But on the contrary, he was never returned to them but died in Rome. Therefore, his hope failed.
I respond that the hope of the just is twofold. Chiefly it is for one's own good, and in this it never fails for oneself. The other is secondary, the approval of others, and in this it sometimes fails since the merits of others are opposed, just as when the just are sometimes not heard in their hopes for others.
But was he deceived in his confidence?
It must be said that to know future things belongs to God alone and not to human knowledge, except prophetic knowledge. And none of the prophets knew everything about his own future except Christ, Who did not have the Holy Spirit to a limited measure. Thus Isaac the great prophet was deceived in Jacob. Hence, it is not a marvel if the Apostle did not know either.
[Thomas Aquinas, Commentaries on St. Paul's Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, Baer, tr., St. Augustine's Press (South Bend, IN: 2007) p. 206.]
