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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, cf. 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

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. 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.

under the circumstances referred to in i. 3; but whether before or after Paul's intended visits to Philippi (Phil. ii. 24), Colossæ (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.1

11. 5, 15; li. 3-6; iii. 16; vl. 6, 10, 12.

CHAPTER XVIII

TITUS-2 TIMOTHY

"THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO TITUS "9

WHO wrote it. To the general remarks at

pp. 104, 105 we may add the following notes of genuineness :

(1) The quotation in i. 12 is in accordance with the manner of St. Paul, who is the only New Testament writer that quotes heathen authors (Acts xvii. 28; 1 Cor. xv. 33). At the same time the use of the word "prophet" in this passage, as compared with "poet" in Acts xvii. 28, is against the supposition of imitation.

(2) The introduction of such unknown names as Artemas and Zenas, as well as of Nicopolis (iii. 12, 13), which are mentioned nowhere else in the New Testament, and the unique designation of the apostle himself (i. 1), are at variance with the idea of forgery.

As

To whom written.-"To Titus, my true child after a common faith" (i. 4). Judging from the allusions to Titus in Paul's epistles1 he seems to have been the ablest and most reliable of all the friends and coadjutors whom the apostle had about him in his later years. an uncircumcised Gentile who had been converted by Paul, he represented in his own person the breadth and freedom of the Gospel, for which the apostle had so zealously and successfully contended.

1 In the Book of Acts Titus is never mentioned.

The conversion of Titus had taken place at a comparatively early period in the apostle's ministry, for he accompanied Paul and Barnabas on their visit from Antioch to Jerusalem to vindicate the freedom of the Gentiles from the ceremonial law of the Jews (Gal. ii. 1-4).

From the allusion to him in the passage just cited we may infer that he was well known to the Galatians; and it is possible he may have been the labourer among them referred to in Gal. iii. 5. We find him figuring prominently at another crisis in the apostle's ministry, when the strife and confusion in the Corinthian Church threatened to destroy the apostle's influence. His remarkable success in the difficult mission then assigned to him (pp. 66, 67), which called for the exercise of combined firmness and tact, and from which Apollos appears to have shrunk (1 Cor. xvi. 12), marked him out as an able and trustworthy delegate, and explains his selection ten years later for the important and trying position which he temporarily held in Crete when this letter was addressed to him.

Of the state of the Church in Crete we know very little except what may be gathered from this epistle. In all probability the Gospel had been first brought to the island by those of its inhabitants who witnessed the outpouring of the spirit on the day of Pentecost ("Cretans," Acts ii. 11). More than thirty years had passed since then, and there were now, probably, quite a number of congregations in the island, which was 140 miles long and was famous for its hundred cities.

Paul had been there once before, on his way from Cæsarea to Rome; but being a prisoner at the time he could have had little or no opportunity of preaching. It may have been on that occasion, however, that he saw the necessity for organising the various congregations, as he was now seeking to do through the instrumentality of Titus. It was a difficult task, for the Cretans bore a bad character. "Liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons," was the description given of them by "one of themselves" (Epimenides, 600 B. C. )—a testimony confirmed by several

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