limitless life and to light through the good news.
This is the good news I was appointed to announce — as a an ambassador, and a
That's exactly why I'm suffering like this. But I'm not ashamed, because I know the one put my in, and I'm convinced he's able to what to him until that
Hold on to the of you heard from me, with the trust and love that come from being in the One, Jesus.
the that was to you — it through the of who lives in us.
You already know that everyone in the of from me — including Phygelus and Hermogenes.
May the Master show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often me and wasn't ashamed of my
In fact, when he arrived in Rome, he for me until he found me.
May the Master grant him from the Master on that And you know better than anyone how much he me in Ephesus.