Writer: Paul

1, 2. (a) What contrast is seen between the descriptions of Paul’s imprisonment in Acts and Second Timothy? (b) When does it appear that First Timothy was written, and why?

LUKE’S account of Paul’s life in the book of Acts ends with Paul in Rome awaiting the outcome of his appeal to Caesar. Paul is shown as dwelling in his own hired house, preaching the Kingdom of God to all who came to him, and doing so “with the greatest freeness of speech, without hindrance.” (Acts 28:30, 31) But in his second letter to Timothy, Paul writes: “I am suffering evil to the point of prison bonds as an evildoer,” and he speaks of his death as imminent. (2 Tim. 2:9; 4:6-8) What a change! In the first instance, he was treated as an honorable prisoner, in the second, as a felon. What had happened between the time of Luke’s comment on Paul’s situation in 61 C.E., at the end of two years in Rome, and Paul’s own writing of his condition to Timothy, which appears to have been written shortly before his death?

² The difficulty of fitting the writing of Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus into the period covered by the book of Acts has led some Bible commentators to the conclusion that Paul was successful in his appeal to Caesar and was released about 61 C.E. Says The New Westminster Dictionary of the Bible: “The closing verse of The Acts accords better with this view [that Paul was released after two years’ confinement] than with the supposition that the imprisonment which has been described ended in the apostle’s condemnation and death. Luke emphasizes the fact that no one hindered his work, thus certainly giving the impression that the end of his activity was not near.”a It is, then, to the period between his release from his first imprisonment in Rome and his final imprisonment there, or about 61-64 C.E., that the writing of First Timothy belongs.

3, 4. (a) On his release from prison, what did Paul evidently do? (b) From where did he write First Timothy?

³ On his release from prison, Paul evidently resumed his missionary activity in association with Timothy and Titus. Whether Paul ever reached Spain, as some suppose, is not certain. Clement of Rome wrote (c. 95 C.E.) that Paul came “to the extreme limit of the W[est],” which could have included Spain.b

⁴ From where did Paul write his first letter to Timothy? First Timothy 1:3 indicates that Paul arranged for Timothy to attend to certain congregation matters in Ephesus while he himself went his way to Macedonia. From here, it appears, he wrote the letter back to Timothy in Ephesus.

5. What testimony is there to the authenticity of the letters to Timothy?

⁵ The two letters to Timothy have been accepted from the earliest times as written by Paul and as being part of the inspired Scriptures. The early Christian writers, including Polycarp, Ignatius, and Clement of Rome, all agree on this, and the letters are included in the catalogs of the first few centuries as Paul’s writings. One authority writes: “There are few N[ew] T[estament] writings which have stronger attestation . . . Objections to authenticity must therefore be regarded as modern innovations contrary to the strong evidence from the early church.”c

6. (a) For what several reasons did Paul write First Timothy? (b) What was Timothy’s background, and what indicates that he was a mature worker?

⁶ Paul wrote this first letter to Timothy to set out clearly certain organizational procedures in the congregation. There was also a need for him to warn Timothy to be on guard against false teachings and to strengthen the brothers to resist such ‘false knowledge.’ (1 Tim. 6:20) The commercial city of Ephesus would also provide the temptations of materialism and “love of money,” and so it would be timely to give some advice on this also. (6:10)