1 Timothy - Introduction

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 2 Timothy 4:13 the apostle had left at Troas. Assuming that the visit to Troas referred to is the one mentioned in Acts 20:5-7 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 ( Colossians 4:14 Demas was with him; but when he was writing 2 Timothy 4:10 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 2 Timothy 4:6-8 anticipates immediate death, having been at least once already tried ( 2 Timothy 4:16 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, Philippians 2:24 ; 2 Timothy 1:16-18 ; 2:9 ; 2 Timothy 4:6-8 2 Timothy 4:16 Again ( 2 Timothy 4:20 he speaks of having left Trophimus sick at Miletum. This could not have been on the occasion, Acts 20:15 Jerusalem shortly afterwards ( Acts 21:29 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 ( Acts 20:4-17 ( 2 Timothy 4:20 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, Hebrews 13:23 Hebrews 13:24 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 ( Romans 15:24 Romans 15:28 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 ( Acts 20:25 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" ( Philemon 1:9

From Ephesus he went into Macedonia ( 1 Timothy 1:3 the First Epistle to Timothy from that country. But his use of "went," not "came," in 1 Timothy 1:3 not there when writing. Wherever he was, he writes uncertain how long he may be detained from coming to Timothy ( 1 Timothy 3:14 1 Timothy 3:15 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 1 Timothy 2:11-14 Church; and 1 Timothy 5:17 1 Timothy 5:18 of ministers, on the same principle as the Mosaic law, that the ox should not be muzzled that treadeth out the corn; and 1 Timothy 5:19 1 Timothy 5:20 and 2 Corinthians 13:1-4 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 Acts 18:18 Acts 18:19 journeying from Corinth to Palestine, for some cause or other landed at Ephesus. Now we find ( Titus 3:13 to Corinth was to touch at Crete (which seems to coincide with Apollos' journey from Ephesus to Corinth, recorded in Acts 18:24 Acts 18:27 ; 19:1 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 2 Corinthians 11:25 2 Corinthians 11:26 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 ( Acts 18:19-21 Acts 18:24 Moreover, on Paul's way back from Jerusalem and Antioch, he travelled some time in Upper Asia ( Acts 19:1 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 ( Titus 3:12 placed two and a half years later ( Acts 20:1 1 Timothy 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 ( Titus 1:5 Ephesus, which shows that no argument, such as ALFORD alleges against the earlier date of First Timothy, can be drawn from them ( Titus 1:10 Titus 1:11 Titus 1:15 Titus 1:16 ; Titus 3:9 Titus 3:11 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 ( Titus 1:5 ( 2 Timothy 4:20 Ephesus ( 1 Timothy 1:3 ; 2 Timothy 1:18 Epistle to Titus; Troas, Macedonia, Corinth ( 2 Timothy 4:20 ( Titus 3:12 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 ( 2 Timothy 2:9 except Onesiphorus ( 2 Timothy 1:16 him. Tychicus he had sent to Ephesus. Luke alone remained with him ( 2 Timothy 4:10-12 Epistle to Timothy, most likely while Timothy was at Ephesus ( 2 Timothy 2:17 come to him before winter ( 2 Timothy 4:21 execution soon ( 2 Timothy 4:6 Second Epistle ( 2 Timothy 4:12 emperor, for the latter was then in Greece ( 2 Timothy 4:16 2 Timothy 4:17 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, Acts 16:1 (not Derbe, compare Acts 20:4 ( 2 Timothy 1:5 is mentioned as "a disciple" in Acts 16:1 before, and this by Paul ( 1 Timothy 1:2 Lystra ( Acts 14:6 Scripture-loving mother, Eunice, and grandmother, Lois, were converted to Christ from Judaism ( 2 Timothy 3:14 2 Timothy 3:15 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 ( 1 Thessalonians 3:2 he brought his report of it to the apostle at Corinth ( 1 Thessalonians 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 ( Acts 19:22 Corinth ( 1 Corinthians 4:17 ; 16:10 Epistle to Corinthians ( 2 Corinthians 1:1 Corinth, when Paul sent from thence his Epistle to the Romans ( Romans 16:21 forward and waited for the apostle at Troas ( Acts 20:3-5 him with Paul during his imprisonment at Rome, when the apostle wrote the Epistles to Colossians ( Colossians 1:1 Philippians ( Philippians 1:1 the same time as the writer of the Hebrews ( Hebrews 13:23 Pastoral Epistles, we find him mentioned as left by the apostle at Ephesus to superintend the Church there ( 1 Timothy 1:3 of him is in the request which Paul makes to him ( 2 Timothy 4:21 "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 ( 1 Timothy 1:18 ; 4:14 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 1 Timothy 5:23 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 ( 1 Corinthians 16:10 ; 1 Timothy 4:12 ; 2 Timothy 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 ( 1 Timothy 1:3-20 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 ( 1 Timothy 2:1-6:2 at Ephesus, and to urge to good works ( 1 Timothy 6:3-19