Hermogenes:
Mercury-born, at one time Paul's fellow-labourer in Asia Minor, who, however, afterwards abandoned him, along with one Phygellus, probably on account of the perils by which they were beset (2Ti 1:15).
Hermogenes:
begotten of Mercury
Hermogenes:
her-moj'-e-nez (Hermogenes, literally "born of Hermes," a Greek deity, called by the Romans, "Mercury," 2Ti 1:15):
1. Where Did He "Turn Away"?:
Hermogenes was a Christian, mentioned by Paul as having, along with Phygellus and "all that are in Asia," turned away from him. It is not clear when or where the defection of those Asiatic Christians from the apostle took place, whether it was at Rome at the time of Paul's second imprisonment there, and especially on the occasion of his being brought before the emperor's supreme court, to be tried on a charge now involving the death penalty, or whether it was at some previous time in Ephesus.
2. Was It in Ephesus?:
If it was the latter, then the meaning is that Paul wishes to inform Timothy, or perhaps only to remind him, how in Ephesus, where Timothy was the presiding minister of the church, these persons, Phygellus and Hermogenes with many more, had turned away from him, that is, had refused to submit to his authority, and had rejected the Christian doctrine which he taught. This latter meaning, referring the "turning away" to some previous occasion in Ephesus, is thought by some expositors to be the probable signification, owing to the fact that the verb "they be turned away" is in the aorist tense, referring to a time long past when the apostle wrote.
3. Unlikelihood of It Being in Ephesus:
On the other hand there is no evidence that there ever was a time when "all they which are in Asia" (the King James Version) turned away from obedience to Paul. Whatever may have been the disloyalty and disobedience of individuals-and this certainly existed; see, e.g., Ac 20:29 f-yet, certainly the New Testament does not show that all that were in Asia, the Christian community as a whole, in Ephesus and Miletus and Laodicea and Hierapolis and Colosse and other places, repudiated his apostolic authority.
4. Probalility of It Being in Rome:
If the words "all they which are in Asia" refer to all the Christians from the proconsular province of Asia, who happened to be in Rome at the time of Paul's second imprisonment there, it can easily be understood that they should turn away from him at that testing time. It is impossible to say exactly what form their desertion of the apostle assumed. Their turning away would likely be caused by fear, lest if it were known that they were friends of the prisoner in the Mamertine, they would be involved in the same imprisonment as had overtaken him, and probably also in the same death penalty.
It is altogether in favor of a reference to Rome, that what is said about Phygellus and Hermogenes and their turning away from Paul is immediately followed by a reference to Onesiphorus, and to the great kindness which he showed, when he sought the apostle but very diligently in Rome. On the whole, therefore, a reference to Rome and to the manner in which these persons, named and unnamed, from Asia, had deserted Paul, seems most probable.
Written by John Rutherfurd
Hermogenes: A Christian
Who deserted Paul,
2Ti 1:15.
Hermogenes:
a person mentioned by St. Paul in the latest of all his epistles (2 Timothy 1:15) when all in Asia had turned away from him. (A.D. 64)
Phygelus; Phygellus:
fi-je'-lus, fi-jel'-us (Phugellos; Tischendorf and Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in Greek, with others, read Phugelos, Phygellus or Phygelus (2Ti 1:15); the King James Version): One of the Christians who deserted Paul at the time of his 2nd imprisonment at Rome. Paul mentions him, along with Hermogenes, as being among those "that are in Asia," who turned away from him then. What is meant may be that Phygelus and Hermogenes, along with other native Christians from proconsular Asia, were in Rome when he was brought before the emperor's tribunal the second time, and that they had not merely taken no measures to stand by and support him, but that they had deserted him.
The meaning, however, may be that the turning away of Phygelus and Hermogenes from Paul took place, not in Rome, but in Asia itself.
The times during and immediately following the Neronic persecution were more dreadful than can easily be conceived, and the temptation was strong to forsake the Christian name, and to do so in a wholesale fashion. A great community like the Christian church in Ephesus or in Rome felt the terrible pressure of those times, when for a mere word-a word, however, denying the Lord who bought them-men were at once set free from persecution, from the loss of property or of home, and from death. 1 Peter records how the aftermath of the Neronic persecution had extended far indeed from Rome, where it had originated. Peter asks the Christians not to give way under "the fiery trial" which is trying them (1Pe 4:12), and those whom he thus addresses were the members of the church throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia (1Pe 1:1). The epistles to the seven churches in Asia in the Apocalypse also show how sorely persecution had raged throughout that province.
But in addition to the temptation to deny Christ's name and to go back to heathenism or to Judaism, there was also another which pressed upon some of the churches, the temptation to repudiate the authority of Paul. Many passages in the New Testament show how the name of Paul was sometimes very lightly esteemed, and how his authority was repudiated, e.g. by persons in Corinth, and in the churches of Galatia.
What is said here is, that among the Christians of proconsular Asia, i.e. of Ephesus and the churches in the valley of the Cayster, there was a widespread defection from that loyalty to Paul which was to be expected from those who owed to him all that they possessed of the knowledge of Christ's salvation. "All that are in Asia turned away from me; of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes." On the whole, all the necessary conditions of these words are satisfied by a reference to Rome and to Paul's environment there, and perhaps this is the more probable meaning.
Written by John Rutherfurd
See HERMOGENES
See PERSECUTION
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