THE PASTORAL EPISTLES

1 and 2 Timothy and Titus are known as the Pastoral Epistles, because they relate chiefly to the qualifications and duties of office-bearers entrusted with the pastoral care of the Church.

They are distinguished from all the other epistles o! Paul by their want of historical agreement with any period in the life of the apostle as recorded in the Book of Acts, and also by their strongly-marked individuality alike in style and substance. Hence their genuineness has been more called in question than any of the other epistles of Paul — notwithstanding a large amount of external testimony in their favour.

The objections taken to them, however, on these grounds are almost entirely obviated if we suppose them to have been written subsequently to the events narrated hi the Book of Acts. This is a supposition that in itself involves no improbability. It was, as we have seen, Paul's own expectation (Phil. ii. 24; Philemon, ver. 22) that he would be released from the imprisonment in which the Book of Acts leaves him; and for this expectation he seems to have had sufficient grounds in the inadequacy of the evidence brought against him, as well as in the tolerant attitude of the Roman Government previous to the great fire in Rome (64 A.D.), which was falsely attributed to the Christians and brought terrible persecutions in its train. Moreover, there is an early and general tradition to the effect that he was released. Assuming that his liberation did take place, the difficulty of harmonising the epistles with his life disappears; while the late date of their composition — possibly some years after his release — would go far to account for the peculiarity of their contents. It is no wonder that questions of discipline and government as well as of orthodoxy should now receive from the apostle a larger measure of attention than they had ever yet done, considering the growing needs of the Church and the responsible position of those to whom the epistles are addressed. The Church had now been for many years a visible institution with office-bearers of its own; and important doctrines had been vindicated and established. To conserve these doctrines and to provide for the regular superintendence of the Church after he and the other apostles had passed away, was Paul's great object in writing these epistles.¹

The idea that the epistles may have been the products of a later age is in many respects untenable. Alike as regards the office-bearers mentioned, namely, bishops and deacons, and the doctrinal needs and dangers of the Church, they remind us far more of the state of things existing during Paul's first imprisonment, when he wrote Philippians and Colossians, than of anything In the second century. By the latter time the name of '* bishop " had been appropriated to a chief dignitary ruling over the ** presbyters " or elders, instead of being applied as here to the presbyters themselves as the overseers of the congregation (Titus i. 5, 7, cf. Acts xx. 17-28); while the vague notions engrafted on the Jewish Law, towards the close of the apostolic age, as a more enlightened kind of piety ("knowledge falsely so called"), had then developed into an elaborate system called Gnosticism, which set itself in direct opposition to the orthodox faith, and, unlike the heresy in these epistles, repudiated ail affinity with the Jewish Law.

"THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO TIMOTHY "

Who wrote it. — We can trace allusion to this epistle as far back as the close of the first century. A hundred years later we find it universally accepted as Paul's, although it had been rejected in the course of the second century by one or two heretical writers,² owing to the difficulty of reconciling its teaching with their favourite tenets.

In a general sense its peculiarities in language and contents have already been accounted for. In some respects, however, its peculiarities are positively in favour of the Pauline authorship. How unlikely that a forger would insert the word "mercy"³ (i. 2) in the usual Pauline greeting "grace and peace," or that he should have failed to make a lavish use of the connecting particles " wherefore," " then," etc, which are so common in Paul's writings.

Objection has been taken to the expression "let no man despise thy youth" (iv. 12), as if the apostle could not have applied that language to Timothy when he was already a man of about thirty-five years of age. But youth is relative; and in Paul's eyes Timothy, being so much his junior, and having been known to him as a lad, would naturally seem young, — especially in view of his great responsibilities in being set over so many elders.⁴

To whom written. — "Unto Timothy, my true child in faith." The disciple thus addressed was one of the apostle's converts, and became his dearest friend and coadjutor in the closing years of his life. Of a pious Jewish family by the mother's side — his father was a Greek — he received a strict religious training in the scriptures of the Old Testament (Acts xvi. 1; 2 Tim. i. 1-5; iii. 14-15). He seems to have been converted to Christianity during Paul's first visit to Lystra and Derbe; for on the apostle's second visit to that quarter about three years afterwards, Timothy was a disciple so well reported of by the brethren at Lystra and Iconium as to be deemed worthy of being associated with Paul as a labourer in the Gospel (Acts xvi. 1-2; 1 Tim. i. 2; 2 Tim. iii. 10-11, ct Acts xiv. 9-21). To this position he was duly ordained by the laying on of hands, after being circumcised to render him more acceptable to the Jews (Acts xvi. 3; 1 Tim. vi. 12; iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6). Thereafter we find him constantly associated with the apostle either as his companion or as his delegate to Churches at a distance. He was with the apostle during his first imprisonment at Rome, being associated with him in three of the four epistles which Paul then wrote (Phil., Col., and Philemon). From this epistle we gather that after the apostle's release Timothy was left for a time in charge of the Church at Ephesus; and it was while in this trying and responsible position that he received the two epistles that bear his name.

Where and when written. — The first epistle seems to have been sent to Timothy from Macedonia under the circumstances referred to in i. 3; but whether before or after Paul's intended visits to Philippi (Phil, ii. 24), Colossae (Philemon, ver. 22), and Spain — which, according to an ancient tradition originating in the first century, he did visit (Rom. xv. 24) — it is quite impossible to say. Various routes have been sketched by which Paul may have travelled after his release from Rome, comprising visits to the places just mentioned and also to Ephesus, Crete (Tit. i. 5), Nicopolis (Tit. iii. 12), and Troas (2 Tim, iv. 13); but they are all more or less conjectural. While it is impossible to ascertain the precise movements of the apostle after his release, or the exact year in which this epistle was written, we may safely place it between 64 A.D., the year after Paul's release, and 67 A.D., shortly before his death, — the date usually assigned to the latter being 68 A.D., the last year of Nero, under whom, according to the general tradition, Paul suffered martyrdom. The more probable year is 67 A.D., which gives an interval of several years to account for the change in the apostle's style and in the condition of the Church, and makes the three pastoral epistles very nearly contemporaneous.

Its Character and Contents.— These have been already indicated in the general remarks at pp. 104, 105. The epistle is partly official, partly personal. Although addressed to Timothy individually, it contains Paul's apostolic instructions to guide him in the work of supervision assigned to him at Ephesus (i. 1-4). The anticipations of evil which Paul had expressed to the Ephesian elders at Miletus (Acts xx. 29-30) had already in some measure been realised, and there was great need for wisdom in the rulers of the Church. It is not easy to trace any regular sequence in the topics discussed; but the contents of the epistle may be summarised as follows:—

The folly and danger of the Judaic fancies with which false teachers were overlaying the Gospel (i.); exhortations to catholicity of spirit as well as to reverence and decorum in acts of worship (ii.); the qualifications requisite in the office-bearers of the Church (bishops and deacons), and the need for fidelity and care on their part in view of the increasing corruption (iii.); counsels regarding Timothy's treatment of the elders and other classes in the congregation (iv.-v.); cautions against covetousness, and exhortations to the rich to make a good use of their means — concluding with an appeal to Timothy to guard that which was committed to his trust, and to avoid "profane babblings, and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called" (vi.)

Although in some respects on a humbler level intellectually than most of Paul's writings, and bearing traces of the writer's advancing years, this epistle contains not a few golden texts to be held in everlasting remembrance.⁵

1) The large infusion of new words (i.e. words not elsewhere used by the apostle) is in accordance with the gradual expansion of his vocabulary, which is evident on a comparison of Paul's successive writings.

2) Marcion and Basilides.

3) This remark applies also to 2 Tim, (i. 2.) and Titus (i. 4).

4) Equally groundless is the objection that Paul had predicted to the Ephesian elders that "he should see their face no more" (Acts xx. 25), whereas this epistle implies that he had recently paid them another visit. For the words quoted contain the expression of a presentiment or at most of a conviction, not of an inspired prophecy, on the part of the apostle; and, besides, the language of the epistle, "as I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus when I was going into Macedonia," does not necessarily imply that the writer himself had been at Ephesus. It is quite possible he may have exhorted Timothy by a message from a distance, or have met him at Miletus as he had met the Ephesian elders several years before.

Again it has been argued that the instructions contained in this epistle might have been more easily given by the apostle in person during his recent visit to Ephesus, or on the subsequent visit to which he was still looking forward (iii. 14). But this latter visit was regarded by the apostle as very uncertain (iii. 15); while the former one, as we have seen, is a very doubtful inference from i. 3. Even if it be true, however, that the apostle had recently been at Ephesus, there is nothing improbable in the supposition that it was in consequence of what he then learned of the condition of the Church, and as the result of subsequent reflection, that he was led to furnish Timothy with these rules and directions in a written form, which could be of permanent service, and if necessary might be referred to in the hearing of the congregation.

5) i. 5, 13; ii. 3-6; iii. 16; vi. 6, 10,12