Verse 11
persecutions, sufferings; what things befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: and out of them all the Lord delivered me.
At Antioch ... Any forger, writing at a later date, would certainly have specified which Antioch he meant; but Paul, writing to one who was there when it all happened, had no such need, providing inadvertently a convincing mark of the genuineness of this epistle. It was of course Antioch of Pisidia, not of Syria. Of Paul's almost innumerable hardships and persecutions, he chose here exactly those with which Timothy was familiar. Acts 13 and Acts 14 record the events mentioned here, as well as Timothy's connection with them.
Rather than recounting again all of the persecutions endured by the apostle, we should dwell upon the lesson which he advanced on the basis of them, namely, that the Lord had stood by him and delivered him out of every one of them. This, of course, was intended to arm Timothy to the utmost during the persecutions which were certain to descend upon him also.
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