AUTHOR

These letters of encouragement and instruction to young church leaders, collectively known as the Pastoral Epistles (letters), claim to have been written by Paul, and the early church accepted this ascription. Indeed, no serious challenge to Paul’s authorship arose until the nineteenth century. Critics of Paul’s authorship based their rejection on several arguments:

1. The vocabulary, grammar, and style of the Pastorals differ from letters that are almost unanimously viewed as being from Paul.

2. Church organization reflected in the Pastorals looks more like structures seen in a later era.

3. The letters counter Gnostic teachings, which did not arise until after AD 100.

There are sound responses to each of the critics’ objections.

1. The role of a personal secretary (possibly Luke), the incorporation of earlier material, the letters’ personal nature, and the unique subject matter account for linguistic differences.

2. The early church’s adoption of the leadership structure of the synagogue accounts for the relatively advanced organization of the church early in its history (Ac 6:1-6; 11:30). Besides, the leadership structure is not as developed in the Pastorals as in the writings of the apostolic fathers at the close of the first century.

3. Paul countered a basically Jewish heresy (1Tm 1:7; Ti 1:10,14; 3:9) containing some features of asceticism, or self-denial (1Tm 4:3), with traces of Greek philosophical influence (2Tm 2:18).

No feature of the teaching Paul combated precludes dating the letters during Paul’s lifetime. Recent scholarship is increasingly favorable toward the authenticity of these letters.

1 TIMOTHY

Paul wrote this letter to Timothy probably in the early AD 60s. Internal evidence suggests Paul wrote from Macedonia to Timothy in Ephesus (1:3). Paul wrote to help Timothy respond to a dangerous false teaching that threatened the churches of the area.

2 TIMOTHY

Paul, writing to Timothy probably in the mid 60s, faced impending martyrdom. Second Timothy 4:6 suggests the letter was written during Paul’s second Roman imprisonment, just before his execution under Nero.

TITUS

Paul wrote Titus, likely from Macedonia, probably in the early 60s. Titus was apparently in Crete where he combated false teaching (1:6,12), similar to that faced by Timothy in Ephesus.