Letter guide · c. AD 64–67
2 Timothy
2 Timothy should be read as a letter to a particular community before it is reduced to a collection of isolated quotations.
Reader question
Why did Paul write 2 Timothy, and what is debated about its setting or authorship?
Second Timothy presents itself as a final letter from prison, traditionally placed in a second Roman imprisonment about AD 64-67. Authorship is disputed with the other Pastorals, though its personal notices lead some scholars to consider whether authentic Pauline memories survive in it. Paul asks Timothy to come before winter.
- Date
- c. AD 64–67
- Written from
- Rome
- Authorship status
- Direct Pauline authorship widely disputed
- Setting confidence
- Final Roman imprisonment (traditional reconstruction)
- Key line
- 2 Timothy 4:7 — “I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.”
- Earliest witness shown
- Codex Sinaiticus, c. AD 350
Occasion and argument
Paul’s last letter — from a Roman cell, near the end.
Second Timothy is framed as a deeply personal appeal from a prisoner to his beloved coworker. It remembers the faith of Timothy’s grandmother Lois and mother Eunice, urges him to rekindle his gift, and asks him not to be ashamed of either the gospel or Paul’s chains. Courage here is not temperament: it is the willingness to endure suffering while guarding a trust received through a network of teachers and witnesses.
The letter answers abandonment with practices of continuity. Timothy must entrust what he has heard to reliable people who can teach others, handle the word of truth carefully, pursue righteousness with companions, and remain grounded in the sacred writings he has known from childhood. Images of soldier, athlete, farmer, worker, vessel, and servant make endurance concrete without reducing ministry to a single model of authority.
The guide places 2 Timothy alongside the travel chronology because its names, plans, conflicts, and greetings belong to a living network. Its key line, 2 Timothy 4:7, is read in that larger movement rather than presented as a detached slogan.
Chronology and manuscript witness
The final charge to preach the word stands beside unmistakable signs of mortality. Paul says his departure is near, asks Timothy to come before winter, requests the cloak left at Troas and the books and parchments, and names coworkers who have left, traveled, remained, or should be brought. His claim to have finished the race emerges from loneliness and a first defense at which no one stood with him, yet he says the Lord strengthened him.
Rome is named through Onesiphorus’s search for Paul, and the chains are described more harshly than the house arrest at the end of Acts. The traditional chronology therefore places this letter in a final Roman imprisonment around AD 64–67. Authorship remains disputed with the other Pastorals, though its personal notices lead some scholars to consider whether authentic Pauline memories or fragments have been preserved within its present form.
Codex Sinaiticus (Codex Sinaiticus) is the witness pictured for this letter, dated c. AD 350 and associated with British Library, London. Text shown. The image demonstrates textual survival in that manuscript tradition; it does not prove the proposed date or place of composition.
Common questions
When was 2 Timothy written?
About AD 64-67 on the traditional reconstruction, in a harsher imprisonment than the house arrest that closes Acts. The chains are described very differently, and Onesiphorus has to search for him in Rome.
Who wrote 2 Timothy?
Disputed along with the other Pastoral Letters. Its unusually specific personal material — the cloak left at Troas, the books and parchments, named companions who stayed or left — leads some scholars to argue that genuine Pauline fragments are preserved within it.
Is 2 Timothy Paul’s last letter?
On the traditional ordering, yes. It reads as one: Paul says his departure is near, that he has finished the race, and that at his first defence no one stood with him. Acts records no death, so the ordering depends on the traditional reconstruction.
What is 2 Timothy about?
Continuity under abandonment. Timothy is to entrust what he has heard to reliable people who can teach others, and to hold to writings he has known since childhood. Endurance is described through soldier, athlete and farmer rather than through any single model of authority.
Bibliography and sources
- Romans through Philemon, World English Bible (public domain). View source
- The project’s 67-row chronology, cross-referencing Acts and the letters and labeling debated dates.
- Papyrus 46 and Codex Sinaiticus records, repositories, image sources, and rights in the Pauline Letters manuscript registry.
- Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament (Doubleday, 1997).
- E. P. Sanders, Paul: The Apostle’s Life, Letters, and Thought (Fortress Press, 2015).