First Epistle to Timothy
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“”As Saint [Paul] was dyslexic, he couldn’t write much more than a name for the Holy Rolodex but he could dictate faster than anyone I’ve [Timothy] ever known. Of course he had a short attention span, which is why he seldom finished any of the letters. I don’t give away any great secret when I say that I wrote maybe half of the letters Saint signed. I was particularly good at the fear-and-trembling stuff. Of course the basic bad news and bad-mouthing of just about everybody came from Saint himself, as he danced around our, hotel suite in downtown Corinth…
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—Gore Vidal[1]:43 |
The First Epistle to Timothy is a New Testament book traditionally believed to have been written by Paul of Tarsus to Saint Timothy, who was a companion and assistant to Paul, and first bishop of Ephesus in western Anatolia. It contains instructions on organizing the church and Timothy's duties as a church leader.
Claims of Pauline authorship are widely challenged. Raymond F. Collins states:
By the end of the twentieth century New Testament scholarship was virtually unanimous in affirming that the Pastoral Epistles were written some time after Paul's death. … As always some scholars dissent from the consensus view.[2]:4
In addition, David E. Aune states:
While seven of the letters attributed to Paul are almost universally accepted as authentic (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon), four are just as widely judged to be pseudepigraphical, i.e., written by unknown authors under Paul's name: Ephesians and the Pastorals (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus).[3]:9
To balance these views, MacArthur's Study Bible points out that "it is unnecessary to dignify such unwarranted attacks by unbelievers with an answer"[4]:1857 but also asks, "Why would he include warnings against deceivers (2 Timothy 3:13; Titus 1:10), if he himself were one?"[4]:1858 Presumably, a deceiver would want to avoid bringing up the idea that there might be a deceiver about because that might prompt them to ask, 'What if the person writing this is a deceiver himself?' That would be as foolish as a pickpocket warning his prey that there are vultures everywhere. … Except that is precisely a pickpocket tactic used to induce marks to signal where on their persons their valuables are located.[5]
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References[edit]
- ↑ Live from Golgotha: A Novel by Gore Vidal (1992) Penguin Books. ISBN 0140231196.
- ↑ 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus: A Commentary by Raymond F. Collins (2004) Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0664222471.
- ↑ The Blackwell Companion to the New Testament by David E. Aune (2010) Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 1405108258.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The MacArthur study Bible: New King James Version by John MacArthur (1997). ISBN 0849912229.
- ↑ 13 Signs You’re About to Be Pickpocketed by Meghan Jones (Feb. 07, 2019) Reader's Digest (archived from January 26, 2021).