Bible Strands
2 Timothy 3:11
my persecutions, and the sufferings that came upon me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Paul writes to Timothy, recalling his recent missionary journey through Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. He speaks from the moment of composing this epistle, pointing to his past experiences as evidence of faithful endurance.
The words — διωγμοῖς (diōgmois) denotes targeted persecutions, while παθὴμασιν (pathēmasin) refers to the specific sufferings that occurred. These terms ground the abstract call to perseverance in concrete historical events.
The thread — The pattern of enduring affliction followed by divine rescue echoes Psalm 34:19 and aligns with the stoning attempt recorded in Acts 14:5. Paul later expands this same dynamic in 2 Corinthians 11:23 when listing his labors.
Why it lands — The text states that the Lord rescued Paul from every persecution he faced in those cities. It requires the reader to acknowledge that faithful endurance is sustained by divine intervention, not personal resilience.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Cross-references
- Psalms 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him from them all.
- Acts 14:5 But when the Gentiles and Jews, together with their rulers, set out to mistreat and stone them,
- 2 Corinthians 11:23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am speaking as if I were out of my mind.) I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death.
- Acts 13:45 But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and they blasphemously contradicted what Paul was saying.
- Acts 13:50 The Jews, however, incited the religious women of prominence and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and drove them out of their district.
- Acts 14:1 At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue, where they spoke so well that a great number of Jews and Greeks believed.
- Acts 14:19 Then some Jews arrived from Antioch and Iconium and won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, presuming he was dead.
- 2 Peter 2:9 if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
- Genesis 48:16 the angel who has redeemed me from all harm—may He bless these boys. And may they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they grow into a multitude upon the earth.”
- 2 Samuel 22:1 And David sang this song to the LORD on the day the LORD had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.