Carpus

Carpus (meaning fruit or fruitful) was a Christian at Troas on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor with whom the apostle Paul had left possessions during an earlier visit. Paul mentions him in his final letter to Timothy, written from his second Roman imprisonment (c. AD 67): "When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments" (2 Timothy 4:13). The request reveals that Carpus had been entrusted with a traveling cloak, writing codices, and what were probably parchment manuscripts of Scripture or other documents, left behind at Paul's last stop in Troas before his final arrest.

The detail is remarkable for what it shows of Paul's situation and priorities at the end of his life: the cloak suggests cold prison conditions, and the insistence on receiving the books and parchments "above all" indicates his continuing intellectual and pastoral work even under the prospect of execution. Carpus is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture, but the easy familiarity of the request — assuming Timothy would know exactly who Carpus is and where he lives — points to a continuing relationship between the apostolic circle and this Christian household at Troas, the same city where Paul had raised Eutychus from the dead (Acts 20:9–12) and received the Macedonian vision (Acts 16:8–9).