pauline chronology 83
the lord on that day.”47 What this means, according to reicke, is as fol-
lows: “as the order of the events described proves, onesiphorous did not
(a) sail from ephesus to rome to visit Paul in jail, but simply happened
to be in rome at the time (genomenos en, like genesthaiekei in acts 19:21).
he then became anxious concerning Paul’s whereabouts when he did
not find him in rome as expected.... it is for this reason that his earnest
searching (b) and his visit to the prisoner (c) are presented (d) as marvel-
ous deeds to be rewarded specially by the lord at the day of judgment.”48
reicke goes on to note that, if Paul had been in prison in rome, onesi-
phorous would not have needed to search, because any Christian could
have shown him where he was being held. instead, onesiphorous was
there because he had heard Paul mention, while they were in ephesus,
that Paul intended to go to rome. reicke further admits that there is quite
a distance between rome and Caesarea, where onesiphorous eventually
found him, but that that distance to travel was not an impossibility, espe-
cially for someone as fervent as onesiphorous.49 Whereas reicke’s analy-
sis of the aorist participle in relation to its main verb may be a probable
explanation of the temporal ordering, there are other contextual features
that reduce the plausibility of reicke’s explanation. one is that Paul says
that onesiphorous refreshed him many times and was not ashamed of
his chains. this implies that onesiphorous, who was from ephesus (see
2 tim 1:18; 4:19), knew of several of Paul’s imprisonments. assuming that
they first met on Paul’s first visit to ephesus (acts 18:19–21), the only
imprisonment of significance mentioned in acts, at least, is the one in
Caesarea before rome. it is difficult to see how onesiphorous could have
proved his loyalty for Paul during these times if he had not yet seen Paul
in captivity before. another factor is that the passage only mentions two
places, rome and ephesus, whereas it would have been helpful if Paul
had mentioned Caesarea or at least had distinguished his place of current
imprisonment from rome, but he does not.50
in light of the failure of reicke’s and robinson’s argument regarding
Caesarea and onesiphorous, it appears that the arguments regarding
2 timothy being written during a roman imprisonment, and having some
47 reicke, Re-examining Paul’s Letters, 87.
48 reicke, Re-examining Paul’s Letters, 87.
49 reicke, Re-examining Paul’s Letters, 87–88.
50 many exegetes apparently (on the basis of their silence or easy dismissal) object
to reicke and robinson’s interpretation—but few actually address the issues raised in a
substantive way. examples are marshall, Pastoral Epistles, 72, 719–20; towner, Letters to
Timothy and Titus, 482–87.