2 Timothy 4:10

For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(10) For Demas hath forsaken me.—This once faithful companion of St. Paul had been with him during the first imprisonment of the Apostle at Rome (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 1:24); but now, terrified by the greater severity and the threatened fatal ending of the second imprisonment, had forsaken his old master.

Having loved this present world.—Chrysostom paraphrases as follows: “Having loved ease and safety, chose rather to live daintily at home than to suffer affliction, than to endure hardship, with me, and with me to bear these present dangers.” The tradition, however, which relates that he became in after days an idol priest at Thessalonica is baseless. Demas is a shorter form, probably, for the well-known and now common Grecian name of Demetrius.

The present world (aiōna): that is, the present (evil) course of things.

Is departed unto Thessalonica.—From Chrysostom’s words above quoted, Thessalonica was apparently the “home” of Demas. It has been supposed, however, by some, that Thessalonica was chosen by Demas as his abode when he left St. Paul because it was a great mercantile centre, and his business connections were there, and he preferred them, the rich and prosperous friends, to St. Paul, the condemned and dying prisoner. Thessalonica was, at this time, one of the great cities of the empire. It was the most populous of the Macedonian cities, and had been chosen to be the metropolis of that great province. Before the founding of Constantinople, it was evidently the capital of Greece and Illyricum, as well as of Macedonia. It was famous throughout the Middle Ages, and is celebrated by the early German poets under the abbreviated name of “Salneck,” which as become the Saloniki of the Levant of our days. It is singular that the name of its patron saint, “Demetrius,” martyred about A.D. 290 (identified above with Demas), whose local glory (comp. Conybeare and Howson’s St. Paul, chap. 9) has even eclipsed that of St. Paul, the founder of the Church, should be identical with that of the “forsaker” of St. Paul.

Crescens to Galatia.—Nothing is known of this friend of St. Paul. One tradition speaks of him as a preacher in Galatia, and another of his having founded the Church of Vienne in Gaul. There is a curious variation in some of the older authorities here, “Gallia” being read instead of Galatia. Whether Crescens, on his leaving St. Paul, went to Galatia or Gaul is, therefore, uncertain.

Titus unto Dalmatia.—Dalmatia was a province of Roman Illyricum, lying along the Adriatic. Nothing is known respecting this journey of Titus. It was, most probably, made with the Apostle’s sanction.

MacLaren's Expositions

2 Timothy

DEMAS, LUKE, MARK

2 Timothy 4:10-11THIS last of Paul’s letters is written, as is generally supposed, in his second imprisonment, and very near his martyrdom. The condition in which it represents him is remarkably contrasted, in several respects, with the conditions of his first imprisonment, as shown in the letters dating from that period. In these - in two of them, at all events - we find him surrounded by troops of friends, among whom the same three names as occur in my text appear as united with him in loyal confidence, and joining with him in greetings to his correspondents. Here they are again, but under what different circumstances! ‘Demas hath forsaken me... Only Luke is with me. Take Mark’ - who is also absent - ‘and bring him with thee.’ The lonely Apostle has none of the Old Guard around him, except the faithful Luke, and he longs, before he dies, to see once more the familiar faces, and to be ministered to once more by accustomed and tender hands. That touch of humanity brings him very near us.

But what I have chosen my texts for is the sharp contrast which the three prominent names in them present in their attitude to the Apostle - Demas the renegade, Mark the restored runaway, Luke, the ever steadfast and faithful companion- Now of course these three men’s relation to Jesus Christ was not identical with their relation to Paul. But at the same time their relation to Paul, one has little doubt, fluctuated with their relation to Jesus. It is scarcely possible to believe that the first of them would have done so base an act as to abandon the Apostle at the very crisis of his fate, unless his attachment to Jesus had become slender, nor that Mark’s love to his Lord had not cooled when he ‘went not with Paul and Barnabas to the work.’ I take these three names as representations of three different types of character and spiritual experience, and I wish to look at the three portraits in succession; only I venture to alter the order in which they appear in the text. First, then -

I. Demas the renegade.

We know nothing of him except that in the letters of the earlier imprisonment his name appears, honoured by Paul with the designation of his ‘fellow-worker,’ evidently admitted into the inner circle, living in amity and close communion with the other members of it, trusted and honoured, a man of some maturity and advancement, and now guilty of the base act of leaving the Apostle. How deeply that wounded Paul’s sensitive heart the language of our text sufficiently shows. It is a sad fate that all the world should know that fact, and only that, about Demas, that he should be cursed and condemned to such an immortality, and go down through the ages branded with ‘ he hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.’ He was not a monster, but just a man like the rest of us; and he came to his bad eminence by a very well-trodden and familiar path. He ‘hath forsaken me, having loved this present world’ - that is to say, he was a religious man who had not religion enough to resist the constant attractions and seductions of this present, and because he loved it, in one or other of its forms - wealth, ease, comfort, a whole skin, reputation, or whatever it may have been - more than he loved Paul’s Master, he turned his back upon principle, friendship, honour, duty, everything noble, and buried himself in the far-off Thessalonica. There are a great many Demases amongst us, and a great many different kinds of Thessalonicas to which we run. But we are all exposed to that same danger, and so we may well look at this one soul that fell under its spell, and was too weak to resist its pertinacious solicitations, and say to ourselves: ‘Lord, is it I?’

For there is nothing in human sin that is alien from any of us, and no depth of lapse and apostasy is so profound but that the tendencies towards it, and the possibilities of it, are in us, even us also. So let me translate into less well-worn words the language of the text which, for all its force, is so familiar that it does not appeal to us as it ought to do.

‘This present world,’ what is that? Well, it is Protean, as I have already hinted, in its shapes, and all manner of solicitations come from it, but we may say in general terms that it is the aggregate of ‘things seen and temporal’ which, subtle, and certainly corresponding to our own weakest sides, appealing to some of us in the shape of wealth, to some of us in the shape of earthly loves, to some of us in the shape of material advantages, to some of us in the form of the ‘hollow wraith of dying fame,’ to some of us in the nobler guise of scientific pursuits, lie confined within the limits of the phenomenal and the material, but to all of us being essentially the presentation of the visible, the material, the transient as the aim to strain after, and the good to count as our treasure.

Let us remember how persistent and how terribly strong the appeal of ‘this present world’ is to us all Its operation is continual upon us. Here it is, and we are in necessary connection with it, and it is our duty to be occupied with it, and it is cowardice to shirk the duty because of the peril that lies in it. You have to go to your business to-morrow morning, and I have to go to my books or my work; and the task for each of us is - and God knows how hard a task it is - to have our hearts in heaven whilst our hands are busy with the things around us. Christianity enjoins no false asceticism. There is little need to preach that to-day, but still it is to be remembered that it is duty to be occupied with the world, and fatal sin to love it, And just because it is so difficult to keep upon that knife-edge, so difficult to put all our pith and power into our occupation with material things, and yet never to be tempted into the love of them which fights against all nobleness of life, is it incumbent on me, over and over again, to reiterate to you and to myself the old threadbare commonplace,’ Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.’ Leave your mark on them, work on them diligently, and with all your heart, bend them to be your servants, and to help you to rise to the things above them, but on your soul’s peril keep clear of that bowing down before them, that trusting in them, that longing for them, that despair if you lose them, which together make up the love of the world, and the lust thereof which passes away. There is an enemy within the fortress who is always ready and eager to fling open the gates to the besiegers. For the things ‘seen and temporal’ correspond with, and have their ally in, the senses by which we are brought into contact with them. And unless there is a very strong religious impulse dominant in our minds, or to put it into more Christian words, unless ‘the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us,’ it cannot be but that we shall follow Demas, and run away to our Thessalonica, and leave Paul, and duty, and, Paul’s Master, and duty’s Source, behind us.

For, brethren, if once this love of the world, which is always soliciting each of us, gets a footing in our hearts, it is impossible - as impossible as it is for two bodies to occupy the same place at the same time - for the love of Christ, which is the love of God, to continue dominant there. There cannot be two masters. That is plain common sense. If my head is full of thoughts and schemes, concerned only with the fleeting illusory present, then there is no room in it for His serene, ennobling presence. If my hands are laden with pebbles, I cannot clasp the diamonds that are offered to me.

Unless you fling out the sand-bags the balloon will cleave to the earth, and unless we turn the world out of our hearts, it is no use to say to Him, ‘Come! Lord Jesus.’ There is no room for Him. And though He comes through the narrowest opening of the door of the soul, He will not come unless we have to some extent conquered the world, and the love of the world.

If I could get you to translate for yourselves the threadbare theological terminology of this text into the vital facts that it represents, I should thank God. Only, dear brethren, take this with you, either we forsake Christ because we love the world, or we forsake the world because we love Christ. On the one alternative we choose restlessness and feverish desires unsatisfied, and craving, all the misery of mistaking mist for land and cloud-wrack for solid ground; on the other, we choose all the blessedness of having set our love on that which satisfies, of having loved the worthiest, the best, the most loving. Which of the two shall we choose? It may be that the one choice shall mean, as it did for Paul, a prison cell and a martyrdom, and that the other may mean, as it did for Demas, comfort and safety, and many an unmistakably good thing, in some Thessalonica or other. But are we going to vote with Demas, or is it going to be Paul? Whether is it better to love the world, and get what the renegade presumably got for a time, or is it better to get what Paul speaks of in the words before my text, ‘a crown of righteousness laid up for all them that love’ - not the world - ‘but His appearing.’ like the martyr Apostle.

II. Now look at that other portrait, Mark, the restored runaway.

You remember the little that Scripture tells us about him, how he was chosen to be the personal attendant, private secretary, factotum, travelling agent, of Paul and Barnabas on their first journey, how his courage and faith lasted as long as the two missionaries were on familiar ground, on his native soil, in the island of Cyprus; and how when they crossed to the mainland both courage and faith oozed out at his finger ends, and he hurried back to his mother’s house in Jerusalem. When Paul would go again with Barnabas, to visit the churches, the latter, with a relative’s too great kindness which was cruelty, insisted on taking the runaway with them, and Paul, with hot indignation which was kinder than the misplaced affection of the uncle, steadfastly refused his consent. Then Barnabas and Mark slip out of the narrative and disappear, and long years pass during which we know nothing about them. But in time, somehow or other, things are made up; no doubt Mark was penitent. Therefore it was as right for Paul to forgive then, as it had been right for him before not to forgive.

It is very beautiful to notice that here he desires to have Mark for the very office which he had, in such shameful and cowardly fashion, flung up long years ago. For the book of Acts says, ‘They had also John {Mark} to their minister,’ and here Paul says, ‘Bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for. the ministry.’ He was reinstating him in the very position which he had once abandoned.

Now what does Mark’s restoration teach us? This great gospel, that from any departure, no matter how far, no matter with what aggravations attended, no matter for how long it has lasted, from any departure from duty and from Christ a man can come back. Those of us professing Christians who know ourselves best, and who fight most vigorously against the creeping encroachments of the love of the world, know best how often and how far we have yielded to them, and gone away from them. Brother, no matter how remote we have made ourselves from Him, we cannot travel beyond the reach of His seeking love. And the wisest thing we can do-and it is a possible thing for us all - is to go back to the beginning, and at the Cross to receive, what is never withheld, pardon for our lapses. Christ laid down the measure of human forgiveness when He said ‘seventy times seven’ - the two perfect numbers multiplied into themselves, and their product again multiplied by perfection; and are His love, and His placability, and His pardoning mercy less than that which He prescribed for us? Surely not. So we all may go back again, however far we have wandered, and must go back if we would not be swept into outer darkness for ever. The possibility of return, and, therefore, the blessed duty of repentance, is preached to all us imperfect Christians by this example before us.

I would also remind you how in the restored runaway, or rather in the Apostle’s conduct to him, we sea as ! have already hinted, an adumbration, because a consequence of the divine forgiveness. Paul trusted this unreliable man at last. As the Acts of the Apostles says, ‘He thought it not good to take him with them who had departed from the work,’ and his severity was an instrument of cure far more effectual than Barnabas’ flaccid good nature. The shrug of the shoulders that overlooks transgression and says, ‘Oh! it does not matter,’ is a much more cruel and a much less curative thing than the hot indignation which says, ‘No, you have been unworthy, and until you repent there is no restoration possible.’ That is how God does with us, not because He loves us less, but because He loves us more, and because He seeks to make thorough work, and to purge the bosom of the perilous stuff which, unless it is purged, will ever keep us from union with Him. Inasmuch as the law of the divine forgiveness is here set forth in the severity towards the impenitent, and in the generous confidence towards the penitent, and the restoration to his old office, let us Christian people learn our duty to those who have gone astray, and how there is no surer way of helping them to be reliable and profitable than showing them that we trust them to be both.

Still further, from out of this second of our portraits, there comes the other lesson, that failure in a task may tend to make us successful in it hereafter. Mark shirked the ministry; he became ‘profitable for the ministry.’ That is to say, though all sin weakens, yet sin repented and sin east out may strengthen, because it may drive us nearer to God, because it may lead us to deeper humility, because it may kindle a livelier flame of gratitude, the gas that drives the engine, and because it may set us upon closer examination of our own selves, and putting up barriers at the weak places where the enemy poured in like a flood. So for all these reasons, in a far higher sense than the poet meant it, we may make stepping-stones of our dead selves to higher things. There is no fatal entail of sin upon us, by which the past is always to set the time and prescribe the measure for the future. The Israelites fought two battles, on the same field, against the same foes, the fights at Aphek against the Philistines. In one of them they were ignominiously routed and beaten from the field; and in the other, on the same spot, against the same enemy, with the same weapons, the same men triumphed; and reared upon the field a memorial alike of their present victory and of their past defeat, and called it the Stone of Help, saying, ‘Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.’

III. Lastly, we have here a third picture, that of the steadfast companion, Luke.

‘Only Luke is with me,’ and he had been with Paul for years, having joined him first at Troas, on the eve of his first missionary enterprise in Europe, having remained, as it appears, at Philippi whilst the Apostle traversed Greece, having rejoined him at Philippi on his return journey, travelled with him to Jerusalem, Caesarea, in a shipwreck, in Rome in the first imprisonment, presumably during .the interval; and now again we find him Paul’s only companion, in the second imprisonment. He is a type of the steadfast souls who never stray, but by patient continuance in communion with Paul’s Lord, ‘go from strength to strength,’ until ‘every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.’ ‘Abide with me,’ says Paul’s Master, and if we keep ourselves in the love of God, and resist the temptations to be drawn aside, steadfastly cleave unto the Lord, then the world will not have power over us, and we shall neither repeat the experience of the renegade, nor of the restored runaway, but find that day by day we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord, and run with unwearied patience and perseverance the race that is set before us. A continuous development as the result of a quiet constancy of abiding with Jesus Christ is possible for us all And if we do not come to it absolutely and with the completeness of the ideal, in our earthly experience, still we may approximate indefinitely towards it, and interruptions may become fewer and fewer and shorter and shorter, until what were broken dots, as it were, run into a continuous line, and we dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives.

Brethren! are we to be Demas? Are we to be Mark? Are we to be Luke? We may be all three. We have run away; we can go back; and thenceforward we can continue steadfast and immovable, cleaving to the Lord, and ‘loving’ - not the world, but - ‘His appearing.’

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:9-13 The love of this world, is often the cause of turning back from the truths and ways of Jesus Christ. Paul was guided by Divine inspiration, yet he would have his books. As long as we live, we must still learn. The apostles did not neglect human means, in seeking the necessaries of life, or their own instruction. Let us thank the Divine goodness in having given us so many writings of wise and pious men in all ages; and let us seek that by reading them our profiting may appear to all.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For Demas hath forsaken me - Demas is honorably mentioned in Colossians 4:14; but nothing more is known of him than what can be gathered from that place and this - that he was at first a friend and fellow-laborer of Paul, but that, under the influence of a desire to live, he afterward forsook him, even in circumstances where he greatly needed the presence of a friend.

Having loved this present world - This does not mean, necessarily, that he was an avaricious man, or that, in itself, he loved the honors or wealth of this world; but it means that he desired to live. He was not willing to stay with Paul, and subject himself to the probabilities of martyrdom; and, in order to secure his life, he departed to a place of safety. The Greek is, ἀγαπὴσας τὸν νὺν αἰῶνα agapēsas ton nun aiōna - having loved the world that now is; that is, this world as it is, with all its cares, and troubles, and comforts; having desired to remain in this world, rather than to go to the other. There is, perhaps, a slight censure here in the language of Paul - "the censure of grief;" but there is no reason why Demas should be held up as an example of a worldly man. That he desired to live longer; that he was unwilling to remain and risk the loss of life, is indeed clear. That Paul was pained by his departure, and that he felt lonely and sad, is quite apparent; but I see no evidence that Demas was influenced by what are commonly called worldly feelings, or that he was led to this course by the desire of wealth, or fame, or pleasure.

And is departed unto Thessalonica - Perhaps his native place. "Calmet."

Crescens - Nothing more is known of Crescens than is here mentioned. "He is thought by Eusebius and others to have preached in Gaul, and to have founded the church in Vienne, in Dauphiny" - Calmet.

To Galatia - See Intro. to the Epistle to the Galatians, Section 1. It is not known to what part of Galatia he had gone, or why he went there.

Titus into Dalmatia - Dalmatia was a part of Illyricum, on the gulf of Venice, or the Adriatic sea. On the situation of Illyricum, see the notes on Romans 15:19. Paul does not mention the reason why Titus had gone there; but it is not improbable that he had gone to preach the gospel, or to visit the churches which Paul had planted in that region. The apostle does not suggest that he was deserving of blame for having gone, and it can hardly be supposed that "Titus" would have left him at this time without his concurrence. Perhaps, when he permitted him to go, he did not know how soon events would come to a crisis with him; and as a letter would more readily reach Timothy at Ephesus, than Titus in Dalmatia, he requested him to come to him, instead of directing Titus to return.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. Demas—once a "fellow laborer" of Paul, along with Mark and Luke (Col 4:14; Phm 24). His motive for forsaking Paul seems to have been love of worldly ease, safety, and comforts at home, and disinclination to brave danger with Paul (Mt 13:20, 21, 22). Chrysostom implies that Thessalonica was his home.

Galatia—One oldest manuscript supports the reading "Gaul." But most oldest manuscripts, &c., "Galatia."

Titus—He must have therefore left Crete after "setting in order" the affairs of the churches there (Tit 1:5).

Dalmatia—part of the Roman province of Illyricum on the coast of the Adriatic. Paul had written to him (Tit 3:12) to come to him in the winter to Nicopolis (in Epirus), intending in the spring to preach the Gospel in the adjoining province of Dalmatia. Titus seems to have gone thither to carry out the apostle's intention, the execution of which was interrupted by his arrest. Whether he went of his own accord, as is likely, or was sent by Paul, which the expression "is departed" hardly accords with, cannot be positively decided. Paul here speaks only of his personal attendants having forsaken him; he had still friends among the Roman Christians who visited him (2Ti 4:21), though they had been afraid to stand by him at his trial (2Ti 4:16).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He showeth the reason why he desired Timothy to come to him, because most of those who were with him were gone.

For Demas hath forsaken me; some think this Demas is Demetrius, mentioned 3Jo 1:12, the name being only shortened. He was at Rome with Paul some time, Colossians 4:14. Some make a question, whether Demas wholly apostized or only left Paul for a time, and went to Thessalonica about some secular business, afterward returning.

Having loved this present world; some make the sense of this phrase nor more than minding his worldly business. Others think that he, being frightened with Paul’s danger, wholly left him, and went to Thessalonica; possibly by his own country, however, at a great distance from the danger of Nero’s court.

Crecens to Galatia, a province in the Lesser Asia, whither probably Crescens went to preach the gospel.

Titus unto Dalmatia; Dalmatia is in Sclavonia; Titus went thither (without al doubt) to preach the gospel.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For Demas hath forsaken me,.... Of this person; see Gill on Colossians 4:14. It does not appear by what is said in this clause, and in the following, that he entirely apostatized; he might forsake the apostle, and yet not forsake Christ and his interest, or make shipwreck of faith and a good conscience: his faith might be right, though low, and his love sincere, though not fervent; and through a fear of persecution, and loss of life, he might be tempted to leave the apostle, and withdraw from Rome, for his own safety; which though it was far from being commendable in him, yet may be accounted for in this state of frailty and imperfection, consistent with the grace of God; and it should seem that he afterwards was delivered from this temptation, and returned to the apostle, Colossians 4:14 for when those epistles were written, both Timothy and Mark, who are here wrote for, 2 Timothy 4:9 were with the apostle, Colossians 1:1 and Plm 1:1 and especially he ought to be thought very well of after all this, if Demas is only a contraction of Demetrius, and he is the same who is so much commended many years after this, in 3 John 1:12,

having loved this present world, not the sins and corruptions of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; such a love is inconsistent with the love of the Father and the grace of God; nor an immoderate love of worldly substance, or of money, which is the root of all evil; but a love of life, or of a longer life in this present world; he was desirous of living longer in this world, and chose not to hazard his life by staying with the apostle, a prisoner at Rome; and therefore left him, and provided for his own safety and security: and is departed unto Thessalonica: which perhaps was his native country; and however he was at a sufficient distance from Rome, where he might judge himself safe; and if he was a worldly and earthly minded man, this was a fit place for him, being a place of trade and business: and this doubtless gave rise to a tradition, that he afterwards became a priest of the idol gods among the Thessalonians. Epiphanius (a) places him among the heretics Ebion and Cerinthus, as if he was one of them.

Crescens to Galatia; he might not depart on the same account as Demas, but might be sent by the apostle to Galatia, to visit the churches there, to set things in order, and establish them in the faith, and bring an account of their state. Epiphanius (b), instead of Galatia, reads Gallia, or France; and so does Eusebius (c) and the Ethiopic version; and Jerom asserts, (d), that Crescens preached in France, and was there buried; though others say he was bishop of Chalcedon in Galatia, and put him among the seventy disciples; See Gill on Luke 10:1. The Syriac version calls him "Crispus", and the Arabic version "Priscus".

Titus to Dalmatia; who Titus was is well known; the place he went to, Dalmatia, is a country in Europe, a part of Illyricum, where the apostle had preached; see Gill on Romans 15:19. Pliny says (e), that part of Pannonia, which lies to the Adriatic sea, was called Dalmatia; it had its name from Dalmius, a city in it. The Alexandrian copy reads "Dermatia". Here the apostle had doubtless been useful for the conversion of souls, and planting of churches, and therefore sent Titus thither, to assist them in their state and condition, and bring him an account of them. For in the "second" and "third" centuries we read of churches in Dalmatia; and likewise in the "fourth" century; for there were bishops from Dalmatia in the synod at Sardica; and in the "fifth" century, Glycerius was bishop of Salo, a city in this country; and in the "sixth" century, one Malchus was bishop of the Dalmatian church (f).

(a) Contra Haeres, Haeres. 51. (b) lbid. (c) Hist. Eccl l. 3. c. 4. (d) Catalog. Script. Eccles. sect. 13. p. 90. (e) Nat. Hist. l. 3. c. 25. (f) Hist. Eccl. Magdeburg, cent. 2. c. 2. p. 4. cent. 3. c. 2. p. 4. cent. 4. c. 2. p. 6. c. 9. p. 425. cent. 5. c. 2. p. 7. cent 6. c. 2. p. 8.

Geneva Study Bible

For Demas hath forsaken me, having {d} loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

(d) Contented himself with this world.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

2 Timothy 4:10. Δημᾶς γάρ με ἐγκατέλιπεν] ἐγκαταλείπειν is equivalent to “leave in the lurch.” It is wrong to interpret this either of a departure from the place merely, or of an entire apostasy from the gospel. Demas is mentioned also in Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 1:24 as a σύνεργος of the apostle.

ἀγαπήσας τὸν νῦν αἰῶνα] The reason why Demas had left him; ἀγαπήσας, not “having fixed his love on” (Matthies), but “because he loved.”

τὸν νῦν αἰῶνα] the present world, as opposed to the future, i.e. the earthly, visible blessings of life. In the desire for these things, Demas had left the apostle and gone to Thessalonica, καὶ ἐπορεύθη εἰς Θεσσαλονίκην, perhaps “for the sake of trade,” as some conjecture, or because it was his native place. Chrysostom: τῆς ἀνέσεως ἐρασθεὶς, τοῦ ἀκινδύνου καὶ τοῦ ἀσφαλοῦς, μᾶλλον εἵλετο οἴκοι τρυφᾷν, ἢ μετʼ ἐμοῦ ταλαιπωρεῖσθαι καὶ συνδιαφέρειν μοι τοὺς παρόντας κινδύνους.

Κρήσκης εἰς Γαλατίαν, sc. ἐπορεύθη; but without ἀγαπήσας τὸν νῦν αἰῶνα. Crescens is mentioned only here. Nothing further is known of him, nor do we know why he had set out for Galatia, and Titus for Dalmatia. The verb ἐπορεύθη is against the suggestion of Matthies, that they had been sent thither by Paul.[66]

[66] Hofmann, taking Γαλίαν to be the original reading, supposes that Crescens and Titus had left the apostle in order to work for the gospel in places to which Paul himself had not come.

Expositor's Greek Testament

2 Timothy 4:10. Demas had been a loyal fellow-worker of the apostle (Philemon 1:24; Colossians 4:14). Chrys. supposes that Thessalonica was his home. It is futile to discuss the reality or the degree of his blameworthiness. Possibly he alleged a call to Thessalonica. All we know is that St. Paul singles him out among the absent ones for condemnation.

ἐγκατέλιπεν: dereliquit (Vulg.), forsook, not merely left. See reff. The aorist points to a definite past occasion now in St. Paul’s mind.

ἀγαπήσας τὸν νῦν αἰῶνα: See 1 Timothy 6:17. It is just possible that Bengel is right in seeing an intentional deplorable contrast (“luctuosum vide antitheton”) between this expression and 2 Timothy 4:8.

εἰς Θεσσαλονίκην: Lightfoot (Biblical Essays, p. 247) alleges other reasons for the supposition that Demas hailed from Thessalonica, viz., He “is mentioned next to Aristarchus, the Thessalonian in Philemon 1:24, and … the name Demetrius, of which Demas is a contract form, occurs twice among the list of politarchs of that city”.

Κρήσκης εἰς Γαλατίαν: sc. ἐπορεύθη. Crescens and Titus are not reproached for their absence. This passage, with the variant Γαλλίαν (see apparat. crit.), is the source of all that is said about Crescens by later writers.

Γαλατίαν: That this means the Roman province, or the region in Asia Minor (so Const. Apost. vii. 46) is favoured by the consideration that all the other places mentioned in this context are east of Rome. On the other hand, if we assume that St. Paul had recently visited Spain (Clem. Rom. 1 Corinthians 5; Muratorian Canon), it would naturally follow that he had visited Southern Gaul en route, and Crescens might plausibly be supposed to have gone to confirm the Churches there. So Euseb. H. E. iii. 4, Epiph. Haeres. li. 11, Theodore and Theodoret, h. l.

Τίτος εἰς Δαλματίαν: This statement suggests that Titus had only been a temporary deputy for St. Paul in Crete. On the spelling of the name Dalmatia in apparat. crit., see Deissmann, Bible Studies, trans. p. 182.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

10. Demas] Very likely a shortened form of Demetrius; two persons of the name occur in N.T., Acts 19:24, the silversmith of Ephesus, and, 3 John 1:12, the bearer possibly of that letter, one to whose character all bore testimony, which St John himself ratified. The Demetrius or Demas here seems to occupy a middle place; a Christian believer and follower, who however had lost ‘his first love,’ and forsook the Apostle in his hour of trial, to attend to the business of the world. He had been with him in the first imprisonment, Colossians 4:14.

hath forsaken] Forsook, so in 2 Timothy 4:16. The same strong compound verb and tense occur Matthew 27:46, where the rendering ‘why hast thou forsaken me?’ is more correct, because the aorist is used there of what is just happening, cf. Php 2:28, Galatians 6:11.

having loved] ‘Because he loved’; this verb is chosen in half-conscious irony of contrast to 2 Timothy 4:8 and the love set on the future appearing of the Lord.

this present world] Lit. ‘age’; cf. note on 1 Timothy 6:17. The other world, the world of eternity, is under the Eternal God the King of the ages, 1 Timothy 1:17. Cf. Luke 20:35; Luke 18:30. ‘The Apostles speak of themselves and their generation as living on the frontier of two æons, the Gospel transferring them across the border. The distinction of time between the two becomes lost in the moral and spiritual conception.’ Bp Lightfoot on Galatians 1:4.

unto Thessalonica] Why, is not known, except so far as this place suggests either home or business.

Crescens to Galatia] Before the Christian era and for two centuries afterwards the form Galatia (Galatæ) is almost universally used by Greek writers to the exclusion of Gallia (Galli), when they do not employ Celtice (Celtæ), whether speaking of the people of Gaul properly so called, or of the Asiatic colony. And ‘Galatia’ here was traditionally interpreted of European Gaul. It is thus explained by Eusebius H. E. iii. 4 ‘Of the other followers of St Paul, Crescens is recorded as having been sent to Gallia,’ and by others. It is so taken also by those mss. which read Gallian for Galatian, for the former reading may be regarded as a gloss. The Churches of Vienne and Mayence both claimed Crescens as their founder. Weight is also to be attributed to this tradition in favour of western Gaul because it is not the prima facie view. From the language of Clement ad Cor. c. 5. ‘having taught righteousness through the whole world and having come to the boundary of the west’ it appears that St Paul’s intention to visit Spain (Romans 15:24) was fulfilled, and it is not improbable that this western journey included a visit to Gaul, which would make a visit of Crescens to it afterwards as natural as the visit of Titus to Dalmatia, with which it is linked. The above, representing substantially the view of Bp Lightfoot (Galatians, pp. 2, 31, Clement, p. 50) is further illustrated in Introduction, pp. 42, 44.

Titus unto Dalmatia] Dalmatia was part of the Roman province of Illyricum on the east coast of the Adriatic, now Herzegovina or Bosnia. Its capital was Salona (now Spalatro) to which place the Emperor Diocletian retired. St Paul had preached in the neighbourhood ‘round about unto Illyricum,’ possibly near Dyrrachium, now Durazzo, the scene of the great contest between Cæsar and Pompeius, and the port from Macedonia into Italy. The mission of Titus would naturally connect itself with some such labours, which still formed a part of the ‘care of all the churches,’ see Introduction,’ Life of Titus.’

Bengel's Gnomen

2 Timothy 4:10. [15]Εἰς Θεσσαλονίκην) The Scholiast M.S. in the Medic. Library, καὶ ἐκεῖ (at Thessalonica) ἱερεὺς εἰδώλων γενόμενος, “and (Demas) became there (at Thessalonica) an idolatrous priest;” of which I have read nowhere else: Pricæus.—Γαλατίαν, Galatia) This reading seems to have crept in here owing to the rhythm it forms to Δαλματίαν. Adequate authorities have ΓΑΛΛΊΑΝ;[16] and some who retain ΓΑΛΑΤΊΑΝ refer it to Western or European Galatia, i.e. Gaul. See Pregizeri Suevia Sacra, page 499, seq. ex P. de Marca.—Τίτος, Titus) He therefore departed from Crete, after the affairs of the churches were “set in order” there, Titus 1:5. These persons had either attended or visited Paul.

[15] γὰρ, for) Paul is almost left alone.—V. g.

[16] Hence the margin of the 2d Ed. raises the reading Γαλλίαν, formerly marked ε, to γ, and the Germ. Vers. has entirely adopted it.—E. B.

AD(Δ)Gfg Vulg., Iren., and Rec. Text, read Γαλατίαν. C is the only very old MS. which supports Γαλλίαν: so Epiphanius and Jerome.—ED.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 10. - Forsook for hath forsaken, A.V.; went for is departed, A.V.; to for unto, A.V. (twice). Demas. Nothing more is known of Demas than what is gathered from the mention of him in Colossians 4:14 and Philemon 1:1:24. We learn from those passages that he was a fellow labourer of the apostle, and it is remarkable that in them both he is coupled, as here, with Luke and Mark (Colossians 4:10). (See Introduction.) Having loved this present world. It would appear from this that Demas had not the faith or the courage to run the risk of sharing St. Paul's imminent martyrdom at Rome, but left him, while he was free to do so, under pretence of an urgent call to Thessaloniea; just as Mark left Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:13). But there is no ground to believe that he was an apostate from the faith. The coupling together of Demas and Aristarchus in Philemon 1:24 suggests that Demas may have been a Thessalonian, as we know that Aristarchus was (Acts 20:4). Demas is thought to be a shortened form of Demarchus. If so, we have a slight additional indication of his being a Thessalonian, as compounds with archos or arches would seem to have been common in Thessalonica (compare Aristarchus and πολιτάρχης, Acts 17:6, 8). Crescens (Κρήσκης); only mentioned here. It is a Latin name, like Πούδης, Pudens, in ver. 21. There was a cynic philosopher of this name in the second century, a great enemy of the Christians. The tradition ('Apost. Constit.,' 7:46) that he preached the gospel in Galatia is probably derived from this passage. Titus, etc. The last mention of Titus, not reckoning the Epistle to Titus, is that in 2 Corinthians 12:18, from which it appears that St. Paul had sent him to Corinth just before his own last visit to that city. How the interval was filled up, and where Titus passed the time, we know not. He is not once named in the Acts of the Apostles, nor in any of St. Paul's Epistles written during his first imprisonment. But we gather from Titus 1:5 that he accompanied St. Paul to Crete, presumably after the apostle's return from Spain; that he was left there for a time to organize the Church; that later he joined the apostle at Nicopolis (Titus 3:12),and, doubtless by St. Paul's desire, went to Dalmatia, as mentioned in this tenth verse. And here our knowledge of him ends. Tradition pretty consistently makes him Bishop of Gortyna, in Crete, where are the ruins of a very ancient church dedicated to St. Titus, in which service is occasionally performed by priests from the neighbourhood (Dean Howson, in 'Dict. of Bible:' art. "Titus"). 2 Timothy 4:10

Vincent's Word Studies

Demas

A contraction of Demetrius or Demarchus. He is mentioned Colossians 4:13 and Plm 1:24. It is supposed that he was a Thessalonian. On leaving Paul he went to Thessalonica; and in Philemon his name is mentioned next to that of Aristarchus the Thessalonian. That no epithet is attached to his name in Colossians 4:14 (comp. "Luke the beloved physician") may be a shadow of Demas's behavior mentioned here, in case Colossians was written later than 2ndTimothy.

Hath forsaken (ἐγκατέλειπεν)

In Pastorals here and 2 Timothy 4:16. See on 2 Corinthians 4:9. The compounded preposition ἐν indicates a condition or circumstances in which one has been left, as the common phrase left in the lurch. Comp. Germ. im Stiche.

Having loved (ἀγαπήσας)

The participle is explanatory, because he loved.

This present world (τὸν νῦν αἰῶνα)

See on 1 Timothy 6:17. Contrast love his appearing, 2 Timothy 4:8.

Crescens (Κρήσκης)

N.T.o. Unknown.

Galatia (Γαλατίαν)

Most probably Galatia. See Introd. to Galatians. Eusebius (H. E. iii. 4) says: "Paul testifies that Crescens was sent to Gaul (Γαλλίαν)." Tischendorf adopts this reading.

Dalmatia (Δαλματίαν)

continued...