According to the McClintock and Strong Encyclopedia, (“Onesiphorus”, John McClintock and James Strong, Harper and Brothers, New York, 1867-1887), Paul was “in custody of a soldier, to whose arm his own was chained.” Who was the real captive? The apostle or his military audience of one? Can you imagine the conversations between Paul and the guard to whom he was chained? Paul and Onesiphorus may have planned their visitation schedule around a strategic plan for the evangelization of the soldiers who pulled ‘chain duty’ with Paul.
Onesiphorus was an active member and major contributor of the church Paul founded in Ephesus (modern day Turkey) where Paul appointed Timothy as pastor. This man assited Paul in the early years of his work in the church at Ephesus and later by often visiting Paul in his Roman prison cell just prior to the apostle’s execution.
“May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus,” (2nd Timothy 1.16-18).
