1 Timothy - Introduction

      From this time the allusions to Timothy in connection with Paul's work are so frequent that, did space permit, we could easily trace his course. Finally, we find him attending Paul to Jerusalem on the occasion when Paul was made a captive. During the imprisonment at Cæsarea he was probably absent, sent to the churches by Paul, but after the arrival at Rome, as we learn from "the Epistles of the Captivity," he again joined him. He had probably attended him on his last tour of the churches of Asia, was left behind at Ephesus, was there the recipient of two letters, which are the last allusions to him in the New Testament, unless he be "the angel of the church of Ephesus" named in Rev. 2:1 , as some have supposed.

      The genuineness of the Pastoral epistles was never questioned in the primitive church. They are the oldest translation of the New Testament, the Peshito, which belongs to the second century, are in the oldest canon of the New Testament books, the Muratori, which is assigned to the date of A. D. 170, are quoted by several of the Fathers of the Second Century, and are declared by Eusebius in his church history to be "universally received." Some objections have been raised to them by certain rationalistic German critics, such as Baur, but these objections have been fully answered. The space that our plan allows us will not permit me to consider these, further than to say that if they differ somewhat from the keen logic of Paul's earlier letters that is easily accounted for by the fact that they are personal, and are addressed to the most intimate of personal friends, to whom he writes in unreserved freedom and with the tenderest affection. The style of every writer differs according to the subjects treated and the persons addressed.

      It only remains to be added that nothing has ever been written which contains, in the same space, so much that is indispensable to the preacher, the pastor, and to every church official. These classes may consider themselves especially addressed in the persons of Timothy and Titus, and they should study and reflect upon these letters until every charge, every truth and every admonition is written upon their hearts.