2 Timothy 1:15

Ver. 15. A few sad notices are now introduced of persons who had failed to do toward the suffering cause of Christ in the apostle what he had been earnestly pressing upon Timothy. Thou hnowest that all who are in Asia turned away from me. Who these might be we cannot tell, except as regards the two individuals specially mentioned, of whom is Phygellus and Hermogenes; nor of these do we know anything more than the names, for no other notice exists regarding them. But the “all in Asia” can only refer to some definite number in that region the Roman province which bore the name of Asia with whom the apostle had, in his hour of trial, some sort of recognised connection. As Timothy knew, at least, the general circumstances referred to, the apostle naturally left a good deal to be supplied. He does not even say where the conduct he felt so painfully was exhibited; but the natural supposition is, it was at Rome, and in connection with the accusation brought against him, or the trial and imprisonment to which it led. In this emergency those Asiatics (with one noble exception presently mentioned) turned away from him, ἀπεστράφησάν not “ are turned away,” as if they had gone into settled alienation and apostasy for it refers to a specific act of unkindness toward the apostle; yet not, perhaps, so marked as that implied in the translation of Alford they repudiated him; for the verb does not strictly import more than to stand aloof: when they should have showed friendship, they ignored him. Even this was bad enough, and betrayed a culpable lack of sympathy with one who had done so much for them, and a kind of half-heartedness to the cause of which he was the peculiar representative.