1 Timothy Commentary

During the final phase of Paul’s apostolic career, a serious disruption was troubling the long-established Christian church in Ephesus: Some church leaders had become false teachers. Paul had warned that this would happen (Acts 20:29-31), and now their impact was threatening the life and well-being of the community. A skillful person was needed to restore order to God’s household. Paul gave this task to Timothy, his trusted delegate.

Setting

Paul’s first contact with Ephesus, during his second missionary journey (Acts 18:19-21), gave no opportunity for significant work. During his third journey, Paul served in Ephesus for three years (around AD 53~56, Acts 19). Later, when Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, he had opportunity to stop at Miletus and speak to the elders from Ephesus, who met him there (Acts 20:17-38). Paul traveled to Jerusalem, was arrested, was later transferred to Caesarea, and was then sent to Rome, where he stayed under house arrest for approximately two years (AD 60–62, Acts 21–28). When he was released from prison, he reembarked on his mission, possibly directed toward Spain (see Rom 15:24, 28), although it is just as possible that the imprisonment changed Paul’s orientation back eastward. Paul was still involved with the Ephesian church during this period.

Timothy, who had accompanied Paul for much of his original ministry there (Acts 19:22), had now been delegated the task of dealing with new and troubling developments in Ephesus (1 Tim 1:3). False teachers had emerged (1:3) and were evidently upsetting households (see 1 Tim 2:15; 3:4-5; 5:11-15; cp. Titus 1:11). Paul wrote Timothy to guide him in correcting errant behavior and in preventing false teachers from gaining another foothold.

Summary

After directing Timothy to deal with the false teachers, who espoused to be teachers of the law (1:3-20), Paul gives guidance on conduct in God’s household with respect to prayer, women’s teaching, and leadership (2:1–3:13). These three areas had been harmed by the false teachers. Paul makes clear what he is trying to accomplish and explains why and how it must be done (3:14–4:16). Then he resumes his instructions on godly conduct, focusing on old and young people, widows, elders, and masters (5:1–6:2). Relationships in these areas had also been distorted by false teaching. Finally, Paul returns to the need to deal with the false teachers themselves, this time centering on issues of wealth and profit (6:2-21).

Authorship

There is a widespread view that the Pastoral Letters (1 Timothy—Titus) were not written by Paul. According to this view, a follower of Paul wrote the Pastoral Letters after his death and signed his name. There are several good reasons, however, to believe that Paul is the author: (1) Until the 1800s, there was no hesitation in ascribing these letters to Paul. This includes early church fathers whose native language was Greek and who were very familiar with Paul’s other letters. (2) The early church would never have accepted these letters had they suspected the letters of being falsely signed in Paul’s name. (3) While Paul’s style in these letters is different from elsewhere, this might simply be a result of the specific situations Paul was addressing and the distinctive period of Paul’s life and career during which these letters were written. It also might result from the use of a different amanuensis (scribe) for these letters. It is reasonable to affirm Paul’s authorship of the Pastoral Letters.

Date of Writing

The Pastoral Letters (1 Timothy—Titus) were most likely written after Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome (AD 60–62, Acts 28:1-31) and before his death in AD 64~65 under the persecution of Nero.

In 2 Timothy, Paul is jailed in Rome at the end of his life (see 2 Tim 4:6). This would seem to place the letters of 1 Timothy and Titus—written while Paul was still moving freely—in the time leading up to his arrest. How do these details fit with Acts?

One possibility is that 2 Timothy was written during the Roman imprisonment of Acts 28. In this case, all three letters would fit into Luke’s historical account in the book of Acts, and Paul would have been executed at the end of that imprisonment (AD 62).

There are early reports, however, that Paul was released from this Roman imprisonment (e.g., 1 Clement 5:6-7, AD 95~97; see also Eusebius, Church History 2.22, AD 325). If this is the case, he likely engaged in further work, possibly went to Spain, and was then rearrested and executed in Rome during Nero’s persecution of Christians (around AD 64~65). The letters to Timothy and Titus were likely written during this later period.

In support of this approach, there is no reason that these letters must be fitted into the history recorded in Acts. Also, the activities of Paul and his delegates in 1 Timothy and Titus do not correspond to the details in Acts, nor does the imprisonment of 2 Timothy sound like the imprisonment of Acts 28. Finally, the distinctive style and content of these letters is less puzzling if they were written at a different time from Paul’s other letters.

The False Teachers

The false teachers discussed in 1 Timothy bear much resemblance to similar figures whom Paul mentions in both 2 Timothy and Titus. It is very difficult to draw a clear picture of these false teachers, but there are clues. Their teaching had ascetic elements (see 1 Tim 4:3; Titus 1:15) and a Jewish focus (see 1 Tim 1:7; Titus 1:10, 14; 3:9). They claimed special knowledge (1 Tim 6:20; Titus 1:16), asserted that the resurrection of believers had already taken place (2 Tim 2:18), disrupted relationships (2 Tim 3:6-7; Titus 1:11), and might have emphasized salvation by works (2 Tim 1:9; Titus 3:5). Paul’s strong response suggests a need to make corrections regarding the doctrine of Christ (see 1 Tim 2:5-6; 3:16; 2 Tim 2:8) and the last days (see 1 Tim 4:1-5; 2 Tim 2:18; 3:1-9; Titus 2:11-14). The false teachers opposed Paul’s message, promoted immorality, and undercut the church’s mission. Thus, good leaders were needed (see Titus 1:10-13; 2:6-8, 15).

Meaning and Message

First Timothy is passionate and masterful advocacy for the Good News of Jesus Christ, its ongoing progress in the world, and the new life which it creates and promotes (see 3:14-16).

God’s household was Paul’s immediate concern. Just as the surrounding society expected orderly conduct in the family household—with roles and decorum and notions of honor and shame—so it was with the household of God. God’s household reflects widely accepted standards of honor and propriety as well as the social structures of society. At the same time, where proper and necessary, God’s household runs counter to society, reflecting very different and even countercultural values and practices. God’s household is in the world, but not of it. The world remains God’s good creation (4:3-4; 6:17), but it is transient and is in its last, difficult, evil-ridden days (4:1; 2 Tim 3:1). God’s household reflects the new creation even as it exists in the world.

The mission of God’s household is to advance the Good News in the world and promote the will of God (see 1 Tim 2:4-7). God’s people should do what supports that mission (2:1–3:13; 5:1–6:2; see 1 Cor 9:19-23). The false teachers were, by contrast, talking foolishness and damaging the integrity of the church, so Paul directed most of his words toward right conduct. The condensed summaries of the Good News (1 Tim 1:15; 2:5-6; 3:16; 6:13-16) indicate what was actually under assault—the right understanding of salvation in the present age. This is what must be preserved, skillfully taught, and passed along—with godly life as its outcome.

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The First Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy

Hitherto Paul's epistles were directed to churches; now follow some to particular persons: two to Timothy, one to Titus, and another to Philemon - all three ministers. Timothy and Titus were evangelists, an inferior order to the apostles, as appears by Eph 4:11, Some prophets, some apostles, some evangelists. Their commission and work was much the same with that of the apostles, to plant churches, and water the churches that were planted; and accordingly they were itinerants, as we find Timothy was. Timothy was first converted by Paul, and therefore he calls him his own son in the faith: we read of his conversion, Act 16:3.

The scope of these two epistles is to direct Timothy how to discharge his duty as an evangelist at Ephesus, where he now was, and where Paul ordered him for some time to reside, to perfect the good work which he had begun there. As for the ordinary pastoral charge of that church, he had very solemnly committed it to the presbytery, as appears from Act 20:28, where he charges the presbyters to feed the flock of God, which he had purchased with his own blood.

GENUINENESS.—The ancient Church never doubted of their being canonical and written by Paul. They are in the Peschito Syriac version of the second century. MURATORI'S Fragment on the Canon of Scripture, at the close of the second century, acknowledges them as such. IRENÆUS [Against Heresies, 1; 3.3.3; 4.16.3; 2.14.8; 3.11.1; 1.16.3], quotes Ti1 1:4, Ti1 1:9; Ti1 6:20; Ti2 4:9-11; Tit 3:10. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA [Miscellanies, 2, p. 457; 3, pp. 534, 536; 1, p. 350], quotes Ti1 6:1, Ti1 6:20; Second Timothy, as to deaconesses; Tit 1:12. TERTULLIAN [The Prescription against Heretics, 25; 6], quotes Ti1 6:20; Ti2 1:14; Ti1 1:18; Ti1 6:13, &c.; Ti2 2:2; Tit 3:10-11. EUSEBIUS includes the three in the "universally acknowledged" Scriptures. Also THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH [To Autolychus, 3.14], quotes Ti1 2:1-2; Tit 3:1, and CAIUS (in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 6.20]) recognizes their authenticity. CLEMENT OF ROME, in the end of the first century, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians [29], quotes Ti1 2:8. IGNATIUS, in the beginning of the second century, in Epistle to Polycarp, [6], alludes to Ti2 2:4. POLYCARP, in the beginning of the second century [Epistle to the Philippians, 4], alludes to Ti2 2:4; and in the ninth chapter to Ti2 4:10. Hegisippus, in the end of the second century, in EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.32], alludes to Ti1 6:3, Ti1 6:20. ATHENAGORAS, in the end of the second century, alludes to Ti1 6:16. JUSTIN MARTYR, in the middle of the second century [Dialogue with Trypho, 47], alludes to Tit 3:4. The Gnostic MARCION alone rejected these Epistles.

The HERESIES OPPOSED in them form the transition stage from Judaism, in its ascetic form, to Gnosticism, as subsequently developed. The references to Judaism and legalism are clear (Ti1 1:7; Ti1 4:3; Tit 1:10, Tit 1:14; Tit 3:9). Traces of beginning Gnosticism are also unequivocal (Ti1 1:4). The Gnostic theory of a twofold principle from the beginning, evil as well as good, appears in germ in Ti1 4:3, &c. In Ti1 6:20 the term Gnosis ("science") itself occurs. Another Gnostic error, namely, that "the resurrection is past," is alluded to in Ti2 2:17-18. The Judaism herein opposed is not that of the earlier Epistles, which upheld the law and tried to join it with faith in Christ for justification. It first passed into that phase of it which appears in the Epistle to the Colossians, whereby will-worship and angel-worship were superadded to Judaizing opinions. Then a further stage of the same evil appears in the Epistle to the Philippians (Phi 3:2, Phi 3:18-19), whereby immoral practice accompanied false doctrine as to the resurrection (compare Ti2 2:18, with Co1 15:12, Co1 15:32-33). This descent from legality to superstition, and from superstition to godlessness, appears more matured in the references to it in these Pastoral Epistles. The false teachers now know not the true use of the law (Ti1 1:7-8), and further, have put away good conscience as well as the faith (Ti1 1:19; Ti1 4:2); speak lies in hypocrisy, are corrupt in mind, and regard godliness as a means of earthly gain (Ti1 6:5 Tit 1:11); overthrow the faith by heresies eating as a canker, saying the resurrection is past (Ti2 2:17-18), leading captive silly women, ever learning yet never knowing the truth, reprobate as Jannes and Jambres (Ti2 3:6, Ti2 3:8), defiled, unbelieving, professing to know God, but in works denying Him, abominable, disobedient, reprobate (Tit 1:15-16). This description accords with that in the Catholic Epistles of St. John and St. Peter, and, in the Epistle to the Hebrews. This fact proves the later date of these Pastoral Epistles as compared with Paul's earlier Epistles. The Judaism reprobated herein is not that of an earlier date, so scrupulous as to the law; it was now tending to immortality of practice. On the other hand, the Gnosticism opposed in these Epistles is not the anti-Judaic Gnosticism of a later date, which arose as a consequence of the overthrow of Judaism by the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, but it was the intermediate phase between Judaism and Gnosticism, in which the Oriental and Greek elements of the latter were in a kind of amalgam with Judaism, just prior to the overthrow of Jerusalem.

The DIRECTIONS AS TO CHURCH GOVERNORS and ministers, "bishop-elders, and deacons," are such as were natural for the apostle, in prospect of his own approaching removal, to give to Timothy, the president of the Church at Ephesus, and to Titus, holding the same office in Crete, for securing the due administration of the Church when he should be no more, and at a time when heresies were rapidly springing up. Compare his similar anxiety in his address to the Ephesian elders (Act 20:21-30). The Presbyterate (elders; priest is a contraction from presbyter) and Diaconate had existed from the earliest times in the Church (Act 6:3; Act 11:30; Act 14:23). Timothy and Titus, as superintendents or overseers (so bishop subsequently meant), were to exercise the same power in ordaining elders at Ephesus which the apostle had exercised in his general supervision of all the Gentile churches.

The PECULIARITIES OF MODES OF THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION, are such as the difference of subject and circumstances of those addressed and those spoken of in these Epistles, as compared with the other Epistles, would lead us to expect. Some of these peculiar phrases occur also in Galatians, in which, as in the Pastoral Epistles, he, with his characteristic fervor, attacks the false teachers. Compare Ti1 2:6; Tit 2:14, "gave Himself for us," with Gal 1:4; Ti1 1:17; Ti2 4:18, "for ever and ever," with Gal 1:5 : "before God," Ti1 5:21; Ti1 6:13; Ti2 2:14; Ti2 4:1, with Gal 1:20 : "a pillar," Ti1 3:15, with Gal 2:9 : "mediator," Ti1 2:5, with Gal 3:20 : "in due season," Ti1 2:6; Ti1 6:15; Tit 1:3 with Gal 6:9.

TIME AND PLACE OF WRITING.—The First Epistle to Timothy was written not long after Paul had left Ephesus for Macedon (Ti1 1:3). Now, as Timothy was in Macedon with Paul (Co2 1:1) on the occasion of Paul's having passed from Ephesus into that country, as recorded, Act 19:22; Act 20:1, whereas the First Epistle to Timothy contemplates a longer stay of Timothy in Ephesus, MOSHEIM supposes that Paul was nine months of the "three years" stay mostly at Ephesus (Act 20:31) in Macedonia, and elsewhere (perhaps Crete), (the mention of only "three months" and "two years," Act 19:8, Act 19:10, favors this, the remaining nine months being spent elsewhere); and that during these nine months Timothy, in Paul's absence, superintended the Church of Ephesus. It is not likely that Ephesus and the neighboring churches should have been left long without church officers and church organization, rules respecting which are giver in this Epistle. Moreover, Timothy was still "a youth" (Ti1 4:12), which he could hardly be called after Paul's first imprisonment, when he must have been at least thirty-four years of age. Lastly, in Act 20:25, Paul asserts his knowledge that the Ephesians should not all see his face again, so that Ti1 1:3 will thus refer to his sojourn at Ephesus, recorded in Act 19:10, whence he passed into Macedonia. But the difficulty is to account for the false teachers having sprung up almost immediately (according to this theory) after the foundation of the Church. However, his visit recorded in Acts 19:1-41 was not his first visit. The beginning of the Church at Ephesus was probably made at his visit a year before (Act 18:19-21). Apollos, Aquila and Priscilla, carried on the work (Act 18:24-26). Thus, as to the sudden growth of false teachers, there was time enough for their springing up, especially considering that the first converts at Ephesus were under Apollos' imperfect Christian teachings at first, imbued as he was likely to be with the tenets of PHILO of Alexandria, Apollos' native town, combined with John the Baptist's Old Testament teachings (Act 18:24-26). Besides Ephesus, from its position in Asia, its notorious voluptuousness and sorcery (Act 19:18-19), and its lewd worship of Diana (answering to the PhÅ“nician Ashtoreth), was likely from the first to tinge Christianity in some of its converts with Oriental speculations and Asiatic licentiousness of practices. Thus the phenomenon of the phase of error presented in this Epistle, being intermediate between Judaism and later Gnosticism (see above), would be such as might occur at an early period in the Ephesian Church, as well as later, when we know it had open "apostles" of error (Rev 2:2, Rev 2:6), and Nicolaitans infamous in practice. As to the close connection between this First Epistle and the Second Epistle (which must have been written at the close of Paul's life), on which ALFORD relies for his theory of making the First Epistle also written at the close of Paul's life, the similarity of circumstances, the person addressed being one and the same, and either in Ephesus at the time, or at least connected with Ephesus as its church overseer, and having heretics to contend with of the same stamp as in the First Epistle, would account for the connection. There is not so great identity of tone as to compel us to adopt the theory that some years could not have elapsed between the two Epistles.

However, all these arguments against the later date may be answered. This First Epistle may refer not to the first organization of the Church under its bishops, or elders and deacons, but to the moral qualifications laid down at a later period for those officers when scandals rendered such directions needful. Indeed, the object for which he left Timothy at Ephesus he states (Ti1 1:3) to be, not to organize the Church for the first time, but to restrain the false teachers. The directions as to the choice of fit elders and deacons refer to the filling up of vacancies, not to their first appointment. The fact of there existing an institution for Church widows implies an established organization. As to Timothy's "youth," it may be spoken of comparatively young compared with Paul, now "the aged" (Plm 1:9), and with some of the Ephesian elders, senior to Timothy their overseer. As to Act 20:25, we know not but that "all" of the elders of Ephesus called to Miletus "never saw Paul's face" afterwards, as he "knew" (doubtless by inspiration) would be the case, which obviates the need of ALFORD'S lax view, that Paul was wrong in this his positive inspired anticipation (for such it was, not a mere boding surmise as to the future). Thus he probably visited Ephesus again (Ti1 1:3; Ti2 1:18; Ti2 4:20, he would hardly have been at Miletum, so near Ephesus, without visiting Ephesus) after his first imprisonment in Rome, though all the Ephesian elders whom he had addressed formerly at Miletus did not again see him. The general similarity of subject and style, and of the state of the Church between the two Epistles, favors the view that they were near one another in date. Also, against the theory of the early date is the difficulty of defining, when, during Paul's two or three years' stay at Ephesus, we can insert an absence of Paul from Ephesus long enough for the requirements of the case, which imply a lengthened stay and superintendence of Timothy at Ephesus (see, however, Ti1 3:14, on the other side) after having been "left" by Paul there. Timothy did not stay there when Paul left Ephesus (Act 19:22; Act 20:1; Co2 1:1). In Ti1 3:14, Paul says, "I write, hoping to come unto thee shortly," but on the earlier occasion of his passing from Ephesus to Macedon he had no such expectation, but had planned to spend the summer in Macedon, and the winter in Corinth, (Co1 16:6). The expression "Till I come" (Ti1 4:13), implies that Timothy was not to leave his post till Paul should arrive; this and the former objection, however, do not hold good against MOSHEIM'S theory. Moreover, Paul in his farewell address to the Ephesian elders prophetically anticipates the rise of false teachers hereafter of their own selves; therefore this First Epistle, which speaks of their actual presence at Ephesus, would naturally seem to be not prior, but subsequent, to the address, that is, will belong to the later date assigned. In the Epistle to the Ephesians no notice is taken of the Judaeo-Gnostic errors, which would have been noticed had they been really in existence; however, they are alluded to in the contemporaneous sister Epistle to Colossians (Col. 2:1-23).

Whatever doubt must always remain as to the date of the First Epistle, there can be hardly any as to that of the Second Epistle. In Ti2 4:13, Paul directs Timothy to bring the books and cloak which the apostle had left at Troas. Assuming that the visit to Troas referred to is the one mentioned in Act 20:5-7, it will follow that the cloak and parchments lay for about seven years at Troas, that being the time that elapsed between the visit and Paul's first imprisonment at Rome: a very unlikely supposition, that he should have left either unused for so long. Again, when, during his first Roman imprisonment, he wrote to the Colossians (Col 4:14) and Philemon (Plm 1:24), Demas was with him; but when he was writing Ti2 4:10, Demas had forsaken him from love of this world, and gone to Thessalonica. Again, when he wrote to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon, he had good hopes of a speedy liberation; but here in Ti2 4:6-8, he anticipates immediate death, having been at least once already tried (Ti2 4:16). Again, he is in this Epistle represented as in closer confinement than he was when writing those former Epistles in his first imprisonment (even in the Philippians, which represent him in greater uncertainty as to his life, he cherished the hope of soon being delivered, Phi 2:24; Ti2 1:16-18; Ti2 2:9; Ti2 4:6-8, Ti2 4:16). Again (Ti2 4:20), he speaks of having left Trophimus sick at Miletum. This could not have been on the occasion, Act 20:15. For Trophimus was with Paul at Jerusalem shortly afterwards (Act 21:29). Besides, he would thus be made to speak of an event six or seven years after its occurrence, as a recent event: moreover, Timothy was, on that occasion of the apostle being at Miletum, with Paul, and therefore needed not to be informed of Trophimus' sickness there (Act 20:4-17). Also, the statement (Ti2 4:20), "Erastus abode at Corinth," implies that Paul had shortly before been at Corinth, and left Erastus there; but Paul had not been at Corinth for several years before his first imprisonment, and in the interval Timothy had been with him, so that he did not need to write subsequently about that visit. He must therefore have been liberated after his first imprisonment (indeed, Heb 13:23-24, expressly proves that the writer was in Italy and at liberty), and resumed his apostolic journeyings, and been imprisoned at Rome again, whence shortly before his death he wrote Second Timothy.

EUSEBIUS [Chronicles, Anno 2083] (beginning October, A.D. 67), says, "Nero, to his other crimes, added the persecution of Christians: under him the apostles Peter and Paul consummated their martyrdom at Rome." So JEROME [On Illustrious Men], "In the fourteenth year of Nero, Paul was beheaded at Rome for Christ's sake, on the same day as Peter, and was buried on the Ostian Road, in the thirty-seventh year after the death of our Lord." ALFORD reasonably conjectures the Pastoral Epistles were written near this date. The interval was possibly filled up (so CLEMENT OF ROME states that Paul preached as far as "to the extremity of the west") by a journey to Spain (Rom 15:24, Rom 15:28), according to his own original intention. MURATORI'S Fragment on the Canon of Scripture (about A.D. 170) also alleges Paul's journey into Spain. So EUSEBIUS, CHRYSOSTOM, and JEROME. Be that as it may, he seems shortly before his second imprisonment to have visited Ephesus, where a new body of elders governed the Church (Act 20:25), say in the latter end of A.D. 66, or beginning of 67. Supposing him thirty at his conversion, he would now be upwards of sixty, and older in constitution than in years, through continual hardship. Even four years before he called himself "Paul the aged" (Plm 1:9).

From Ephesus he went into Macedonia (Ti1 1:3). He may have written the First Epistle to Timothy from that country. But his use of "went," not "came," in Ti1 1:3, "When I went into Macedonia," implies he was not there when writing. Wherever he was, he writes uncertain how long he may be detained from coming to Timothy (Ti1 3:14-15). BIRKS shows the probability that he wrote from Corinth, between which city and Ephesus the communication was rapid and easy. His course, as on both former occasions, was from Macedon to Corinth. He finds a coincidence between Ti1 2:11-14, and Co1 14:34, as to women being silent in Church; and Ti1 5:17-18, and Co1 9:8-10, as to the maintenance of ministers, on the same principle as the Mosaic law, that the ox should not be muzzled that treadeth out the corn; and Ti1 5:19-20, and Co2 13:1-4, as to charges against elders. It would be natural for the apostle in the very place where these directions had been enforced, to reproduce them in his letter.

The date of the Epistle to Titus must depend on that assigned to First Timothy, with which it is connected in subject, phraseology, and tone. There is no difficulty in the Epistle to Titus, viewed by itself, in assigning it to the earlier date, namely, before Paul's first imprisonment. In Act 18:18-19, Paul, in journeying from Corinth to Palestine, for some cause or other landed at Ephesus. Now we find (Tit 3:13) that Apollos in going from Ephesus to Corinth was to touch at Crete (which seems to coincide with Apollos' journey from Ephesus to Corinth, recorded in Act 18:24, Act 18:27; Act 19:1); therefore it is not unlikely that Paul may have taken Crete similarly on his way between Corinth and Ephesus; or, perhaps been driven out of his course to it in one of his three shipwrecks spoken of in Co2 11:25-26; this will account for his taking Ephesus on his way from Corinth to Palestine, though out of his regular course. At Ephesus Paul may have written the Epistle to Titus [HUG]; there he probably met Apollos and gave the Epistle to Titus to his charge, before his departure for Corinth by way of Crete, and before the apostle's departure for Jerusalem (Act 18:19-21, Act 18:24). Moreover, on Paul's way back from Jerusalem and Antioch, he travelled some time in Upper Asia (Act 19:1); and it was then, probably, that his intention to "winter at Nicopolis" was realized, there being a town of that name between Antioch and Tarsus, lying on Paul's route to Galatia (Tit 3:12). Thus, First Timothy will, in this theory, be placed two and a half years later (Act 20:1; compare Ti1 1:3).

ALFORD'S argument for classing the Epistle to Titus with First Timothy, as written after Paul's first Roman imprisonment, stands or falls with his argument for assigning First Timothy to that date. Indeed, HUG'S unobjectionable argument for the earlier date of the Epistle to Titus, favors the early date assigned to First Timothy, which is so much akin to it, if other arguments be not thought to counterbalance this. The Church of Crete had been just founded (Tit 1:5), and yet the same heresies are censured in it as in Ephesus, which shows that no argument, such as ALFORD alleges against the earlier date of First Timothy, can be drawn from them (Tit 1:10-11, Tit 1:15-16; Tit 3:9, Tit 3:11). But vice versa, if, as seems likely from the arguments adduced, the First Epistle to Timothy be assigned to the later date, the Epistle to Titus must, from similarity of style, belong to the same period. ALFORD traces Paul's last journey before his second imprisonment thus: To Crete (Tit 1:5), Miletus (Ti2 4:20), Colosse (fulfilling his intention, Plm 1:22), Ephesus (Ti1 1:3; Ti2 1:18), from which neighborhood he wrote the Epistle to Titus; Troas, Macedonia, Corinth (Ti2 4:20), Nicopolis (Tit 3:12) in Epirus, where he had intended to winter; a place in which, as being a Roman colony, he would be free from tumultuary violence, and yet would be more open to a direct attack from foes in the metropolis, Rome. Being known in Rome as the leader of the Christians, he was probably [ALFORD] arrested as implicated in causing the fire in A.D. 64, attributed by Nero to the Christians, and was sent to Rome by the Duumvirs of Nicopolis. There he was imprisoned as a common malefactor (Ti2 2:9); his Asiatic friends deserted him, except Onesiphorus (Ti2 1:16). Demas, Crescens, and Titus, left him. Tychicus he had sent to Ephesus. Luke alone remained with him (Ti2 4:10-12). Under the circumstances he writes the Second Epistle to Timothy, most likely while Timothy was at Ephesus (Ti2 2:17; compare Ti1 1:20; Ti2 4:13), begging him to come to him before winter (Ti2 4:21), and anticipating his own execution soon (Ti2 4:6). Tychicus was perhaps the bearer of the Second Epistle (Ti2 4:12). His defense was not made before the emperor, for the latter was then in Greece (Ti2 4:16-17). Tradition represents that he died by the sword, which accords with the fact that his Roman citizenship would exempt him from torture; probably late in A.D. 67 or A.D. 68, the last year of Nero.

Timothy is first mentioned, Act 16:1, as dwelling in Lystra (not Derbe, compare Act 20:4). His mother was a Jewess named Eunice (Ti2 1:5); his father, "a Greek" (that is, a Gentile). As Timothy is mentioned as "a disciple" in Act 16:1, he must have been converted before, and this by Paul (Ti1 1:2), probably at his former visit to Lystra (Act 14:6); at the same time, probably, that his Scripture-loving mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois, were converted to Christ from Judaism (Ti2 3:14-15). Not only the good report given as to him by the brethren of Lystra, but also his origin, partly Jewish, partly Gentile, adapted him specially for being Paul's assistant in missionary work, laboring as the apostle did in each place, firstly among the Jews, and then among the Gentiles. In order to obviate Jewish prejudices, he first circumcised him. He seems to have accompanied Paul in his tour through Macedonia; but when the apostle went forward to Athens, Timothy and Silas remained in Berea. Having been sent back by Paul to visit the Thessalonian Church (Th1 3:2), he brought his report of it to the apostle at Corinth (Th1 3:6). Hence we find his name joined with Paul's in the addresses of both the Epistles to Thessalonians, which were written at Corinth. We again find him "ministering to" Paul during the lengthened stay at Ephesus (Act 19:22). Thence he was sent before Paul into Macedonia and to Corinth (Co1 4:17; Co1 16:10). He was with Paul when he wrote the Second Epistle to Corinthians (Co2 1:1); and the following winter in Corinth, when Paul sent from thence his Epistle to the Romans (Rom 16:21). On Paul's return to Asia through Macedonia, he went forward and waited for the apostle at Troas (Act 20:3-5). Next we find him with Paul during his imprisonment at Rome, when the apostle wrote the Epistles to Colossians (Col 1:1), Philemon (Plm 1:1), and Philippians (Phi 1:1). He was imprisoned and set at liberty about the same time as the writer of the Hebrews (Heb 13:23). In the Pastoral Epistles, we find him mentioned as left by the apostle at Ephesus to superintend the Church there (Ti1 1:3). The last notice of him is in the request which Paul makes to him (Ti2 4:21) to "come before winter," that is about A.D. 67 [ALFORD]. EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 3.42], reports that he was first bishop of Ephesus; and [NICOPHORUS, Ecclesiastical History, 3.11], represents that he died by martyrdom. If then, St. John, as tradition represents, resided and died in that city, it must have been at a later period. Paul himself ordained or consecrated him with laying on of his own hands, and those of the presbytery, in accordance with prophetic intimations given respecting him by those possessing the prophetic gift (Ti1 1:18; Ti1 4:14 Ti2 1:6). His self-denying character is shown by his leaving home at once to accompany the apostle, and submitting to circumcision for the Gospel's sake; and also by his abstemiousness (noted in Ti1 5:23) notwithstanding his bodily infirmities, which would have warranted a more generous diet. Timidity and a want of self-confidence and boldness in dealing with the difficulties of his position, seem to have been a defect in his otherwise beautiful character as a Christian minister (Co1 16:10; Ti1 4:12; Ti2 1:7).

The DESIGN of the First Epistle was: (1) to direct Timothy to charge the false teachers against continuing to teach other doctrine than that of the Gospel (1Ti. 1:3-20; compare Rev 2:1-6); (2) to give him instructions as to the orderly conducting of worship, the qualifications of bishops and deacons, and the selection of widows who should, in return for Church charity, do appointed service (1Ti. 2:1-6:2); (3) to warn against covetousness, a sin prevalent at Ephesus, and to urge to good works (1Ti. 6:3-19).

Next: 1 Timothy Chapter 1