Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus.
The verse belongs to the final chapter of the letter, in the closing written while Paul was imprisoned in Rome. It is part of Paul's tender final farewell from prison, sending greetings to named people and a household. Its mention as Paul's last message to Timothy shows the affection between the aged apostle and Timothy as his beloved spiritual son. Paul affectionately and honorably greets Prisca, also called Priscilla, and Aquila, whom he also greets in other letters written at different times. Wherever Priscilla and Aquila lived, they hosted a church in their home. They risked their lives for Paul.
Priscilla taught Christian theology to Apollos at Ephesus, helping prepare him for ministry. The word house means household, which is equivalent to family. Its primary and real sense is people, not a building, for the real house is people.
The verse stands in the third and fourth chapters which, with Matthew 24, forecast the present condition of Christendom and show the Lord's coming is at hand, though the day and hour are not known. The signs that precede and usher in His coming are plainly set forth in Scripture for watching, and all the predicted signs in the social, moral, political, civil, ecclesiastical, and spiritual spheres are now fulfilled or fulfilling. The present life in the divided state of the decadent Roman empire, with nations torn with strife and contention and supporting millions of men in arms in anticipation of vast wars, matches the condition of the world at Christ's first coming. In the last days perilous times come, with men departing from the faith and going in devious ways, seen in atheism, infidelity, Socialism, and anarchy rising in a wave eating at the foundations of religious, political, and social life. Physical portents join them, with more earthquakes within the last century than in all previous recorded history, so that together these heavenly and earthly phenomena and political and religious upheavals mean Christ is coming again soon.
The verse belongs to the final chapter of the letter, in the closing written while Paul was imprisoned in Rome. It is part of Paul's tender final farewell from prison, sending greetings to named people and a household. Its mention as Paul's last message to Timothy shows the affection between the aged apostle and Timothy as his beloved spiritual son. Paul affectionately and honorably greets Prisca, also called Priscilla, and Aquila, whom he also greets in other letters written at different times. Wherever Priscilla and Aquila lived, they hosted a church in their home. They risked their lives for Paul.
Priscilla taught Christian theology to Apollos at Ephesus, helping prepare him for ministry. The word house means household, which is equivalent to family. Its primary and real sense is people, not a building, for the real house is people.
The verse stands in the third and fourth chapters which, with Matthew 24, forecast the present condition of Christendom and show the Lord's coming is at hand, though the day and hour are not known. The signs that precede and usher in His coming are plainly set forth in Scripture for watching, and all the predicted signs in the social, moral, political, civil, ecclesiastical, and spiritual spheres are now fulfilled or fulfilling. The present life in the divided state of the decadent Roman empire, with nations torn with strife and contention and supporting millions of men in arms in anticipation of vast wars, matches the condition of the world at Christ's first coming. In the last days perilous times come, with men departing from the faith and going in devious ways, seen in atheism, infidelity, Socialism, and anarchy rising in a wave eating at the foundations of religious, political, and social life. Physical portents join them, with more earthquakes within the last century than in all previous recorded history, so that together these heavenly and earthly phenomena and political and religious upheavals mean Christ is coming again soon.