Final Greetings
3:12-15 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.
Do your best to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way. See to it that nothing is lacking to them.
And let our people too learn to practise fine deeds, that they may be able to supply all necessary needs, and that they may not live useless lives.
All who are with me send you their greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith.
Grace be with you all. Amen.
As usual Paul ends his letter with personal messages and greetings. Of Artemas we know nothing at all. Tychicus was one of Paul's most trusted messengers. He was the bearer of the letters to the Colossian and the Ephesian Churches ( Colossians 4:7 ; Ephesians 6:21 ). Nicopolis was in Epirus and was the best centre for work in the Roman province of Dalmatia. It is interesting to remember that it was there that Epictetus, the great Stoic philosopher, later had his school.
Apollos was the well-known teacher ( Acts 18:24 ). Of Zenas we know nothing at all. He is here called a nomikos ( Greek #3544 ). That could mean one of two things. Nomikos ( Greek #3544 ) is the regular word for a scribe and Zenas may have been a converted Jewish Rabbi. It is also the normal Greek for a lawyer; and, if that is its meaning, Zenas has the distinction of being the only lawyer mentioned in the New Testament.
Paul's last piece of advice is that the Christian people should practise good deeds, so that they themselves should be independent and also able to help others who are in need. The Christian workman works not only to have enough for himself but also to have something to give away.
Next come the final greetings; and then, as in every letter, Paul's last word is grace.
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)
FURTHER READING
Titus
D. Guthrie, The Pastoral Epistles (TC E)
W. Lock, The Pastoral Epistles (ICC G)
E. F. Scott, The Pastoral Epistles (MC E)
E. K. Simpson, The Pastoral Epistles
Abbreviations
CGT: Cambridge Greek Testament
ICC: International Critical Commentary
MC: Moffatt Commentary
TC: Tyndale Commentary
E: English Text
G: Greek Text
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)
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