Page 449

Page 449

449 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA TTimothy

the mission to Corinth and Paul sent Titus to help him. But the Timothy of the genuine Pauline letters was clearly a fellow worker on equal terms with Paul-an apostle, in the language of the later Church-and, therefore, no doubt from the beginning old enough to undertake religious instruction according to current Jewish notions; furthermore he was devoted to Paul as a child to its father and in Paul's estimation was the moat trustworthy interpreter of his gospel.. Probably he studied in no other school than that of Paul; from Paul he learned Christianity, and he was free from all desire to develop a theology of his own.

The Acts adds but few details to this picture. From xvii. 14-15, xviii. 5, xix. 22, xx. 4, it appears that Silas and Timothy were with Paul on the second missionary journey in Macedonia and Achaia, afterward on the third journey in Ephesus, and still later Timothy and others accompanied

a. In him in Macedonia. It is noteworthy the Acts. that in all these passages Timothy is mentioned as member of a pair and in subordinate position; the Acts does not present Timothy as the trusted friend of the apostle. The most considerable notice of Timothy in the Acts is found in xvi. 1-3. He appears there as a Christian (Gk. machetes; cf. Acts xxi. 16) of either Derbe or Lystra, who was highly spoken of by the brethren in Lystra and Iconium, and on this recommendation Paul chose him as companion on the second missionary journey. Presumably he was converted on the first journey (Acts xiv.). Whether his home was in Derbe or Lystra has been much disputed, and the question seems hardly worth the controversy it has occasioned; the connection in Acts xvi. 1-2 favors Lystra (cf. Wohlenberg's commentary, p. 1, note 2; , for Derbe, K. Schmidt, Apostelgeschichte, p. 42, note). It is learned further from Acts xvi. 1, that Timothy's father was a " Greek "-and doubtless not a Christian, as the fact is not mentioned-and his mother a believing Jewels. Verse 3 says that Paul circumcised Timothy " because of the Jews which were in those quarters; for they all knew that his father was a Greek." If Acts is entirely from the hand of Luke, this statement must be accepted, for it is incredible that Luke did not know the facts or that he misstated them. But if it be admitted that the text has been worked over by a redactor, there may be here a mistake or at least a clumsy statement of fact. The datum of verse 3 can not be reconciled with the epistle to the Galatians. It is not necessary to deny that Timothy was circumcised, or that he was circumcised after he became a Christian; but it must be denied that Paul, immediately after the Apostolic Council at Jerusalem (q.v.) and after his rebuke of Peter (Gal. ii. 11 sqq.), required a Christian to be circumcised before he would accept him as a companion in missionary labor.

The two epistles to Timothy, even if they be genuine, add nothing of importance to knowledge of the man to whom they were addressed-his mother was iiamed Eunice, his grandmother Loin (II Tim. i. 5); from a child he had known the Scriptures (II Tim. iii. 15); he was Paul's faithful and busted disciple, whom he wishes to be with XL-29

him in his Roman imprisonment (I Tim. i. 2, 18; II Tim. i. 2, 6, ii. 1, iii. 10-12, iv. 9-11,,13, 21); and various similar personal details (I Tim.

3. In the i. 3, 18, iv. 14). But in these two Pastoral epistles, as in the one to Titus, the per-

Letters and sonal notices are merely a framework Hebrews. for a catechism on the duties of a bishop. The three epistles are evi dently by one hand, and weighty external as well as internal grounds are adduced to show that it was not Paul. The three epistles were not known to Marcion and have points of contact with the older " apostolic " fathers only in a coincidence of certain pastoral expressions. In content they lack all specifically Pauline ideas and present rather the post-Pauline Church. The style sometimes reminds of Paul's, it is true, for the author had doubtless read Paul's epistles; but more often a discrepancy is evident both in vocabulary and syntax. Even if fragments of genuine Pauline writings are in corporated in these letters, it can not be assumed that all the personal notices of those to whom the letters are addressed are such. Indeed it is in these personal notices that the address appears most clearly as purposed. The pastoral letters present the Timothy of the Acts only a little altered. From the Acts and the genuine epistles of Paul they draw their historical material (see Paul, IL). The last New-Testament passage in which Timothy is named is Heb. xiii. 23, where it is said that he " is set at liberty," and the writer adds " with him, if he come shortly, I will see you." Nothing is known from any other source of an imprisonment of Timothy. Certain hypotheses by which it has been thought to increase knowledge of Timothy are mentioned here only for the sake of completeness; all are more or less fantastic and none of them can be accepted. Hengstenberg identified Timothy with the Perga menian martyr Antipas -of Rev. ii. 13; D. Volter with the " true yokefellow " of Phil. ¢. Other iv. 3; Spitta thinks he was responsible

Supposed for the form of II Thess. and that or Apocry- ii. 1-12 is a fragment of the eschato-

phal logical speculation of this half-Greek References. disciple; Sorof makes him the redactor of the Acts and assumes that he followed written sources, for the Pauline parts chiefly the journal of Luke. - Others who distrust the tradition of Luke's authorship (e.g., De Wette and Bleek) ascribe the " we " portion of Acts (chaps. xvi. sqq.) to Timothy. The oldest church tradition concerning Timothy is an inference from the epistles addressed to him: he is named " the apostle," is counted as one of the seventy disciples, and appears in the lists as first bishop of Ephesus, consecrated by Paul. In 356 Constantius transferred Timothy's remains from Ephesus to Constantinople and placed them beneath the altar of the Church of the Apostles built by his father. In the next year the relics of Andrew and Luke were added. The Acts of Timothy contain no reference to these well-known events and say nothing concerning Timothy's doctrine and miracles. The author relates that Paul made his favorite disciple. bishop of Ephesus under Nero and in the consulship of Maximus. In Ephesus he was associated with the Apostle John, who lived