“This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.”
My Notes
What Does 2 Timothy 1:15 Mean?
"This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes." Paul writes his final letter from a Roman prison cell, and this verse is one of the most heartbreaking in the New Testament. "All they which are in Asia" — the province where Paul spent years planting churches, including Ephesus — have abandoned him. He names two specifically: Phygellus and Hermogenes, otherwise unknown. They were apparently significant enough that their desertion hurt.
The word "turned away" (apostraphēsan) means to turn one's back, to desert. Paul faces execution alone, abandoned by the very communities he built. This is the emotional context of 2 Timothy — a man writing his last words while surrounded by absence rather than support.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Have you ever experienced the desertion of people you invested in — and how did it affect your faith?
- 2.What does Paul's loneliness teach you about the cost of faithfulness?
- 3.How do you reconcile the reality that even deeply faithful people end up abandoned?
- 4.When everyone else has left, how have you experienced God 'standing with you'?
Devotional
All they which are in Asia have turned away from me. Paul writes this from prison. His final letter. And it opens with the loneliest statement an apostle ever made: everyone left.
Not some. All. The churches he planted. The people he discipled. The communities he poured years of his life into. When it cost them something to be associated with him — when the Roman government made it dangerous to stand with Paul — they turned away. And he names two: Phygellus and Hermogenes. We know nothing about them except that they abandoned Paul when he needed them most. Their names are immortalized not for what they did but for what they didn't do: stay.
If you've ever been abandoned — if the people you invested in disappeared when things got hard, if the community you built walked away when it cost them something — you're reading the diary of a man who knows exactly how that feels. Paul, the greatest church planter in history, is dying alone. The churches he built couldn't handle the risk of association.
But keep reading. Because in the next chapter, Paul writes: "The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me." When everyone left, God didn't. The abandonment was real. The grief was real. But so was the presence of the one who never turns away. If everyone in Asia can leave Paul and God still shows up, then whoever has left you hasn't taken God with them.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia,.... Either those that followed the apostle from Asia to Rome; or who…
This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me - That is, in that part of Asia Minor of which…
All they which are in Asia - It seems as if the apostle must refer to the Asiatic Christians which were then at Rome, or…
Having (Ti2 1:13, Ti2 1:14) exhorted Timothy to hold fast,
I. He mentions the apostasy of many from the doctrine of…
A Sad Warning and a Bright Example
The connexion is: -Many faithless ones failed me; be thou faithful all the more: the…
Cross References
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