At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge.
At my first answers - i:e., 'defense' in court: at my first public examination. Timothy knew nothing of this until Paul now informs him. But during his former imprisonment at Rome Timothy was with him (Philippians 1:1; Philippians 1:7). He must have been set free before the persecution in A.D. 64 AD, when the Christians were accused of causing the conflagration in Rome; for had he been a prisoner then, he would not have been spared. The tradition (Eusebius, 2: 25) that he was finally beheaded accords with his not having been put to death in the persecution, 64 AD, when burning to death was the mode of executing the Christians, but subsequently. His "first" trial in his second imprisonment was probably on the charge of complicity in the conflagration: his absence from Rome may have been the ground of his acquittal on that charge. [Non liquet] 'Not proven' was the verdict: then followed an adjournment [ampliatio], during which he writes: his final condemnation was probably on the charge of introducing a new and unlawful religion into Rome.
Stood with me, х sumparegeneto (G4836)] - 'came forward with me' as a patron or advocate.
May (it) not be laid to their (THEIR, emphatic) charge - for they were intimidated: their drawing back was not from bad disposition so much as fearing: it will be laid to the charge of those who intimidated them. Still Paul, like Stephen, would doubtless have prayed for his persecutors themselves (Acts 7:60).