Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Timothy 4:6

τῆς�. So אACGP 17: rec. text has τῆς ἐμῆς�. with D2EKL &c.

6. ἐγὼ γὰρ ἤδη σπένδομαι. For I am already being poured out, sc. as a libation. γάρ supplies the connexion with the preceding injunction, which gathers solemnity and emphasis from the fact that St Paul is conscious that this is his last charge; ἐγὼ γάρ is in contrast with σὺ δέ of 2 Timothy 4:5. σπένδομαι is correctly rendered delibor in the Vulgate; the metaphor is probably suggested by that part of the Jewish ritual in which the sacrifice was accompanied by a drink-offering of wine, σπείσεις σπονδὴν σίκερα κυρίῳ (Numbers 28:7). Lightfoot (in Philippians 2:17) notes that Seneca regarded his death in a similar light: “respergens proximos servorum, addita voce libare se liquorem illum Jovi liberatori” (Tac. Ann. xv. 64). Ignatius (Romans 2) has the same idea πλέον μοι μὴ παράσχησθε τοῦ σπονδισθῆναι θεῷ, ὡς ἔτι θυσιαστήριον ἕτοιμόν ἐστιν.

The contrast between St Paul’s hope of release when writing his letter to the Philippians and his calm expectation of death when engaged on this Epistle comes out well at this point, the verbal similarities of expression being particularly interesting when we remember that Timothy to whom he writes this letter was with him when he wrote to the Philippians. At Philippians 2:17 we have ἀλλὰ εἰ καὶ σπένδομαι ἐπὶ τῇ θυσίᾳ, but the hypothetical is here changed for a categorical statement ἐγὼ γὰρ ἤδη σπένδομαι, I am already being poured out (not, as in the A.V., “I am now ready to be offered”). Again in Philippians 1:23 we find τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ἔχων εἰς τὸ ἀναλῦσαι, but here ὁ καιρὸς τῆς�. And at Philippians 3:13-14 he speaks of himself as not yet having apprehended but still pressing forward to the goal, while in 2 Timothy 4:7 of this chapter he has ‘finished his course.’

ὁ καιρὸς τῆς�, and the time of my departure is come. The noun ἀνάλυσις does not occur elsewhere in the Greek Bible, but the verb ἀναλύειν is common in the later Apocryphal books in the sense of ‘to depart.’ Primarily it means ‘to unloose,’ and so it is used (as at 2Ma 9:1) of breaking up an encampment, and elsewhere (as in Luke 12:36) of leaving a feast, and again (as in Homer Od. xv. 548) of loosing from moorings. There can be no doubt that departure, not dissolution, is the meaning of ἀνάλυσις here, and that the Vulgate resolutio is a wrong translation. Cp. Philo (in Flaccum 21), τὴν ἐκ τοῦ βίου τελευταίαν�, and Clement (§ 44) of the blessed dead, τελείαν ἔσχον τὴν�. See crit. note.

ἐφέστηκεν seems to mean is come rather than ‘is at hand‚’ as the A.V. has it. It is strictly parallel to ἤδη σπένδομαι, I am already being poured out.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Timothy 4:6

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