2 Timothy 4:9
For Demas hath left me, loving this world, and is gone to Thessalonica:
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Demas enim me reliquit, diligens hoc sæculum, et abiit Thessalonicam :
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT) shown from 2 Timothy 4:10
- Δημᾶς γάρ με ἐγκατέλιπεν ἀγαπήσας τὸν νῦν αἰῶνα, καὶ ἐπορεύθη εἰς Θεσσαλονίκην, Κρήσκης εἰς Γαλατίαν, Τίτος εἰς Δαλματίαν·
Haydock's commentary
Demas hath, &c. The Demas here mentioned, is the same that was at Rome with St. Paul in his first voyage, in A.D. 61 or 62, and of whom he makes mention in his epistle to the Colossians, (iv. 14.) also in that to Philemon, ver. 24. He was perverted in this last voyage, in 65, and abandoned his master in the time of danger. It is not ascertained whether he entirely renounced his faith, or whether God gave his grace to rise from his fall; or whether the love of the world, with which St. Paul here reproaches him, was only a passing fault, and an effect of pure human infirmity. St. Epiphanius (hæres. 51.) presumes that he renounced the faith, and was engaged in the heresies of Cerintus, Ebion, and others, who held Jesus Christ to be no more than a mere man. Many moderns, Grotius, Menochius, Cornel.[Cornelius a Lapide?], &c. believed that he returned with St. Paul: and Estius himself seems to think that he was the same Demas of which St. Ignatius speaks, writing to the Magnesians, calling him a worthy bishop of God. But this is founded on a false supposition, that this letter was written during his first confinement at Rome, or at least before St. Paul wrote his epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon. (Calmet)
Loving this world; i.e. his safety, and to avoid persecutions. (Witham)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, 2 Timothy 1:1,2
What is the reason of his writing this second Epistle to Timothy? He had said, “I hope to come unto thee shortly” ( 1 Tim. iii. 14 .), and as this had not taken place, instead of coming to him, he consoles him by a letter, when he was grieving perhaps for his absence, and oppressed by the cares of the government, which he had now taken in hand. For even great men, when they are placed at the helm, and are charged with the direction of the Church, feel the strangeness of their position, and are overwhelmed, as it were, by the waves of business. This was particularly the case when the Gospel was first preached, when the ground was everywhere unturned, and all was opposition and hostility. There were, besides, heresies commencing from the Jewish teachers, as he has shown in his former Epistle. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, 2 Timothy 1:1,2
These things which he before prayed for, he again invokes upon him. And observe how, at the very beginning, he excuses himself for not having come to him, nor seen him. For his words, “Till I come,” and, “Hoping to come to thee shortly,” had led Timothy to expect his coming soon. For this he excuses himself, but he does not immediately mention the cause of his not coming, lest he should grieve him mightily. For he was detained in prison by the emperor. But when at the end of the Epistle he invited him to come to him, then he informed him of it. He does not at the outset plunge him into sorrow, but encourages the hope that he shall see him. “Greatly desiring to see thee,” and “Do thy diligence to come unto me shortly.” ( 2 Tim. i. 4, and iv. 9 .) Immediately therefore he raises him up, and proceeds to praise him.
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, 2 Timothy 4:9-13
2 Timothy iv. 9-13 “Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me: For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.”
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).