Do thy diligence to come before winter. Eubulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.
Before winter - when a voyage, in ancient navigation, would be out of the question: also, Paul would need his "cloak" against the winter (2 Timothy 4:13).
Pudens ... Claudia - afterward husband and wife (according to Martial, 4: 13; 11: 54): he a Roman knight, she a Briton, surnamed Rufina. Tacitus ('Agricola,' 14) mentions that territories in Southeast Britain were given to a British king, Cogidunus, in reward for his fidelity to Rome, A.D. 52 AD, while Claudius was emperor. In 1772 a marble was dug up at Chichester, mentioning Cogidunus with the surname Claudius, added from his patron, the emperor's name; and Pudens in connection with Cogidunus, doubtless his father-in-law. His daughter would be Claudia, who was probably sent to Rome for education, as a pledge of the father's fidelity. Here she was under the protection of Pomponia, wife of Aulus Plautius, conqueror of Britain. Pomponia was accused of foreign superstitions, 57 AD (Tacitus, 'Annals,' 3: 32) - probably Christianity. She perhaps was the instrument of converting Claudia, who took the name Rufina from her, that being a cognomen of the Pomponian gens (cf. Romans 16:13, Rufus, a Christian). Pudens in Martial and in the Chichester inscription appears as a pagan. Perhaps he or his friends concealed his Christianity through fear. Tradition represents Timothy, a son of Pudens, as taking part in converting the Britons.
Linus - put third; therefore not at this time, as afterward, bishop. His name here inserted between Pudens and Claudia implies the two were not yet married. "Eubulus" is identified by some with Aristobulus, who, with his converts, is said to have been the first evangelist of Britain. 'Paul himself,' says Clement, 'visited the farthest west (perhaps Britain, certainly Spain), and was martyred under the rulers at Rome,' who were Nero's vicegerents in his absence from the city. The greetings imply that at Rome, as elsewhere, Timothy gained the affections of those among whom he ministered.