Onesiphorus Finds Paul in Rome

Paul recounts how Onesiphorus searched for and found Paul in Rome when he was in prison (2 Tim 1:17). Fee suggests that the text implies Paul was not in a public prison and therefore was hard to find (Fee, 1 & 2 Timothy, 237). Alternatively, Paul might have been in Campus Martius (on the outskirts of Rome), where military prisoners often were taken (Witherington, Letters, 324). Witherington (who assumes that Onesiphorus has died; see below) notes that, in the first century, visiting a criminal constituted a high risk, and “it appears that Onesiphorus paid for it with his life” (Witherington, Letters, 325).

Against the view that Onesiphorus actually traveled to Rome, it has been suggested that Ῥώμῃ (Rhōmē, “Rome”) should be understood as the noun ῥώμη (rhōmē, “strength”). Thus, the phrase γενόμενος ἐν Ῥώμῃ (genomenos en Rhōmē, “arrived in Rome”) could mean “when he had recovered strength.” However, this reading has been discounted as unlikely (Dibelius, Pastoralbriefe, 79; Hanson, Pastoral Epistles, 126).