The cloak which I left at Troas. It is expounded a cloak by St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome Others think he may mean some coffer, or trunk, in which were his books and some things that he valued. (Witham)
What had he to do with books, who was about to depart and go to God? He needed them much, that he might deposit them in the hands of the faithful, who would retain them in place of his own teaching.
The word here translated cloak may mean a garment, or, as some say, a bag, in which the books were contained. But what had he to do with books, who was about to depart and go to God? He needed them much, that he might deposit them in the hands of the faithful, who would retain them in place of his own teaching. All the faithful, then, would suffer a great blow, but particularly those who were present at his death, and then enjoyed his society. But the cloak he requires, that he might not be obliged to receive one from another. For we see him making a great point of avoiding this; and elsewhere, when he was addressing those from Ephesus, he says, You know that these hands have ministered to my necessities, and to those that were with me Acts 20:34-35; and again, It is more blessed to give than to receive.
The money-bag had the books and the paper. He teaches us as if its our last breath, that if we are in prison, the divine oracles not must not be neglected. He speaks of the Jewish propitiation of the law.
Nay, there is more than this: for even Christ, we shall find, has ordinary raiment; Paul, too, has his cloak.
, unless any think that is was in prayer that Paul had left his cloak with Carpus!
