2 Timothy 4:14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Alexander the coppersmith Or brasier; did me much evil This seems to have been the person mentioned 1 Timothy 1:20: probably he was one of the Judaizing teachers, who violently opposed the true doctrine of the gospel. The Lord reward him The Alexandrian, and six other MSS., the Syriac and the Vulgate versions, and some of the Fathers, read here, αποδωσει, the Lord will reward him: and it is probable the words ought to be considered as spoken prophetically. At least, as Doddridge observes, “what we know of Paul's character must lead us to conclude, that if he did not mean the words as a mere prediction, he did not, however, wish evil to him as evil, but only that he might be so animadverted upon as to prevent the contagion of his bad example from spreading in the church, and to bring him to repentance and reformation, that so he might be preserved from final destruction.” Of whom be thou ware also Be thou upon thy guard wherever thou happenest to meet with him; for he hath greatly withstood our words Hath used every means in his power to prevent the progress and advancement of the true gospel.