First Epistle to Timothy

The First Epistle to Timothy is a book of the canonic New Testament, one of the three so-called "pastoral epistles" (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and the Epistle to Titus). It is offered as a letter from Paul to Timothy.

Authorship and date

Traditional view

The traditional view accepts Paul as the author, and a date around 66 or 67. According to Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), "it is a letter from Paul to Timothy. Paul's authorship was undisputed in antiquity, as far as known, but is frequently doubted today.

"Paul in this epistle speaks of himself as having left Ephesus for Macedonia (1:3), and hence not Laodicea, as mentioned in the subscription; but probably Philippi, or some other city in that region, was the place where this epistle was written. During the interval between his first and second imprisonments he probably visited the scenes of his former labours in Greece and Asia, and then found his way into Macedonia, whence he wrote this letter to Timothy, whom he had left behind in Ephesus."

Critical view

Since none of the pastoral epistles were included in Marcion's canon of ten epistles, which was assembled ca 140 CE, and since there is no certain quotation of any of these epistles before Irenaeus, ca 170 CE, the critical view is that they were written about the middle of the 2nd century CE. Critics examining the text fail to find its vocabulary and literary style similar to Paul's unquestionably authentic letters, fail to fit the situation of Paul in the epistle into Paul's reconstructed biography, and identify principles of the emerged Christian church rather than those of the apostolic generation. In the First Epistle to Timothy the task of preserving the tradition is entrusted to ordained presbyters, in a sense of presbuteros as an indication of an office that is alien to Paul and the apostolic generation.

Characteristics

The epistle consists mainly of counsels to Timothy regarding the worship and organization of the Church, and the responsibilities resting on its several members; and secondly of exhortation to faithfulness in maintaining the truth amid surrounding errors.