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authentic reminiscences of the apostle, which have been worked up into the epistle. Titus and 1 Tim were written later and for similar purposes, though in a slightly more developed state of affairs. The three represent together the historical climax of Paulinism within the NT. They are not Paul's but Pauline. Their author was an adherent of the apostle's, who reproduced his master's ideas to meet not only the rising interest in personal religion throughout the Empire, but also the need of protection against the current heresy and trouble within the churches. Hence the apparently incongruous combination of passages which have a thoroughly Pauline ring (II. 115-18 23-9 45-8. 16-18, Tit 311-14, 1. 112-16) with others like II. 16 226-39, Tit 110 35 39f, I. 23-15 3, 41-3. 14 511-23 63-10. 20. 21; in these last-quoted verses it is impossible to miss the tone of semi-legalism, ecclesiastical formality, and anxiety, which begins to be heard in the sub-apostolic literature. To suppose that such utterances were due to Paul before 67 A.D., is not merely to violently contradict the apostle's self-revelation in his other epistles, but also to throw the whole development of early Christian ideas and institutions into gratuitous and inextricable confusion. Justice can only be done to the double element in these epistles by approaching them upon the lines of the criticism just indicated. And 2 Tim occupies a position of priority among the pastorals upon historical and exegetical grounds very similar to those which prove Mark to be the earliest of the synoptic gospels. We feel the original tradition vibrating most unmistakably within its pages. 1 Tim, again, gives us the impression of a book which is in many respects an expansion or free summary of ideas already put into circulation. The arguments for this order of the pastorals are not, it must be admitted, so transparently convincing as those for their general date; but they seem the most satisfactory solution of the problem. So, in the sense above explained, Lücke, Neander, and Ritschl, after Schleiermacher. Accepting the critical view of all three, Baur (Church Hist. (Eng. tr.), ii. pp. 30, 31), Pfleiderer (Paulinism, ii. p. 198 n.; Urc. p. 822 n.), Holtzmann (Past. pp. 253-256, "Die Reihenfolge der Briefe"), S. Davidson (INT, ii. pp. 21-76), Beyschlag (NTTh, ii. pp. 502, 503), M. A. Rovers (Nieuw-test. Letterkunde,2 1888, pp. 66-78), and Brückner (Chron. pp. 277-286) are the main advocates of this order, which is also accepted by von Soden, McGiffert, and some others.2

The reversed order of the epistles in the canon can be very naturally explained, and does not constitute any valid objection to the critical theory of their origin. The titles of course formed no part of the original autographs. When the epistles came to be incorporated in the canon, as both were ex hypothesi Pauline, that one was numbered 2 which contained fuller and later references to the apostle's life, and thus appeared to form, with its rich personal contents, a climax to his career; the other, which lacked these intimate and farewell touches, was supposed to have been written previously. This inversion was unavoidable in an

1 On which ep. especially Renan, op. cit., and Holtzmann, Past. pp. 212 f. 2 So evidently Mangold (Die Irrlehrer d. Pastoralbr.) and Schmiedel (EBi, i. pp. 49, 50). Cp. further on this point, Bourquin (op. cit. p. 67 f.), Clemen (Einheit. 1894, pp. 142-178), Haupt (SK, 1895, p. 381), and Jülicher (Einl. pp. 154-156).

The Latinisms and affinities with Clem. Rom., Luke, and Acts suggest Rome as the place where the pastorals were composed ("L'intention qui a dicté l'écrit, savoir le désir d'augmenter la force du principe hiérarchique et l'autorité de l'Église, en présentant un modèle de piété, de docilité, d'esprit ecclésiastique" tracé par l'apôtre lui-même, est tout à fait en harmonie avec ce que nous savons du caractère de l'Église romaine dès le Ier siècle."-Renan). But Asia Minor is not impossible.

age which had no clue to guide it in the criticism of the epistles except the tradition of their Pauline origin. Upon the contrary, when the titles are provisionally set aside, and the writings examined upon their own merits, it becomes fairly evident (a) that their common atmosphere is to be found not earlier than the first quarter of the second century, and (b) also-though less conclusively--that the writing which has come down to us under the title of "2 Tim" really preceded its companions in the order of composition. The letters are addressed to Timotheus and Titus, in all likelihood, as these men were traditional companions of the apostle and figures of prominence in the earlier church. This choice of names would be specially seasonable if the author possessed already Pauline notes addressed to them. It is obvious from their character and contents that they can be termed "private" letters only in a very restricted sense. The author is writing with his eye on the community;1 he portrays, like the fourth evangelist, ideal types for all.

Finally, it need hardly be said that this view of the "pastorals " does not rest on a presupposition that everything Paul wrote must needs have been upon the same level of thought and style. The In Galatians admittedly genuine epistles prove this was not the case. and 1 Corinthians themselves, there are passages far below the originality and conclusiveness of what is seen to be Paul's ordinary height at other times, and even in these very epistles. But what is urged, and urged forcibly, is that there are in the "pastorals" levels which are inexplicably different even from Paul's least excellent and characteristic moods. When criticism refuses to accept these as Pauline, it is proceeding upon straightforward historical principles, and not necessarily upon the application of too rigid and uniform a standard of Paulinism.

On the question of pseudonymity raised by this solution of the problem, in addition to the remarks in the Appendix (cp. below), it is worth while to quote the following sentences from a moderate statement by Rev. W. H. Simcox :-" It is far likelier that the pastoral epistles, if written not by the apostle but by friends and disciples of his, were written without any fraudulent intent. To a writer of the period, it would appear as legitimate an artifice to compose a letter as to compose a speech in the name of a great man whose sentiments it was desired to reproduce and record; the question which seems so important

1 This slips through in the greetings (2 Tim 422, Tit 315, 1 Tim 621). But indeed the whole point of the writings is lost if they are taken as instructions for individualsindividuals, too, in a long and close friendship with the writer. How incredible that, after all that intimacy, they should still need direction for divers moral duties of life, and also information upon the elementary facts and ideas of their friend! Warnings against juvenile vices are hardly applicable to one who, like Timothy, must have been nearly twenty years a Christian minister and forty years of age.

In contrast to the timid and misleading statements which still continue to be made upon the subject, it is refreshing to find the later date of these epistles frankly recognised by so eminent a conservative leader as Beyschlag (NTTh, ii. pp. 3, 4; cp. p. 501 f.). "We must," he writes, "with as much certainty as in such things is possible, reject the pastoral epistles as records of Pauline teachings;... the account of their origin, which they contain, is in itself untenable. They betray the conditions and motives of a later age, from which they can only be artifically and imperfectly transferred to the lifetime of the apostle, and except in a few phrases (which may have belonged to a genuine letter here embodied), they are as far apart as the poles from Paul's own modes of thinking and writing. Especially in the greatest [largest ?] of the three-the First Epistle to Timothy--we may confidently say: the man who is now able to ascribe it to the author of the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians has never comprehended the literary peculiarity and greatness of the apostle."

to us, whether the words and even the sentiments are the great man's own, or only his historian's, seems then hardly to have occurred either to writer or readers. Now the pastoral epistles are undoubtedly so ancient and so like St. Paul, that their author may be presumed to have known well the events and the sentiments of the close of his life. If we have in them not the apostle's own utterances, but only the record of a disciple, we need not doubt that that disciple was aided in recording them, after the fashion of his time, by the same divine Spirit that dwelt in the apostle himself" (The Writers of the New Testament, 1890, p. 38).

These three letters, then, which form the weightiest part of the postJohannine literature, reflect two parallel tendencies in the age: (a) the growing emphasis laid on apostolic tradition as the guarantee of doctrine and the basis of organisation, and (b) the special reverence still paid to Paul in certain circles of the church. The former might explain the composition of a note like that of Judas; it certainly is the key to 2 Peter. The latter is quite obvious in Justin Martyr and earlier in Clem. Rom. The three "pastoral" letters, however, express not only a warm attachment to Paul and Paulinism, but more broadly the spirit and character of the neo-catholic church. The atmosphere of error is fairly uniform, although it includes different aspects and elements. The church, troubled and not untainted, is being driven to consolidate her constitution and discipline, as well as to develop special functions of office as safeguards against heresy. The approach is felt of what may be called, from the standpoint of primitive Christianity, the heresy of ecclesiasticism. Institutions are coming to be more than ever the condition of orthodoxy (2 Tim 215). A guarantee for the soundness of the dogmatic principle is being shifted from the individual faith and consciousness to officialism (Tit 19). Under the exigencies of the time and place, the epeios, which initially was Christ (1 Co 311) and later the apostles and prophets (Eph 220), is now defined simply and solely as the church (2 Ti 219) visible. Errorists are denounced, as already in Apoc 2-3, and confronted with the fixed "sound" faith of the church, which is a crystallised and objective entity, involving a confession and the germs of a creed. Parallel to this identification of Christianity with didaokadia goes the emphasis put upon practical piety as obligatory for the members of the church. The timely aspect of the faith is, to the writer's mind, its moral discipline (Tit 212); his writings are unique and frequent in their use of the term evoéßea and its compounds. In all these directions the letters represent germs of Paulinism developed under a new climate, the elements of which are the elements of the second century-the Hellenistic emphasis upon ethics, the impetus received by Christianity from the example as well as the policy of Empire towards the shaping of her institutions, and also the manifold antagonistic forces which were beginning even at that time to force the church into the crystallisation of her doctrine and constitution. A future is before her in this world (11. 43 31, 1. 215). The outlook now is to a period of effort and advance rather than to an apocalyptic manifestation of God's reign.

[95-125 A.D.]

II. TIMOTHEUS

Here the riddle of the Epistles is unveiled; they are the first specimens of a literature of church organisation which afterwards produced the didax Tŵy ȧroσrów and the Apostolic Constitutions. A man belonging to the Pauline circle of churches, who had a thorough knowledge of the life of the apostle to the Gentiles, undertook to combat the growing Gnosticism, in the spirit of the apostle, by urging a simple, practical, and apostolic Christianity, and a moral and vigorous Christian organisation. Here, therefore, we have a memorable picture of the average form of church doctrine and church life, as both were developed on the basis of Paul's activity, perhaps about fifty years after his death-a picture, that is, of the transition of the Pauline into the old Catholic Christianity. The epistles probably originated by degrees; the earliest is the second, which may be based on a genuine letter of Paul to Timothy, from which the many personal references are taken; the latest is the first epistle to Timothy, which frequently suggests improved conditions and which has the air of a later work, repeating and supplementing the earlier.—Beyschlag.

11-2 Greeting.

13-213

115-18 21-13

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Need and reward of endurance-against weakness. Toros
λόγος. . . 211

214-48 Against the errorists :

214-26

31-9

319-17

Timotheus' conduct toward them:

his attitude and efforts.

An exposure of their principles

and methods.

Charge to Timotheus of: obedience to principles of Paul, in spite

of suffering.

adherence to scriptures.

résumé: Paul's final charge and confession.

41-8

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II. TIMOTHEUS

11 PAUL, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus,

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to Timotheus, my beloved child :

grace, mercy, peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

3 I give thanks to God, whom I serve from my ancestors with a pure conscience, at every mention of thee in my prayers; and I mention thee 4 unceasingly-for when I remember thy tears, I long night and day to see 5 thee, that I may be filled with joy, since I am reminded of that unfeigned faith in thee, which dwelt first of all in thy grandmother Lois and thy 6 mother Eunicê, and dwells, I am persuaded, in thyself as well. Wherefore I remind thee to rekindle the Divine talent which is in thee through 7 the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit not of cowardice 8 but of power and love and self-discipline. Be not ashamed then of the testimony of our Lord, or of me his prisoner; but take thy share of 9 hardship for the gospel's sake, by the power of God who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not by virtue of our deeds, but by virtue of a purpose and grace of his own, granted us in Christ Jesus before 10 times eternal, but now disclosed through the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who put down death, but brought life and the imperishable 11 to light through the gospel, for which I was myself appointed a herald 12 and apostle and teacher. This also is the reason why I suffer thus.

But I am not ashamed. I know whom I have believed, and I am 13 persuaded that he is able to guard my trust until that Day. Hold as a model of sound words those which thou hast heard from me, in the faith 14 and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard thy noble trust through the 15 holy Spirit, who dwells within us. Thou art aware that all who

are now in Asia turned away from me, among them Phygelus and 16 Hermogenes. The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for 17 many a time he revived me; nor was he ashamed of my chain, but on 18 coming to Rome he sought eagerly for me, and found me. The Lord grant he may find mercy from the Lord in that Day! and thou knowest quite well all the services he did me in Ephesus.

21, 2 Be strong then, my child, in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; and entrust what thou hast learned from me-confirmed by many witnesses -to faithful men; for they shall be qualified to teach others as well. 3, 4 Take thy share of hardship, like an able soldier of Christ Jesus. A soldier on active service refuses to entangle himself in occupations for a 5 livelihood, in order that he may please him who enlisted him. Again, if a man competes in the games, he is not crowned unless he keeps the 6 rules of the game. The first to partake of the fruits must be the 7 husbandman who labours. Ponder what I am saying; for the Lord 8 shall grant thee intelligence in everything. Remember Jesus Christ "risen from the dead, belonging to the offspring of David," according

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