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The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit - This is a prayer addressed to Christ by one of the most eminent of his apostles; another proof of the untruth of the assertion, that prayer is never offered to Christ in the New Testament. He prays that Christ may be with his spirit, enlightening, strengthening, and confirming it to the end.
Grace be with you - These words show that the epistle was addressed to the whole Church, and that it is not to be considered of a private nature.
Amen - Omitted by ACFG and some others. See the note on this word at the end of the preceding epistle (note).
The principal subscriptions, both in the versions and MSS., are the following: -
The Second Epistle to Timothy was written from Rome. - Syriac.
To the man Timothy. - Aethiopic,
Nothing in the Vulgate.
End of the epistle; it was written from the city of Rome when Timothy had been constituted bishop over Ephesus; and when Paul had stood the second time in the presence of Nero Caesar, the Roman emperor. Praise to the Lord of glory, perpetual, perennial, and eternal! Amen, Amen, Amen. - Arabic.
The Second Epistle to Timothy is ended, who was the first bishop of the Church of Ephesus. It was written from Rome when Paul had stood the second time before Nero, the Roman emperor. - Philoxenian Syriac.
Written from Rome, and sent by Onesimus. - Coptic.
The MSS. are also various: -
The Second Epistle to Timothy is finished; that to Titus begins.
The second to Timothy, written from Laodicea. - Codex Alexandrinus.
The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy, ordained the first bishop of the Church of the Ephesians, was written from Rome when Paul was brought the second time before Nero Caesar. - Common Greek Text.
There are other slighter differences in the MSS., but they are unworthy of note.
That the epistle was written from Rome, about the year 65 or 66, and a little before St. Paul's martyrdom, is the general opinion of learned men. See the preface.
The reader has already been apprized that this is most probably the last epistle the apostle ever wrote; and it is impossible to see him in a more advantageous point of view than he now appears, standing on the verge of eternity, full of God, and strongly anticipating an eternity of glory. For farther observations, see the conclusion of the first epistle, ( 1 Timothy 6:21; (note))
The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit; - see Galatians 6:18; Romans 15:20. The subscription to this Epistle was not added by Paul himself, nor is there any evidence that it was by an inspired man, and it is of no authority. There is not the slightest evidence that Timothy was “ordained the first bishop of the church of the Ephesians,” or that he was a “bishop” there at all. There is no reason to believe that he was even a “pastor” there, in the technical sense; see the notes on 1 Timothy 1:3. Compare the remarks on the subscriptions to the Epistle to the Romans, 1Corinthians, and especially Titus.