Bible Study

Just for your thought:
Last days of Paul
Paul’s second letter to Timothy is a very moving human document. It was written when Paul was languishing in some dark dungeon in Rome from which there is no way to escape but death.
Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome from approximately 61 to 63 had been less severe. It seems then he was under a kind of house arrest and could receive visitors, had access to the Scriptures and could freely teach (Acts 28:16, 23, 30-31).
Apparently Paul was then released from prison and continued travelling and teaching, since his later letters mention travels that were not recorded in the book of Acts. But as the years moved along and Paul’s fame spread, Paul was again put in prison in Rome, perhaps from 66 to 68.

This time he did not expect to be released. It was a time of unrest for many reasons. In A.D. 64 Nero had allegedly burned sections of Rome and blamed the Christians. In 66 the Jewish wars began. Paul probably wrote his first letter to Timothy between 63 and 65. This second letter to Timothy was probably written in 66 or 67
Imperial persecution was on those who followed the Christian way of life, and no doubt such a renowned figure as Paul was closely guarded.
He wrote his second letter to Timothy realizing that his personal end was nearing
2 Timothy is written by Paul from Prison, in difficult circumstances (2 Tim 1:8, 1:12, 1:16, 2:3, 2:9).
2 Timothy was definitely written after the other prison letters of Colossians and Ephesians. Luke and Demas are with Paul in Col 4:14, but in 2 Tim 4:10-11 Demas "has forsaken" Paul and only Luke remains with him only Luke was with him..
Everyone in the Province of Asia deserted Paul including Phygelus and Hermogenes.
Moreover Alexander the metalworker also did Paul a great deal of harm.
Paul's outlook for his own life has darkened considerably from his earlier prison letters, and he doesn't expect to live much longer (2 Tim 4:6-8). This may have been due to an unfavourable first legal hearing (2 Tim 4:16) occurring in between the earlier prison letters and this one. In the preliminary trial in Rome nobody stood with him.
Nobody from the Church in Rome was ready to be identified with him fearing persecution from the Roman Empire.
Please imagine the situation Paul underwent. Desertion, betrayal, imminent death penalty, solitary prison confinement and loneliness surrounded him but Paul is not carried away by any of such situations. He thundered “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.”. What great faith !
The man who wrote 13 books out of 27 books on New Testament, the man who put 30 sacrificial years of series to the Kingdom of God, the one who turned the world upside down, the one won the invincible Greek culture and Roman Empire for God, the one established first generation Gentile Churches around the world and the one who witnessed Lord Jesus Christ before Emperor Nero died like his Master Jesus Christ who cried “ Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me”
End of Paul
According to the early church writer Tertullian, an elder in a church in Turkey Paul was brought before Nero when the Christians were being killed en masse. Nero noted that the other Christian prisoners treated Paul deferentially; so Nero determined that Paul was a leader among them. Nero orders Paul beheaded. The Acts of Paul reports, “Then Paul stood with his face to the east and lifted up his hands unto heaven and prayed a long time, and in his prayer he conversed in the Hebrew tongue with the fathers, and then stretched forth his neck without speaking.” The Acts then record that the executioner “struck off his head.”