For the impartial reader the
phrase “when he came to Rome” (γενόμενος ἐν Ῥώμῃ) can
only be interpreted in this way: “Onesiphorus came to Rome, sought me and found
me there.” One can escape this interpretation if one translates these words as
“when he regained his strength” (reading ῥώμῃ = “strength” instead of “Rome”). But since nothing was said
before about a sickness, such a hint is improbable, especially in a
pseudonymous epistle. Paul is therefore seen as being in Rome, and, more
precisely, as experiencing his first and only imprisonment. (Martin Dibelius
and Hans Conzelmann, The Pastoral Epistles: A Commentary on the Pastoral
Epistles [Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible;
Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972], 106)