Pudens

PUDENS pu'-denz, pu'-dens (Poudes, literally, "bashful" (2 Timothy 4:21)):

1. Faithful to Paul:

One of the Christians in Rome who remained loyal to Paul during his second and last imprisonment there, when most of the members of the church "forsook him." The pressure under which they acted must have been very great, as the apostle's final trial before the supreme court of the empire followed quickly after the Neronic persecution. Their defection from their loyalty to Paul must not be taken as implying that they had also proved untrue to Christ. At this time, however, there were some of the Christians who risked their earthly all, and their lives too, in order to prove their adherence to Paul, and Pudens was one of these.

2. Pudens and Claudia:

Writing the last of all his letters, the Second Epistle to Timothy, Paul sends greeting from "all the brethren" who were then with him. Among these he names Pudens. There are three other names associated by the apostle with that of Pudens:

Eubulus, Linus and Claudia. There is an interesting conjecture regarding Pudens and Claudia, that their were husband and wife, and that Claudia was of British birth, a daughter of a British king, called Cogidunus. King Cogidunus was an ally of the Romans, and assumed the name of the emperor Tiberius Claudius, who was his patron. In this way his daughter would be named Claudia. But this identification of the British princess with the Claudia who sends salutation to Timothy is only a supposition; it lacks both evidence and proof.

See CLAUDIA and Code of Hammurabi (St. P), chapter xxvii.

In modern Rome, however, the tourist is still shown a building which is called the house of Pudens, in the same way as "Paul's hired house" is also shown. The authenticity in both cases is lacking.

Pudens is not mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament.

John Rutherfurd

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Bibliography Information

Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'PUDENS'".  "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia".  1915.