1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus, 2to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day 4longing to see you, remembering your tears, that I may be filled with joy; 5having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you, which lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, in you also.
6For this cause, I remind you that you should stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. 8Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God, 9who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, 10but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News. 11For this I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 12For this cause I also suffer these things.
Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.
13Hold the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 14That good thing which was committed to you, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
15This you know, that all who are in Asia turned away from me, of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain, 17but when he was in Rome, he sought me diligently and found me 18(the Lord grant to him to find the Lord’s mercy in that day); and in how many things he served at Ephesus, you know very well.
For a number of years many biblical scholars and archaeologists have questioned the historicity of King David. In the 20th century, this began to change because of three important finds. First, Avraham Biran discovered at Tel Dan an Aramaic stela, dated approximately 841 B.C. that mentioned the House of David, a usage in the ancient world clearly referring to the founder of a dynasty, and written about 150 years after David’s death.
The pertinent section of the text reads:
“[I killed Jeho]ram son of [Ahab] king of Israel,
and [I] killed [Ahaz]iahu son of [Jehoram kin]g
of the House of David.”(Tel Dan Inscription, lines 7b-8a)
The Mesha stela, dating to the 9th century B.C. (also known as Moabite Stone) reveals the designation House of David (though some recent scholars have argued that it speaks of the Moabite king Balak), as well as the name of Yahweh, God of Israel. The text speaks of Judah’s occupation of part of southern Moab.
The pertinent section of the text reads:
"altars of Yahweh, and I brought them before Chemosh. (line 18)
. . .
“And the house [of Da]vid (bt[d]wd) dwelt in Horonen
[. . .] and Kamosh said to me: “Go down!
Fight against Horonen.”
(Mesha Inscription, lines 31b-32a)
Last of all is the engraving of Pharoah Shoshenq I of Egypt at Karnak, where he has a lengthy list of place names in Israel, Judah, the Negev, and nearby locations, in which the name of David is mentioned (the heights of Dwt).
The pertinent section of the text reads:
“highlands/heights of David”
(Shoshenq I [Shishak in OT] Inscription, number 105 + 106)
(See K. A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, 92-93), André Lemaire, “‘House of David’ Restored in Moabite Inscription” Biblical Archaeology Review 20:3 (May/June 1994, Michael D. Coogan, ed., The Oxford History of the Biblical World, pp. 175-176, and Iain Provan, V. Philips Long, and Tremper Longman III, A Biblical History of Israel, p. 216 [basis of texts and translations above]).