2Tim 4:13

“Nay, there is more than this: for even Christ, we shall find, has ordinary raiment; Paul, too, has his cloak. If at once, of every article of furniture and each household vessel, you name some god of the world as the originator, well, I must recognise Christ, both as He reclines on a couch, and when He presents a basin for the feet of His disciples, and when He pours water into it from a ewer, and when He is girt about with a linen towel -a garment specially sacred to Osiris.”

“As, e.g., it is the custom of some to make prayer with cloaks doffed, for so do the nations approach their idols; which practice, of course, were its observance becoming, the apostles, who teach concerning the garb of prayer, would have comprehended in their instructions, unless any think that is was in prayer that Paul had left his cloak with Carpus! God, forsooth, would not hear cloaked suppliants, who plainly heard the three saints in the Babylonian king's furnace praying in their trousers and turbans.”

“"The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments." 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.”

“The view that this paenula is some other kind of book, rather than just a garment, is ridiculous.”

“Paul makes a distinction here between the parchment volumina, which are in the form of scrolls, and the regular libros, which are in book or codex form.”

“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.”

“Here the apostle speaks of the cloak; he asks for it so as not to have need to take from others. For everywhere he takes great care not to be in need of others. Some, however, think that this is a case, a container in which the books were kept. Why did he need books when he was preparing to depart to God? So that he might pass them on to the faithful, that they might have them in his stead. Probably, they contained within themselves something more valuable.”

“Then when he says, "the cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus," he tells him what to carry. Carpus is a saint. According to Jerome, the cloak, or penula, was a volume of the law which he kept on a scroll. Or a penula was an article of clothing; but according to Chrysostom, it was a common article of clothing. And because the Apostle lived as a poor man in Rome, he wanted his clothes brought to him. Haymo says that it was a special garment worn by the nobility; hence in Acts Paul declared that he was a Roman citizen, for Paul's father served the Romans at Tarsus of Cilicia (Acts 22:27). As a result he became a Roman citizen, and the penula was an article of clothing worn by the consul. Perhaps his father was a consul. Or a penula is a handbag for carrying books. This seems to be correct, because he continues, "bring the books." But why did the Apostle need books, if he was filled with the Holy Spirit, and if his dissolution was at hand? I answer that he needed them for two reasons: first, for the consolation they would bring: "we had for our comfort the holy books that are in our hands" (1 Macc 12:9). For in books we find a remedy against tribulations. Or he says this lest they be lost and not available to the faithful. Again, the closer death came, the more he occupied himself with the study of the Scriptures. The same was true of Ambrose, who did not stop writing until his last sickness, so that as he was writing the words of Psalm 47: "great is the Lord and exceedingly to be praised" (Ps 47:2), he passed away. "Especially the parchments": these were blank sheets or charts on which he wrote his epistles or his sermons.”

“The paenula is the distinctive dress of a Roman citizen, thus a garment that Paul would have needed on his journeys to identify him as such.”