Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

13:22 word of exhortation. Elsewhere the author calls for Christians to exhort/encourage one another (3:13; 10:25). He has modeled such encouragement in the extended discourse/sermon of this letter.

13:23 Timothy. Likely Paul's fellow worker (to whom Paul addressed two epistles). The author and audience had a mutual friend in Timothy, and thus both were in contact with Pauline thought (see Introduction: Author, Audience, and Title). released. Presumably from prison (cf. 10:32-34; 13:3).

13:24 Greet. NT letters often end with a series of greetings. your leaders. Perhaps driving home the submission to leaders earlier enjoined upon the church (vv. 7, 17). saints. A common NT expression for believers (6:10; cf. 3:1). Those who come from Italy. Literally, "those from Italy"; this may indicate that the author is writing from Italy, or more likely that he is elsewhere and is passing on the greeting of Italians living at his current location. This last option has led to the suggestion that the recipients were also Italians, perhaps from the churches around Rome.

13:25 Cf. Titus 3:15; also Eph. 6:24; Col. 4:18; 1 Tim. 6:21; 2 Tim. 4:22.