2 Timothy 4:21
Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.
Do thy diligence to come before winter,.... When travelling would not be so safe and comfortable: the apostle consults Timothy's good, as well as his own advantage.
Eubulus greeteth thee. Eusebius {k} makes mention of one of this name of Manganaea, who suffered martyrdom with one Adrian at Caesarea; but he cannot be thought to be the same with this, since he suffered in the times of Dioclesian.
and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia; the first of these is said to be a person of note at Rome, and of the senatorial order, and the father of two pious virgins, Praxis and Pudentiana. He is put among the seventy disciples; See Gill on "Luke 10:1". Mention is made by Pliny the younger {l}, of Servilius Pudens, a Roman; and Martial, a poet of those times, speaks {m} of the marriage of Pudens and Claudia, and of Aulus Pudens. Linus is said to be the first bishop of Rome after the martyrdom of Peter and Paul {n}. Though some will have it, that he was bishop of Rome in the time of Peter, and that he and one Cletus were co-pastors with Peter; and Platina, who wrote the "Lives of the Popes", first makes Peter to consecrate Clement his successor, and to commend the chair, and the church of God, to him, and yet afterwards places Linus, and not Clement, as his immediate successor; yea, puts Cletus also before Clement; so much are the Papists at a loss about, and so little account can they give of the boasted succession of their popes from Peter, that they are not agreed about his immediate successor. This Linus is said to be born at Volterra in Tuscany, and to be of the family of the Moors, whose father was one Herculaneus, who sent him at twenty two years of age to Rome, for the sake of his studies; at which time, as is pretended, Peter came thither, by whom he was converted, and with whom he continued as a fellow helper in the Gospel. He is moreover said to be bishop of Rome ten years, (Platina says eleven,) three months, and twelve days, and to have suffered martyrdom under Saturninus the consul, whose daughter he had delivered from a diabolical possession, and was buried in the Vatican. He is reckoned among the seventy disciples of Christ, but very wrongly;
See Gill on "Luke 10:1". The name is a Latin one, and is often mentioned by Martial the poet. And Claudia is the name of a woman, very likely of considerable note. Some think she was the wife of Pudens, the same Martial speaks of, and is said to be a Briton.
and all the brethren: that is, of the church of Rome, these all sent greeting to Timothy.
{k} Eccl. Hist. l. 8. de Martyr. Palestin. c. 11.
{l} L. 10. ep. 10.
{m} Epigram. l. 4. ep. 10. 23. 1. 6. ep. 45. l. 7. ep. 10.
{n} Iren. adv. Haeres. l. 3. c. 3. Euseb. Ec. Hist. l. 3. c. 2, 4. & l. 5. c. 6.