[4] "As a curiosity of interpretation, Ellicott (see also Lightfoot, p. 170) mentions the conjecture of Schwegler, that Euodia and Syntyche are really designations of _Church-parties_ [the imagined Petrine and Pauline parties], the names being devised and significant [Euodia='_Good-way_,' Orthodoxy; Syntyche='_Combination_,' of Gentiles and Jews on equal terms]. This theory of course regards our Epistle as a fabrication of a later generation, intended as an _eirenicon_. 'What will not men affirm?'" (Note on ver. 2 in _The Cambridge Bible for Schools_). [5] We know nothing for certain of this person. Lightfoot suggests that it was Epaphroditus, whom St Paul would thus commission not only orally but in writing, as a sort of credential. One curious and most improbable conjecture is that it was _St Paul's wife_. Renan (_Saint Paul_, p. 148) renders here _ma chere epouse_. [6] Perhaps the bishop of Rome of a later day. So Origen and Eusebius. But we cannot be certain of the identity. [7] "Cp. Rev. iii. 5, xiii. 8, xvii. 8, xx. 12, 15, xxi. 27; and Luke x. 20. And see Exod. xxxii. 32, 33; Ps. lxix. 28, lxxxvii. 6; Isa. iv. 3; Ezek. xiii. 9; Dan. xii. 1. The result of the comparison of these passages with this seems to be that St Paul here refers to the Lord's 'knowledge of them that are His' (2 Tim. ii. 19: cp. John x. 27, 28), for time and eternity. All the passages in the Revelation, save iii. 5, are clearly in favour of a reference of the phrase to the certainty of the ultimate salvation of all true saints . . . so too Dan. xii. 1 and Luke x. 20. Rev. iii. 5 appears to point in another direction (see Trench on that passage). But in view of the other mentions of the 'Book' in the Revelation the language of iii. 5 may well be only a vivid assertion that the name in question _shall be found_ in an indelible register. . . . Practically, the Apostle here speaks of Clement and the rest as having given illustrious proof of their part and lot in that 'life eternal' which is 'to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent' (John xvii. 3).--The word '_names_' powerfully suggests the individuality and speciality of divine love." (Note in _The Cambridge Bible for Schools_.) [8] I think the Apostle has in mind Ps. cxix. 151, where the Septuagint version has _su eggus ei, Kurie_. He is thinking of "the secret _of the Presence_" (Ps. xxxi. 20). We need not shut out the calming thought of the Lord's approaching _Return_; but it does not seem to be the leading thought here. [9] Bishop Ken. [10] G. M. Taylor, in _Hymns of Consecration_, 349. [11] _In the House of the Pilgrimage_. _THE COLLECTION FOR ST PAUL: THE FAREWELL_ "Is thy cruse of comfort wasting? rise and share it with another, And through all the years of famine it shall serve thee and thy brother. "Is thy burthen hard and heavy? do thy steps drag wearily? Help to bear thy brother's burthen; God will bear both it and thee.