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in that important exhortation II Tim. 2: 15, where it is translated "study". The same
word is translated "endeavour" in Eph. 4: 3; "be forward" (Gal. 2: 10) and "labour"
(Heb. 4: 11). Spoude besides being translated "diligence" is rendered "haste",
"business", "care", "carefulness", "earnest care" and "forwardness". Paul had prepared
Timothy for this call, by reminding him, at the commencement of the letter, of the
earnestness manifested by Onesiphorus, who,
"When he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me" (II Tim. 1: 17),
which remark contains the suggestion that Onesiphorus could have found many excuses
for not being able to find Paul if he had been so minded. If Onesiphorus could use such
diligence, then surely his own son in the faith would not fail him.
"Do thy diligence to come to me shortly" (II Tim. 4: 9).
"Do thy diligence to come before winter" (II Tim. 4: 21).
We must not think that because Paul wrote these words from Rome, or that because
Timothy was even further south than that latitude, the winter was not formidable. Its
very name in the Greek speaks otherwise. Cheimon, is connected with cheimazomai,
"to be tossed with a tempest" (Acts 27: 18), an experience which the apostle could
never forget. Cheimon is translated "foul weather" (Matt. 16: 3) and "tempest"
(Acts 27: 20), and the prayer "that your flight be not in the winter" (Matt. 24: 20)
reveals the serious problem that travel in the winter implied. For this reason the apostle
asked Timothy to bring with him "the cloke" which he had left at Troas (II Tim. 4: 13).
Phailone, this cloak was a cloak with long sleeves and reaching to the feet, designed
specially for winter use. Some authorities lean to the idea that Paul was referring to a
parchment valise or portmanteau and read phelone here instead of phailone, a valise in
which his books were kept; but as Alford remarks:
"It would be unnatural, in case a bag of books had been left behind, to ask a friend to bring the
bag, also the books and especially the parchments."
It is, however, a bad argument to bring forward the fact that the Jews had a word of
similar spelling for a cloak, for they used exactly the same word for the linen with which
they wrapped round the scroll of the law, so that that argument cuts both ways. If the
meaning "cloak" is retained, there is a parallel with the closing days of William Tyndale
that is suggestive. Writing from his damp prison in Vilvorde in the winter that preceded
his martyrdom he asked "for the Lord Jesus sake", for a warmer cap, something with
which to patch his leggings, a woolen shirt, and above all his Hebrew Bible, Grammar
and Dictionary.
What the "books" and especially "the parchments" were we do not know.
"Poor inventory of a saint's possession! not worth a hundredth part of what a buffoon
would get for one jest in Cæsar's palace, or an acrobat for a feat in the amphitheatre . . . If
he has the cloak to keep him warm, and the book and parchments to teach and encourage
him, and Mark to help him in various ways, and if, above all, Timothy will come himself,
then life will have shed on him its last rays of sunshine; and in lesser things as well as in
all greater, he will wait with thankfulness, even with exultation, the pouring out in