scope of the apostle's teaching. For it must be remembered that the Pastoral Epistles differ widely from the other writings of St. Paul alike as regards their recipients -friends and colleagues, not congregations--and the ecclesiastical questions with which they deal. The idea that the epistles may have been the products of a later age is in many respects untenable. Both 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 at Rome, when he wrote Philippians and Colossians, than of anything in the second century. The name "bishop" is here applied to the "presbyters" or elders themselves as the overseers of the congregation,1 instead of being appropriated, as it was and rejoice with you all"; iii. 14: “I ་་ A resemblance can be traced between the language of the Pastoral Epistles and that of St. Luke's writings (cf. 2 Tim. iv. II: 'Only Luke is with me") as well as of the Epistle to the Hebrews (cf. Heb. xiii. 23: "Know ye that our brother Timothy hath been set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you"). A number of Latinisms have also been discovered, due to Paul's long residence at Rome. Some of the leading and typical expressions occurring in these epistles will be found on pp. 199, 200. A complete list of the words and phrases peculiar to them (amounting to about one-fifth of the whole) is given by Davidson and Holzmann, and will also be found in Thayer's Appendix to Grimm's New Testament Lexicon. I 1 E.g. Titus i. 5-7: "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as gave thee charge; if any man is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children that believe, who are not accused of riot or unruly. For the bishop must be blameless, as God's steward; not selfwilled, not soon angry, no brawler, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre"; cf. Acts xx. 17-28: "And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to him the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, after what manner I was with you all the time. Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in the which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops, to feed the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood." early in the second century, to a chief dignitary exercising authority over the other office-bearers (see pp. 162-3 and notes there). Moreover, the "knowledge falsely so called "1 which is denounced in these epistles comes far short of the elaborate Gnosticism of the second century, which set itself in direct opposition to the orthodox faith, and repudiated all affinity with the Jewish law. The errors which the apostle here combats are evidently of a vague and unformed character, awaiting further development, as he indicates by his references to the future;2 and in particular they bear traces of that semi-Jewish character3 which we know to have belonged to Christian Gnosticism in its earlier stages. In this respect, as well as in the morbid asceticism professed by the false teachers, the corrupt form of Christianity that meets us here is very similar to that which is dealt with in the epistle to the Colossians,— but exhibited in a somewhat ranker growth. "THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PAUL THE APOSTLE TO 1. Authorship. The strong external evidence in favour of the genuineness of this epistle has been already mentioned. We can trace allusion to it as far back as the close of the first 'not giving heed to iii. 9: fightings stopped"; i. 14: " 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, owing to the difficulty of reconciling its teaching with their favourite tenets. In a general sense its peculiarities in language and contents have also been accounted for. In some respects, however, these peculiarities are positively in favour of the Pauline authorship. How unlikely that a forger should have inserted the word "mercy" in the usual Pauline greeting "grace and peace,"1 or have omitted to make frequent use of the connecting particles "therefore," "wherefore,” “then," "as," &c., which are so common in Paul's writings.2 Objection has been taken to the expression "let no man. despise thy youth," as if the apostle could not have applied that language to Timothy when he may have been a man of thirty-five years of age. But we have here rather a token of genuineness. For 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. Equally groundless is the objection that Paul had predicted to the Ephesian elders that he should see their face no more, 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 this 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 "" 11 Tim. i. 2: Grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord." So 2 Tim. i. 2, but in Titus i. 4 (R. V.) we find the usual form "Grace and peace. 2 ἄρα, διό, ἔπειτα, ὥσπερ, ἔτι, οὐκέτι, μήπως, ιδού, are not found in the Pastoral Epistles. 3 iv. 12. 4 Acts xx. 25. 5 i. 3. 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.1 But this latter visit was evidently regarded by the apostle as very uncertain; while the former one, as we have seen, is a very doubtful inference. 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 might be of permanent service, and, if necessary, be referred to in the hearing of the congregation. 2. The Reader. "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.2 He seems to have been converted to Christianity during Paul's 1iii. 14, 15: "These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly; but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God." 2 Acts xvi. 1-3: "And he came also to Derbe and to Lystra: and behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timothy, the son of a Jewess which believed; but his father was a Greek. The same was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him; and he took and circumcised him because of the Jews that were in those parts for they all knew that his father was a Greek"; 2 Tim. i. 2: "to Timothy, my beloved child"; ver. 5: "having been reminded of the unfeigned faith that is in thee; which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and, I am persuaded, in thee also"; 2 Tim. iii. 14, 15: "But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus." 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.1 To this position he was duly ordained by the laying on of hands, after being circumcised to render him more acceptable to the Jews.2 Thereafter we find him constantly associated with the apostle either as his companion or as his delegate to Churches at a distance-although his influence seems to have been somewhat weakened by a certain timidity and softness of disposition.3 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. 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. 3. Date and Place of Composition. This epistle seems to have been sent to Timothy from Macedonia under the circumstances referred to in the first 1 Acts xvi. 1-3 (quoted p. 192); 1 Tim. i. 2: "unto Timothy, my true child in faith"; 2 Tim. iii. 10, II: "But thou didst follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, patience, persecutions, sufferings; what things befell me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: and out of them all the Lord delivered me. Cf. Acts xiv. 8-23. " 2 Acts xvi. 3 (quoted above); 1 Tim. iv. 14: " 'Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery"; vi. 12: "Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal, whereunto thou wast called, and didst confess the good confession in the sight of many witnesses"; 2 Tim. i. 6: "For the which cause I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee through the laying on of my hands." " 31 Cor. iv. 17: "For this cause have I sent unto you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, even as I teach everywhere in every church xvi. IO, II: "Now if Timothy come, see that he be with you without fear; for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do let no man therefore despise him. But set him forward on his journey in peace, that he may come unto me: for I expect him with the brethren. Cf. the earnest personal exhortations addressed to him in these epistles (1 Tim. iv. 14-16; vi. 20; 2 Tim. i. 14; ii. 1-7; iv. 1, 2, 5). " 4 Philippians i. 1; Colossians i. 1; Philemon 1. Also in the two earliest epistles of St. Paul, viz., 1 and 2 Thessalonians. I N |