1 TIMOTHY
We come now to the first in a group of letters commonly referred to as the “Pastoral Letters”—so called b/c Paul addresses pastors, viz., Timothy and Titus.
Most mainstream scholars (about 85%) consider these letters not to have been written by Paul but by 1 of his followers, in which case, they date 1 Timothy to the early 2nd century; and therefore it would not have been written to the Timothy of Acts. In my Ephesians: 1 blog entry I summarized the criteria for determining authenticity. I want to revisit that now, but focus only on 1 factor: vocabulary. 1 of the arguments against Paul having written 1-2 Timothy and Titus is the difference in vocab. between these letters and letters like Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, etc. To summarize: 306 words in the Pastorals don’t appear in any of Paul’s other letters; also the Pastorals only produce synonyms where you would expect typical Pauline formulas; e.g., you read “God our Saviour” or “our God and Saviour Jesus” rather than the more typical “Christ our Saviour”; or you get “Epiphany” (from the Greek) for Christ’s 2nd Coming rather than Paul’s usual term, “Parousia” (Greek).
But, there is another side to this vocabulary argument. 1st, most of the other words in the Pastorals (64%) are actually found in pre-50 AD texts, meaning, the Pastorals read more like a text written pre-50 than a second-century text. 2nd, the Pauline letters total to about 2000 words—clearly, only part of Paul’s overall vocabulary. So, could the 306 “unique” words in the Pastorals be found in the remainder of Paul’s vocabulary? 3rd, written texts are always conditioned by the original audience/reader. At face value, the Pastorals were not written for believers at large but for church leaders—specifically, pastoral colleagues of Paul. Given this huge difference in readership you would expect more technical/advanced ideas. You could think of it like this: when 2 mechanics talk about your car’s mechanical problem to each other, they use very different language/terms (e.g., auto slang) than when they talk with you about it. As well, a letter to pastoral colleagues would probably draw from a specialized conceptual or language bank, and would also express different concerns than a general letter would (e.g., it would be more teaching/doctrine focused). OK, enuff about that!
If Paul wrote 1 Timothy then the social-historical occasion of his letter—like the following 2 letters—would be that Paul wants to help Timothy (and later Titus) to deal with the danger false teaching in the church, and to deal with the church’s organizational difficulties. Timothy was 1 of Paul’s traveling companions who accompanied him on his “mission runs” (recorded in Acts), and he was taking up the reigns of leadership in Ephesus. The letters would then date to the mid 60s.
The basic structure of 1 Timothy is: opening greeting (1:1-2), Paul’s instructions for Timothy (1:3-2:15), guidelines for leaders (3:1-16), more instructions for Timothy (4:1-16), more instructions for the ministry (5:1-6:2), and further instructions for Timothy (6:2-21). There’s a lot in 1 Timothy, but I’m simply going to highlight a few things.
Paul begins his letter to his protégé by warning him against false teachers (1:1-9a). He says that the teaching in question—what the Ephesian church was encountering—is based on endless speculations rather than apostolic truth (1 Tim 1:3-4), and the on the misuse of the Mosaic Law (1 Tim 1:6-8). The goal of teaching is to bring about in your students/congregation a pure heart and genuine faith in Christ (1:5); Paul himself is an example of this transformation from the “worst of sinners” to a faithful apostle (1:12-16).
In everything prayer remains of prime importance (1 Tim 2:1), so Paul encourages Tim to pray for everyone, but especially for those in civic authority so that their governance would ensure the continued spread of the gospel (1 Tim 2:2), since God desires that people from every nation, culture, and language would come to a knowledge of the truth (2:3-4). With respect to the role of married women in the church, Paul commands that they remain in submission to their husbands (2:9-15). Question: Does his edict target only married women or is it for all women?
Paul offers some guidelines for church leadership, beginning 1st with those who feel called to pastoral ministry. This type of burden is surely a good thing to have (1 Tim 3:1). Paul insists that such people must be upright in character (3:2-3), and be faithful stewards of their personal affairs (3:4-5), not a recent convert (3:6), and must already possess a good reputation with unbelievers (3:7). The prerequisites for deacons are quite similar: an upright character and faithful stewardship of one’s personal affairs (3:8-13). Question: Why is this important?
Paul then discusses with Timothy the End Times. Similar to what he said in 2 Thessalonians, many “Christians” people will fall away from the faith to follow the deceptive doctrines/teaching of demons (1 Tim 4:1-2). Therefore, he urges Tim to live a disciplined life: to avoid false teaching, to strive for personal godliness, to be an example for other people, to preach and teach the scriptures, to use his spiritual gifts, and thru it all, to persevere in his life and his teaching (4:6-16). Question: How does someone “persevere” in his/her teaching?
In terms of other instructions for the ministry, Paul describes for Tim (being a young pastor) how to relate appropriately to the different age groups within the church (1 Tim 5:1-2). He focuses on widows saying that he should honour and care for elderly widows and caution younger widows about living a sensual lifestyle (5:3-16). When it comes to dealing with “elders,” i.e., church leadership, he says that: the congregation must treat their leaders with “double honour” (1 Tim 5:17-18); accusations against them must be grounded in eye-witness accounts (5:19), and b/c of the respect due an elder, they should never be appointed too quickly (5:22).
In leaving Timothy with some parting instructions, Paul again warns him about false teachers—especially their inner motivations (6:3-5). He warns him about the allurement of wealth. Wealth is not to be pursued b/c it can be a dangerous snare to people (1 Tim 6:6-10); rather, people should pursue spiritual wealth, i.e., they should seek to be rich in good deeds (6:17-19). By fleeing ungodliness, and pursuing a life of righteousness, Timothy will “fight the good fight of faith,” & take hold of that for which God has taken hold of him: eternal life (1 Tim 6:12).