Bible Commentaries
1 Timothy

INTRODUCTION.
THE PASTORAL EPISTLES
1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus

THREE main inquiries present themselves to the student of the pastoral Epistles:

(1) their authenticity;
(2) their chronology;
(3) their contents, including the matters treated of in them, and the style in which they are written.

These three inquiries necessarily touch one another, and run into one another, at many points. Still, they may well be separately treated of.

§ 1. THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.

The authenticity of these Epistles, as the genuine works of the Apostle Paul, whose name is prefixed to all three, rests upon the twofold authority of external witnesses and internal evidence.

1. The external witness is as follows. Eusebius reckons them ("the fourteen Epistles of Paul") among the universally acknowledged books of Holy Scripture, and speaks of them as manifest and certain ('Eccl. Hist.,' III. 3. and 25.), with some reservation as to the Epistle to the Hebrews. The Muratorian Canon includes thirteen Epistles of St. Paul, excluding the Epistle to the Hebrews; the Peschito Canon (of about the same date) reckons fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, including the Epistle to the Hebrews ("Canon," in 'Dictionary of Bible'); and they have never been doubted by any Church writers, but have held their place in all the canons of East and West. Phrases identical with those in these Epistles, and presumably quoted from them, occur in almost contemporary writers. Clemens Romanus (1 Corinthians 2:0.) has ̔́Ετοιμοι εἰς πᾶν ἔργον ἀγαθόν (comp. Titus 3:1). In Ch. 29. he says, Προσεìλθωμεν αὐτῷ ἐν ὁσιοìτητι ψυχῆς ἀìγνασ καιÌ ἀμιαìντους χεῖρας ἀìροντες προÌς αὐτοìν. Polycarp (c. 4.) uses St. Paul's very words, ̓Αρχὴ πάντων χαλεπῶν φιλαργυρία; ΟὐδεÌν εἰσηνεìγκαμεν εἰς τοÌν κοìσμον ἀλλ οὐδεÌ ἐξενεγκεῖν τι ἐìχομεν. Theophilus of Antioch quotes 1 Timothy 2:1, 1 Timothy 2:2 verbatim as being the utterance of Θεῖος Λοìγος, "the Word of God" ('Ad Autol.,' 3:14). The same writer, in a passage in general harmony with Titus 3:3-7, uses the very words of Titus 3:5, ΔιαÌ λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσιìας ('Ad Auto.,' 1:2). The different liturgies, as quoted in the notes on 1 Timothy 2:1, are manifestly founded on that passage. Irenaeus, in his book 'Against Heresies,' repeatedly quotes by name all three Epistles (1 Timothy 1:4; 2 Timothy 4:21; Titus 3:10, etc.). Tertullian, in 'De Praescript.,' cap. 25., quotes again and again by name St. Paul's First and Second Epistles to Timothy. Clement of Alexandria again and again quotes both Epistles to Timothy, and says that the heretics reject them because their errors are refuted by them ('Strom.,' 2., 3., and 1.). He quotes also the Epistle to Titus. Many other references and quotations may be found in Lardner (vol. 1.), as well as in various 'Introductions,' as Huther, Olshausen, Alfbrd (where they are very clearly arranged); "Speaker's Commentary;" New Testament Commentary,' edited by the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol; 'Dictionary of Bible,' art. "Timothy," etc. But the above establish conclusively the acceptance of these Epistles as authentic by the unanimous consent of Church writers of the three first centuries of the Christian era — a unanimity which continued down to the present century.

2. The internal evidence is no less strong. We must remember that, if these Epistles are not St. Paul's, they are artful forgeries, written for the express purpose of deceiving. Is it possible to suppose that writings so grave, so sober, so simple and yet so powerful; breathing such a noble spirit of love and goodness, of high courage and holy resolves; replete with such great wisdom and such exalted piety; having no apparent object but the well-being of the Christian societies to which they refer; and so well calculated to promote that well-being; were written with a pen steeped in lies and falsehood? It is impossible to suppose it. The transparent truth of these Epistles is their own credential that they are the work of him whose name they hear.

But all the details of the Epistles point to the same conclusion. While there is a marked and striking difference in the vocabulary of these Epistles, which a forger would have avoided (to which we shall revert by-and-by), there is an identity of tone and sentiment, and also of words and phrases, which bespeaks them to be the birth of the same brain as the other universally acknowledged Epistles of St. Paul. Compare, for instance, the opening and the closing salutations of the three Epistles with those of St. Paul's other Epistles: they are the same. Compare the sentiment in 1 Timothy 1:5 with Romans 13:10; Galatians 5:6, and the general attitude of the writer's mind towards the Jewish opponents and the Law of Moses, as seen in 1 Timothy 1:4-11; Titus 1:10-16; 2 Timothy 3:5-8, with St. Paul's language and conduct towards the unbelievers and Judaizers among the Jews, as seen generally in the Acts of the Apostles, and in such passages in the Epistles as Romans 2:17-29; Romans 7:12; Galatians 1., Galatians 1:2., Galatians 1:3., Galatians 1:4., Galatians 1:5., Galatians 1:6.; Philippians 3:0.; Colossians 2:16-23; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16; and you see the very same mind. Notice, again, how the writer of the pastoral Epistles, in such passages as 1 Timothy 1:11-16; 1 Timothy 2:5-7; 1 Timothy 6:13-16; 2 Timothy 1:8-11; 2 Timothy 4:7, 2 Timothy 4:8; Titus 2:11-13; Titus 3:4-7, breaks out into rapturous exhibitions of the grace of the gospel, and refers to his own office as a preacher of it; and the similar sentiments in such passages as Romans 1:5, Romans 1:14-17; Romans 15:15, Romans 15:16; 1 Corinthians 1:17; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; 2 Corinthians 4:4-7; Galatians 1:1-5 (and throughout the Epistle); Ephesians 3:7-12; Colossians 1:23, and in many others. Compare, again, the allusions to his own conversion, in 1 Corinthians 15:9 and Ephesians 3:8, with that in 1 Timothy 1:12, 1 Timothy 1:13; the allusion to his special office as the apostle of the Gentiles, in Romans 11:13, with that in 1 Timothy 2:7; and the references to his own sufferings for the gospel, e.g. in 2 Corinthians 1:4-10; 2 Corinthians 4:7-12; 2 Corinthians 6:4-10; 2 Corinthians 11:23-28; 1 Thessalonians 2:2, with those in 2 Timothy 1:8, 2 Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 2:9, 2 Timothy 2:10; 2 Timothy 3:10, 2 Timothy 3:11. Comp. 1 Corinthians 14:34, 1 Corinthians 14:35 with 1 Timothy 2:11, 1 Timothy 2:12. Then the doctrinal teaching is exactly the same; precepts of holy living, in all its details of character, temper, and conduct, flow from dogmatic statements just as they do in the other Epistles (see 1 Timothy 3:15, 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Timothy 6:12-16; 2 Timothy 1:8-12; 2 Timothy 2:19; Titus 2:11-14; Titus 3:4-8; and Ephesians 4:20-32; Ephesians 5:1-4; Colossians 3:1-5, Colossians 3:8-17, etc.). The interposition of the doxology in 1 Timothy 1:17 is exactly in the manner of Romans 1:25; Romans 9:5; Romans 11:36; Romans 16:27; Ephesians 3:20, Ephesians 3:21, etc. Compare, again, the two sentences of excommunication — the one mentioned in 1 Corinthians 5:3-5, the other in 1 Timothy 1:20. Compare the two notices of the temptation of Eve by the serpent, in 2 Corinthians 11:3 and 1 Timothy 2:13, 1 Timothy 2:14; and the reference to Deuteronomy 25:4 in 1 Corinthians 9:9 and 1 Timothy 5:18. Compare the directions to Christian slaves, in 1 Timothy 6:1, 1 Timothy 6:2, with those in Ephesians 6:5-8 and Colossians 3:22-25; the metaphor from the games, in 1 Timothy 6:12; 2 Timothy 2:5; 2 Timothy 4:7, 2 Timothy 4:8, with that in 1 Corinthians 9:24 1 Corinthians 9:27; that of the different vessels of gold, silver, and wood and earth, in 2 Timothy 2:20, with that of the gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, of 1 Corinthians 3:12; and compare also Romans 9:22, Romans 9:23 and 2 Corinthians 4:7. Compare the prophetic announcement of the apostasy, in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, with that in 1 Timothy 4:1. We see exactly the same tone of thought in Acts 23:1 as in 2 Timothy 1:3; in Romans 14:14, Romans 14:20, and 1 Corinthians 12., and Colossians 2:16-23, as in 1 Timothy 4:3-5 and Titus 1:14, Titus 1:15; in Philippians 4:11 as in 1 Timothy 6:8; and in Romans 14:6 as in 1 Timothy 4:3. Many precepts are common to the pastoral and the other Epistles, as e.g. 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8, and Romans 12:13; 1 Timothy 5:10 and Romans 12:13; 1 Timothy 6:5 (A.V.) and 2 Thessalonians 3:14; 2 Timothy 2:24, 2 Timothy 2:25, and 2 Corinthians 2:6, 2 Corinthians 2:7, and 2 Thessalonians 3:15; to which it would be easy to add more examples. The directions for public worship in 1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:8-13 are also very similar. The repeated reference to the second coming of our Lord is another feature common to the pastoral and the other Epistles of St. Paul (see 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Timothy 4:1, 2 Timothy 4:8; Titus 2:13, compared with 1 Corinthians 1:7; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 2 Thessalonians 2:8; Philippians 3:20, etc.). There is a marked resemblance in thought between Titus 3:3-7 and Ephesians 2:2-8; between Titus 3:5 and Ephesians 5:26. Note, again, St. Paul's manner of communicating information, to those to whom he wrote, concerning his affairs and surroundings, as seen in 1 Corinthians 16:5-8, in Colossians 4:7-13, and in 2 Timothy 4:9-17; and the affectionate remembrance of past, Demas, Mark, Priscilla and Aquila; and at the same time, as was to be expected after an interval of several years, the disappearance of some old names, as Sopater, Aristarchus, Gains, Secundus, Tertius, Quartus, Onesimus, Justus, Epaphras, Epaphroditus, Sosthenes, Lucius, Jesus called Justus, etc.; and the introduction of some new ones, as Phygellus and Hermogenes, Onesiphorus, Crescens, Carpus, Eubulus, Linus, Pudens, Claudia, Artemas, Zenas, and others. The same thing may be said of places. While we have the old familiar scenes of St. Paul's apostolic labors — Miletus, Ephesus, Troas, Macedonia, Corinth — still before us, some new ones are introduced, as Crete, Nicopolis, and Dalmatia.

The other quite different class of resemblances is that of words anti phrases, and literary style. St. Paul had a way of stringing together a number of words, substantives or adjectives, or short sentences. Examples of this may be seen in Romans 1:29-31; Romans 8:35, Romans 8:39; Romans 16:14; 1 Corinthians 3:12, 1 Corinthians 3:5:11; 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Corinthians 6:10; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, 1 Corinthians 12:28; 2 Corinthians 6:4-10; 2 Corinthians 11:23-27; Galatians 5:19-23; Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:5, Colossians 3:8, Colossians 3:12, and elsewhere. An exactly similar mode is seen in 1 Timothy 1:9,1 Timothy 1:10; 1 Timothy 6:4,1 Timothy 6:5; 2 Timothy 3:2-4, 2 Timothy 3:10,2 Timothy 3:11; Titus 1:7, Titus 1:8; Titus 2:3-8; Titus 3:3. St. Paul's ardent and impulsive mind led to frequent digressions and long parentheses in his writing, and occasional grammatical anomalies. Take the familiar examples of Romans 2:13-15; Romans 5:13-17; Galatians 2:6-9; Ephesians 3:2-21, etc. With these compare the long parenthesis in 1 Timothy 1:5-17; that in 1 Timothy 3:5 and in 2 Timothy 1:3; and the grammatical difficulties of such passages as 1 Timothy 3:16 (R.T.); 4:16. Again, St. Paul was fond of the preposition ὑπεìρ, of which examples are given in the note to 1 Timothy 1:14; and the ὑìπαξ λεγοìμενον in that passage, ὑπερεπλεìονασε is in marked agreement with this use. The verb φανεροìω, in 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Timothy 1:10; Titus 1:3, is of very frequent use by St. Paul in Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Ephesians, and Colossians. The use of νοìμος in 1 Timothy 1:9 is the same as that in Romans 2:12-14; of ἐνδυναμοìω in 1 Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 2:1; 2 Timothy 4:17 as that in Romans 4:20; Ephesians 6:10; Philippians 4:13; Hebrews 11:34; and of καλεìω in 1 Timothy 6:12 and 2 Timothy 1:9 as that in Romans 8:30; Romans 9:24; 1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 7:15, etc.; Galatians 1:6, etc.; Ephesians 4:1; Colossians 3:15; 1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:14, etc. We find ἀìφθαρτος in Romans, Corinthians, and 1 Timothy 1:17 (elsewhere only in 1 Peter); ἀπωìθομαι in Romans 11:1, Romans 11:2 and in 1 Timothy 1:19 (elsewhere only in the Acts); ἀνοìητος in Romans 1:14 and Galatians 3:1, Galatians 3:3, and in 1 Timothy 6:9 and Titus 3:3 (elsewhere only in Luke 24:25); ἀνυποìκριτος in Romans, Corinthians, and in 1 Timothy 1:5 and 2 Timothy 1:5 (elsewhere only in 1 Peter 1:22 and James 3:17). Compare πνεῦμα δειλιìας in 2 Timothy 1:7 with πνεῦμα δουλειìας εἰς φοìβον in Romans 8:15; χροìνων αἰωνιìων in 2 Timothy 1:9 and Titus 1:2 with Romans 16:25 and 1 Corinthians 2:7. St. Paul applies the noun πλαìσμα to the man, and the verb πλαìσσω to God his Maker, in Romans 9:20; and the writer of 1 Timothy 2:13 also uses πλαìσσομαι of the formation of man by God. The term ἁγιασμοìς, which is used by St. Paul seven or eight times (and only once by St. Peter besides), is also found in 1 Timothy 2:15. St. Paul speaks of the gospel as the "mystery of Christ," "the hidden mystery," etc., in Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:3, Ephesians 3:4; Colossians 1:26, and frequently elsewhere; and so we have the phrases, "the mystery of the faith," "the mystery of godliness," in 1 Timothy 3:9, 1 Timothy 3:16. The following thirty words are also peculiar to St. Paul and to the pastoral Epistles: ἀνεìγκλητος αὐταρκειìα ἀοìρατος ὑπεροχηì, σεμνοìς μεσιìτης ὑποταγηì ὑβριστηìς προϊ·στημαι ἐνδειìκνυμι πρᾳοτης χρηστοìτης, ἀνακαιìνωσις προκοìπτειν (except Luke 2:52), προκοπηì ὀìλεθρος καταργεìω (except Luke 13:7), ὀστραìκινος ἐκκαθαιìρω ἠìπιος ἀλαζωìν ἀìστοργος ἀìσπονδος (T.R.), μοìρφωσις αἰχμαλωτευìω σωρευìω ἀδοìκιμος μακροθυμιìα (except James and 1 and 2 Peter), παìθημα (except 1 Peter), πλαìσσω.

But when we pass from these resemblances in mere diction to consider the intellectual power, the verve, and Divine glow of the pastoral Epistles, the evidence is overwhelming. Place by their side the epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, or the epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp, or the (so-called) 'Epistle of Barnabas,' and you feel the immeasurable difference between them. The combination of mental vigor and sober, practical good sense, and sagacious intuition with regard to men and things, and extensive knowledge, with fervent zeal, and enthusiasm of temperament, and ardent piety, and entire self-sacrifice, and heavenly mindedness, and the upward, onward movement of the whole inner man under the guidance of God's Holy Spirit, producing an inartistic eloquence of immense force and persuasiveness, is found in these pastoral Epistles, as in all the other Epistles of this great apostle; but it is found nowhere else. St. Paul, we know, could have written them; we know of no one else who could. To attribute them to some unknown fraudulent impostor instead of to him, the stamp of whose personality they bear in every line as distinctly as they bear his name in their superscriptions, is a caricature of criticism, and a burlesque of unbelief.

Applying, further, the usual tests of authenticity, we may observe that all the historical and chronological marks which we can discover in these Epistles agree with the theory of their being written in the reign of the Emperor Nero. The earnestness with which the apostle directs prayers for rulers to be used in all churches — "that we may lead a quiet life" (1 Timothy 2:1, 1 Timothy 2:2; Titus 3:1) — tallies well with the idea that the attitude of Nero towards the Christians was beginning to excite considerable anxiety. Such thoughts as those in 1 Timothy 1:1 and 6:15 derive fresh significance from such an idea; while the later utterance of 2 Timothy 4:16-18 shows that what was only feared before had become a fact, and that the writer of 2 Timothy was in the midst of the Neronian persecution.

Again, the restless state of the Jewish mind, and the unhealthy crop of heresies, containing the germ of later Gnosticism, springing up amongst the semi-Christian Jews, which is reflected in the pastoral Epistles, is in accordance with all that we know of Jewish sectarianism at this time, as depicted by Philo, Josephus, and other later writers quoted by Bishop Lightfoot. Gnosticism, as it appears in the Epistle to the Colossians and as it was taught by Cerinthus — Gnosticism, evidenced by a few Gnostic allusions, as ἀντιθεìσεις τῆς ψευδωνυìμου γνωìσεως (1 Timothy 6:20); by a mystical instead of the real resurrection (2 Timothy 2:18); by abstinence from meats and from marriage; by old wives' fables and ascetic practices (1 Timothy 1:8, 1 Timothy 1:9); — does indeed appear in the pastoral Epistles, as was inevitable, considering their scope; but it is a Gnosticism distinctly of Jewish origin (Titus 1:10, Titus 1:14), and as different from the later Gnosticism of Marcion and Valentinian and Tatian as the acorn is from the oak tree, or the infant from the grown-up man. These passages, which the great ingenuity and learning of Baur have labored to wrest into evidences against the authenticity of these Epistles, are really very weighty evidences in their favor.

So, too, are all the marks of the then ecclesiastical polity which stand out in these Epistles. The ease may be thus stated. Towards the end of the second century, when it is argued by Baur and his followers that these Epistles were forged, diocesan episcopacy was universal in the whole Church, and the word ἐπιìσκοπος meant exclusively what we now mean by a bishop as distinguished from presbyters. And not only so, but it was the universal belief that such episcopacy had existed in regular succession from the apostles themselves, and lists of bishops were preserved in several Churches, of whom the first was said to have been appointed by an apostle. Under these circumstances, it seems to be absolutely impossible that a forger, writing in the latter part of the second century, and personating St. Paul, should represent the clergy in Crete and at Ephesus under the name of ἐπιìσκοποι (1 Timothy 3:0.; Titus 1:7), and should not make mention of any bishop presiding over those Churches. So, again, the use of the word "presbyter" in these Epistles distinctly shows the term not yet hardened down into an exclusively technical term. The same thing is also true of the words διαìκονος διακονιìα, and διακονεῖν (see 1 Timothy 5:1; 1 Timothy 4:6; 1 Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 4:5, 2 Timothy 4:11; 2 Timothy 1:18), so that the use of these ecclesiastical terms in the pastoral Epistles is, when properly weighed, an evidence of very great weight in favor of their belonging to the first, not the second, century.

In like manner, the missionary and movable episcopates of Timothy and Titus, and, apparently, of Tychicus and Artemas likewise, is strongly indicative of the third quarter of the first century, and was not at all likely to occur to a writer of the latter part of the second century. As far as appears from the pastoral Epistles, bishops with settled dioceses did not exist at the time when they were written. The apostles exercised full episcopal powers themselves; and appear to have had in their train a certain number of missionary bishops, whom they sent for a time to take the oversight of particular Churches, as they were needed, and then passed on to superintend other Churches. Bishops with a fixed diocese arose from these, but did not become the rule till the apostles who appointed them had passed away.

A further indication of the time when these Epistles were written may also be found in. their style, which does belong to the latter part of the first century, and does not belong to the latter part of the second. Frequent resemblances in style and matter to the Epistle to the Hebrews, to the First Epistle of Peter, to the Epistle of James, as well as to the diction of Philo, Josephus, the later Books of the Maccabees, Plutarch, and to the sentiments of Seneca, indicate a writer of the Neronian age, and not one at the time of the Antonines.
But, as hinted above, there are features in the literary style of the pastoral Epistles which are very peculiar, and which, if taken alone, would be suggestive of a different authorship from that of St. Paul's other Epistles. In the Appendix to this Introduction will be found a list of a hundred and eighty-seven words, of which one hundred and sixty-five are found only in the pastoral Epistles, eleven only in the pastoral Epistles and the Epistle to the Hebrews, and eleven only in the pastoral Epistles, Hebrews, St. James, St. Peter, St. Luke, and the Acts of the Apostles. Of these, about forty-four are found in the LXX., but in some instances very rarely, so that the LXX. cannot be the quarry from which St. Paul dug these new additions to his vocabulary. But they are almost all good classical words; and it is further remarkable, with regard to other words which are found in other parts of Holy Scripture, that in the pastoral Epistles they follow the classical rather than the Hellenistic usage.

The natural inferences from the above facts are

(1) that these pastoral Epistles were written later than the other Epistles;

(2) that in the interval the writer had enlarged his acquaintance with Greek classics;

(3) that, as his two correspondents were Greeks, he wrote to them in the purest Greek he could command.

It is remarkable that the theory which assigns the pastoral Epistles to the time after St. Paul's return from Spain fully agrees with the first two of the above inferences. It places an interval of two or three years between the latest of St. Paul's other Epistles and these Epistles to Timothy and Titus, and it also indicates a space of two years (Acts 28:31), during which he may well have had leisure to increase largely his acquaintance with Greek classical literature. If among those that "came in unto him" at his own hired house (Acts 28:30) were any men like Seneca, or the elder Pithy, or Sergius Paulus, St. Paul may well have thought it useful to read Greek classical writers — Aristotle, Polybius, Plutarch, Demosthenes, and others — with the view of increasing his influence with men of culture and learning in the great capital of the world. And the fruit of such studies would be seen in the enlarged vocabulary of the pastoral Epistles. It is curious that this conjecture is somewhat strengthened by the circumstance that St. Paul appears to have made his residence in Crete the occasion of reading the poems of the great Cretan prophet and poet Epimenides (Titus 1:12). It may also be added that the effect of fresh reading upon a person's style would be much greater in the case of an acquired language, as Greek probably was to St. Paul, than in the case of a person's mother-tongue. The variation in the vocabulary of the pastoral Epistles may, of course, also partly be accounted for by the difference in the matters treated of in them; and by the books of the heretics, which St. Paul may have read with a view to refuting them. Such phrases as the ἀντιθεìσεις τῆς ψευδωνυìμου γνωìσεως (1 Timothy 6:20), and the allusion to the βεβηìλοι κενοφωνιìαι of the heretics, indicate some acquaintance with their writings.

The conclusion, then, with regard to the internal marks of style, diction, sentiment, doctrine, incidental allusions to men, and things, and places, and institutions, is that they are in full accordance with the external testimony which assigns these Epistles undoubtingly to the apostle whose name they bear; and that the pastoral Epistles are the authentic works of St. Paul.

§ 2. THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.

Our next task is to ascertain the chronology of these Epistles; their chronology

(1) relatively to each other;
(2) to the incidents in St. Paul's life;
(3) the absolute time of their composition.

1. To begin with their chronology relatively to each other. Drawing our conclusions solely from the Epistles themselves, the order which naturally presents itself is the following:

(1) the Epistle to Titus;
(2) the First Epistle to Timothy;
(3) the Second Epistle to Timothy.

And this order is founded upon the following reasons. All the internal marks of the Epistles indicate, according to the almost unanimous opinion of commentators, that they were written at no long interval from one another. This is indicated, as regards Titus and 1 Timothy, by the dose resemblance of matter and words, analogous to the resemblances of the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians; and, as regards 2 Timothy and the two other Epistles, partly by the same kind of resemblances (though less frequent), by the evidences of the same enemies and the same difficulties having to be encountered by Timothy at the time of the writing of the Second Epistle that existed at the time of writing the first; and further, by the route indicated in 2 Timothy as taken by St. Paul shortly before that Epistle was written, agreeing exactly with that which may be inferred from the Epistle to Titus and the First Epistle to Timothy. Assuming that the three Epistles were written in the same year, and that "the winter" spoken of in Titus 3:12 and 2 Timothy 4:20 is the same winter, we get the following itinerary for St. Paul: Crete (Titus 1:3), Miletus (2 Timothy 3:20), possibly Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3), Troas (2 Timothy 3:13), Macedonia (1 Timothy 1:3), Corinth (2 Timothy 3:20), Nicopolis (Titus 3:12), Rome (2 Timothy 1:17; 2 Timothy 4:15-17). As, then, it is clear that when St. Paul left Crete he intended to go to Nicopolis, and as the places above enumerated lie exactly on the route which he probably would have taken, we conclude that the journey which we thus gather from 1 and 2 Timothy is that of which Titus furnishes us with the terminals a epic and the terminus ad quem. Again, as the leaving Titus in Crete is the first incident disclosed in this journey from south to north, it is natural to suppose that this Epistle was written first, probably immediately after St. Paul left Crete, as the instructions in it would be needed immediately. Timothy would not be sent to Ephesus rill a little later, probably from Miletus, and 1 Timothy would not be written till after he had been a short time there (1 Timothy 1:3) — written, perhaps, from Troas, with the intention of soon joining Timothy at Ephesus (1 Timothy 3:14; 1 Timothy 4:13). St. Paul's intention probably was to go no further than Macedonia in the first instance (1 Timothy 1:3), and return from thence to Ephesus before going on to Nicopolis. But circumstances of which we know nothing led him on to Corinth, and he abandoned his intention of returning to Ephesus. Did he send for Timothy to Macedonia when he found he could not go to Ephesus, and there part from him with many tears (2 Timothy 1:4)? This would well agree with the mention of the subsequent events relating to Demas, Crescens, Titus, Tychicus, and Erastus. But then there is the clause (2 Timothy 4:20), "But Trophinms I left at Miletus sick." But that may have been added, as it were, out of its proper place, to account for the absence of the only other member of the missionary band not yet noticed. Demas, Crescens, Titus, Luke, Mark, Tychicus, Erastus, were all accounted for, and so he adds, "Trophimus can't be with me, because I left him at Miletus sick, when I was on my way to Macedonia."

The above theory also will explain the clause in 2 Timothy 4:12 which has a good deal puzzled commentators. St. Paul, of course, would not bring Timothy away from Ephesus for any length of time without sending someone to take his place. We learn from Titus 3:12 that Tychieus was one of those whom St. Paul contemplated sending to Crete to take Titus's place when he came to Nicopolis. He probably did send Artemas. Tyehicus was therefore free; and so St. Paul, having summoned Timothy to Rome, tells him that Tychicus will take his place at Ephesus during his absence.

But to follow St. Paul. From Corinth he appears to have gone to Nicopolis, because the mention of Titus as gone to Dalmatia seems to imply that he had met St. Paul at Nicopolis according to appointment, and from thence had been sent by him to the neighboring province of Dalmatia when Crescens also went to Galatia. At Nicopolis, apparently, the first signs of danger began to show themselves; and Demas made some excuse for going to his native city of Thessalonica, leaving St. Paul to confront the danger without his aid. Whether he was arrested while at Nicopolis, which was in the province of Achaia, and taken to Rome as a prisoner, which seems most probable, or whether he voluntarily, for reasons we know not of, sailed from Apollonia to Brundusium, and thence proceeded to Rome, and was seized and imprisoned there, we have no certain means of deciding. All that the existing documents enable us to conclude with anything like certainty is that he did go on to Rome, and was a prisoner there when he wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy.
The reasons for concluding that 2 Timothy was written from Rome are

(1) the tradition that it was at Rome that he was tried and condemned to death and suffered martyrdom. This tradition, though surprisingly vague, is constant and unanimous. The earliest witness, that of Clement of Rome, who could have told us all about it, is most provokingly indefinite. He tells us that Paul, after many sufferings, "having come to the boundary of the West, and having testified (μαρτυρηìσας) before the rulers (τῶν ἡγουμεìνων), so departed from this world" ('1 Epist. to the Corinth.,' c. 5). Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, says that Peter and Paul both taught in Italy, and suffered martyrdom there at the same time ('Ap. Euseb.,' 2:25). Caius the presbyter says that the "trophies of those who founded the Church of Rome (i.e. Peter and Paul) may be seen both at the Vatican and on the Via Ostia" — meaning the churches or monuments dedicated to them (ibid.). Eusebius also quotes Tertullian as saying expressly that Nero was the first emperor who persecuted the Christians; that he was led on to the slaughter of the apostles, and that Paul's head was cut off at Rome itself, and Peter in like manner was crucified, in Nero's reign. Eusebius adds that this narrative is confirmed by the inscription (προìσρησις) still extant on their respective tombs at Rome. Eusebius also states in the following book (3:1, 2) that St. Paul, having preached the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum, at last suffered martyrdom at Rome under Nero, and quotes Origen as his authority. He adds that St. Paul wrote the Epistle to Timothy, in which he mentions Linus, from Rome.

(2) The internal evidence of that Epistle also points to Rome as the place where it was written. If 1 Timothy 1:17 relates to a recent visit of Onesiphorus, that would, of course, be in itself decisive evidence. But, omitting that as doubtful, we may take 1 Timothy 4:17 as at least probably indicating Rome as the place where he was at the time. The seat of judgment, the presence of the emperor, the concourse of the Gentiles, the names of the persons sending salutations, including Linus, the first Bishop of Rome, and the expressions of the near approach of his death in 1 Timothy 4:7, 1 Timothy 4:8, leave little doubt that he was now at Rome; and, if so, 2 Timothy must have been the last of the three pastoral Epistles.

2. But at what period of St. Paul's life were these Epistles written? The question has already been partially answered in the preceding section, but it is important enough to demand a separate consideration.

Hug, in his 'Introduction to the Writings of the New Testament', assigns the Epistle to Titus to St. Paul's second missionary journey. He supposes that, when he left Corinth (Acts 18:18) to go to Ephesus, he, either voluntarily or by stress of weather, went round by Crete, and that he left Titus there; that he then pursued his journey to Ephesus, wrote the Epistle to Titus, recommended Apollos to him, who he knew was going on from Corinth (Acts 23:27); then proceeded to Caesarea, Jerusalem, and Antioch; and from thence, passing through Galatia and Phrygia, so returned to Ephesus (Acts 18:22, Acts 18:23; Acts 19:1), having wintered by the way at Nicopolis in Cilicia, a city lying between Antioch and Tarsus, near to Issus. But the objections to this scheme are insuperable. The narrative of his passage from Cenchrea to Ephesus with Aquila and Priscilla is quite in, compatible with a sojourn at Crete by the way. So important an incident could not have been omitted. There is every appearance, moreover, of haste in the apostle's movements from Corinth, in order to enable him to reach Jerusalem by the feast (probably of Pentecost) in connection with the fulfillment of his vow (Acts 18:18, Acts 18:21), which makes the notion of a sojourn in Crete as unseasonable as possible. Then Nicopolis in Cilicia is the most unlikely place imaginable for him to winter in. It was an ebb-cure city, not connected with any missionary work of St. Paul's that we know of, and it is obvious to suppose that he would rather have wintered at Antioch, or, if so near his own home, at Tarsus. Nor is it possible to account for the omission of the mention of Nicopolis in the account given by St. Luke, in Acts 18:22, Acts 18:23, of how Paul spent his time, if he passed some three months of the winter there. By Hug's own admission there is no other time in the compass of St. Luke's narrative when St. Paul could possibly have gone to Crete.

He assigns 1 Timothy to St. Paul's third missionary journey — to the time, viz., when St. Paul left Ephesus, after the tumult, to go to Macedonia (Acts 20:1). But it is surely absolutely fatal to this theory that we read, in Acts 19:22, just before the tumult, that he "sent into Macedonia two of them that ministered unto him, Timotheus and Erastus (to precede him); but he himself stayed in Asia for a season." Nor is it less in flat contradiction to St. Paul's declared purpose (Acts 19:21; Acts 20:3) of going from Macedonia and Achaia to Jerusalem, that he tells Timothy, in 1 Timothy 3:14, 1 Timothy 3:15, that it is his intention to return very shortly to Ephesus. We know, in fact, that, though he was obliged by the violence of the Jews (Acts 20:3) to return by way of Macedonia, yet he would not even so much as go to Ephesus for a day, but sent for the elders to meet him at Miletus (Acts 20:16, Acts 20:17). We know also that Timothy, whom he had sent before him to Macedonia, returned with him from Macedonia into Asia (Acts 20:4), and was with him when he wrote 2 Corinthians 1:1. So that every detail is directly opposed to the idea that the journey into Macedonia of 1 Timothy 1:3 is the same as the journey of Acts 19:21 and 20:1, and, consequently, that 1 Timothy was written at this time.

Hug assigns 2 Timothy to the time of St. Paul's first imprisonment at Rome, and places it after the Epistle to the Ephesians and before those to the Colossians and Philemon. There are, no doubt, some coincidences which, taken alone, encourage such a conclusion. For example, Timothy was not with St. Paul when he wrote to the Ephesians (Ephesians 1:1), but in that same Epistle (Ephesians 6:21) he tells the Ephesians that he has sent Tychicus to them, and we find that Timothy was with St. Paul when he wrote Colossians 1:1. But in 2 Timothy we find St. Paul writing to Timothy and bidding him conic to him quickly, and telling him that he had sent Tychicus to Ephesus. Again, in Colossians 4:10-14 we find the following persons with St. Paul: Mark, Luke, Demas, besides Timothy (1:2), and Tychicus, who had just left him. But in 2 Timothy 4:0. we find Luke with him, Demas had just forsaken him, Tychicus had just been sent away by him, and Timothy and Mark were immediately expected. But the force of these coincidences is very much weakened by the following considerations. St. Paul's staff of missionary companions and associates consisted of about twenty-two persons, of whom mention is made either during his imprisonment at Rome or shortly before. They are the following: Apollos, Aquila, Aristarchus, Deraas, Epaphras or Epaphroditus, Erastus, Gaius, Justus, Lucius, Luke, Mark, Onesimus, Priscilla, Secundus, Silas, Sopater, Sosthenes, Sylvanus, Timothy, Titus, Trophiraus, Tychicus. Of these, eleven (those in italics) appear in the pastoral Epistles as still at work with St. Paul. The other eleven are not mentioned in the pastoral Epistles. But nine new names appear: Artemas, Carpus, Claudia, Crescens, Eubulus, Linus, Onesiphorus, Pudens, and Zenas. This is very much the proportion of change in the personnel which three or four years might be expected to produce.

Again, if we look closely into the supposed coincidences in the situation exposed by Colossians 4:0. and 2 Timothy 4., some of them are transformed into contradictions. Thus 2 Timothy 4:10, 2 Timothy 4:11 represents Demas as having forsaken St. Paul and gone to Thessalonica, whereas Colossians 4:14 (written, according to Hug, after 2 Timothy) represents him as still with St. Paul. Again, 2 Timothy 4:11 represents Mark as probably coming from the neighborhood of Ephesus to St. Paul at. Rome to minister to him; but Colossians 4:10 represents him as likely soon to go front Rome to Colossae, and apparently as a stranger. Once more, the notice of Erastus and of Trophimus, in 2 Timothy 4:20, naturally implies that Erastus had been in Corinth with Paul, but remained there when Paul came away, and, in like manner, that he and Trophimus had both been at Miletus together, which, of course, is fatal to Hug's theory. His expedient of translating ἀπεìλιπον, "they left," is very unnatural and forced, and his rendering of ἐìμεινεν does not suit the aorist, which rather gives the sense "When I came away, he stopped at Corinth."

Other circumstances militate strongly against the composition of 2 Timothy at the time of St. Paul's first imprisonment. St. Luke's account of that imprisonment by no means prepares the reader for a tragic termination of it (Acts 28:30, Acts 28:31). Nor does St. Paul's own language, in the Epistles to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, indicate any expectation on his part that he would be condemned to death; rather, on the contrary, he expresses the hope of a speedy deliverance (Ephesians 6:21, Ephesians 6:22; Philippians 2:24; Colossians 4:8; Philemon 1:22). But in 2 Timothy his strain is wholly different. He writes with the feeling that his work is done, and his departure is near at hand (2 Timothy 4:6-8, 2 Timothy 4:18); not a word of being delivered in answer to their prayers, nor of expectation of being set free. The difference is marked, and surely most significant.

The necessary conclusion is that Hug's scheme is quite impracticable. Various other hypotheses, assigning the date of the pastoral Epistles to some part of St. Paul's life unwritten by St. Luke in the Acts, of which the principal are enumerated and explained by Huther in his 'Introduction,' are equally incompatible with one or more plain statements in the Acts of the Apostles or in the Epistles themselves, and must therefore alike be abandoned.
Moreover, they all fail to account for those peculiarities in the diction of the pastoral Epistles which are pointed out in the first part of this Introduction. If the difficulties in finding any place in the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles in which to fit in the pastoral Epistles with their allusions could be got over (which they cannot), we should be landed in the no less formidable difficulty of having to account for great changes of language as compared with St. Paul's other Epistles, and a difference in the aspect of the institutions of the Church and of the rising heresies, as reflected in these Epistles, from what we see either in the Acts or in St. Paul's other Epistles.
We are driven, therefore, to accept the hypothesis which assigns these Epistles to a time posterior to that embraced in the narrative of St. Luke. And we will now state the case for this hypothesis from its positive side.
The Acts of the Apostles close with the statement that St. Paul "abode two whole years in his own hired dwelling, and received all that went in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching all things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, with all boldness, none forbidding him." It is quite as natural a sequel to this statement that, at the end of the two years, the apostle resumed his active career as "the Apostle of the Gentiles," as that he was led out to execution as a criminal: most people will think it is a more natural one. However, in the absence of any further information from Holy Scripture, we must have recourse to such other sources of information as are open to us. Eusebius, who was the great collector of history from works now lost, and of traditions current in the Church, after citing the closing words of the Acts of the Apostles, tells us ('Eccl. Hist.,' 2. 22.) that the current account was that the apostle, having then made his defense, afterwards started again on his work of preaching; but that, having come to Rome a second time, he was made perfect by martyrdom. At which time, being in prison, he wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy. Eusebius adds, after commenting somewhat confusedly upon the last chapter of 2 Timothy, that he wrote thus much to show that St. Paul did not accomplish his martyrdom during that sojourn at Rome which is narrated by St. Luke. He adds that Nero was comparatively mild and element at the time of Paul's first visit, and so received his defense favorably; but that later, having fallen into monstrous crimes, he attacked the apostles along with others. From this it is evident that Eusebius, with such means of information as he could command, believed the account which was current in his time to be true.

Clement of Rome, again, in his 'Epistle to the Corinthians,' in the passage quoted above, uses language which, in the light of the above traditions, certainly points strongly to the visit to Spain: τοÌ τεìρμα τῆς δυìσεως, "the utmost bound of the West," could not mean "Italy" in the mouth of a person living at Rome, but is a natural description of Spain. Following the order used by Clement, this visit to Spain immediately preceded his testimony before the rulers of the world, and his departure from this life: ̓Επὶ τὸ τέρμα τῆς δύσεως ἐλθὼν καὶ μαρτυρήσας ἐπὶ τῶν ἡγουμεìνων οὑìτως ἀπηλλαìγη τοῦ κοìσμου.

The Muratorian Fragment on the Canon adds another early testimony to the belief of the Church that St. Paul went to Spain after his captivity in Rome. For, though the passage is so corrupt and mutilated as to defy translation, yet the words, "profectionem Pauli ab urbe ad Spaniam proficiscentis," tell us certainly, as Routh observes, that St. Paul, on leaving Rome, went to Spain. If to these early testimonies we add the later one of Venantius Fortunatus, in the sixth century, who expressly asserts that St. Paul went to Cadiz (which is described by the line, "Transit et oceanum, vel qua facit insula portum"), etc.; of Theodoret ('Psalms 16:0.'), who says of St. Paul that "he came to Spain;" of St. Jerome, who, following Eusebius' 'Chronicon', places Paul's martyrdom in the fourteenth year of Nero, three or four years after his liberation from his first confinement ('Catal. Script. Eccle-Mast.'); — we have sufficient external testimony on which to rest an attempt to assign a later date to the pastoral Epistles than that which is bounded by the close of St. Luke's narrative. Assuming, then, that Paul's first confinement at Rome terminated in the spring of A.D. 63, and that he immediately, according to his original intention (Romans 15:24), went to Spain, we may assign two years to his visit to Spain, and possibly to Britain, and place his return to Cadiz in the early spring of A.D. 65. Proceeding thence toward the former scene of his labors, he would go to Crete, and perhaps stay one month there (Titus 1:3). Leaving Titus there, he sailed to Miletus, say on the 1st of April (2 Timothy 4:20), and wrote from thence the Epistle to Titus. He may have gone to Ephesus from Miletus, but more probably (Acts 20:25) sent Timothy there, perhaps intending to follow him; but, from circumstances with which we are unacquainted, he thought it better to go straight to Macedonia (1 Timothy 1:3), and wrote 1 Timothy from Troas, where he had his writing apparatus (2 Timothy 4:13). He had intended to go back from Macedonia to Ephesus (1 Timothy 3:14; 1 Timothy 4:13), but again his intentions were frustrated, and possibly he sent for Timothy to Macedonia (2 Timothy 1:4) before he proceeded to Corinth. Be this as it may, he certainly went to Corinth (2 Timothy 4:20), and thence to Nicopolis, situated in Epirus, but in the province of Achaia. There, Titus joined him, say in the month of July, having been relieved by Artemas (Titus 3:12), Nicopolis being the general rendezvous, and was sent by him into Dalmatia. At the same time, Crescens went to Galatia. Demas, who had also come there among others, or who may have been Paul's traveling companion, on the appearance of danger, returned precipitately to his native place of Thessalonica, and St. Paul proceeded with Luke to Rome, where he may have arrived in August. As his settled plan had been to winter in Nicopolis (Titus 3:12), it seems most probable that his journey to Rome was not a voluntary one. There is not the slightest, hint in Scripture, or in any history, as to the place or the circumstances of his arrest. But knowing that he went to Nicopolis in Epirus, intending to pass the winter there, and that very shortly after he was a prisoner at Rome, the natural inference is that he was arrested by the authorities of the province of Achaia, and by them sent to Rome for trial. His route would be from Aulon, the seaport of Illyria, to Brundusium, and thence by the Via Appia to Rome.

The cause of the arrest of St. Paul is not far to seek. The great fire of Rome, supposed to have been the work of Nero himself, took place "on the night of July 19, A.D. 64". Nero, according to the well-known narrative of Tacitus ('Annals,' 15:44), to divert suspicion from himself, laid the blame of the fire upon the Christians, and inflicted the most atrocious punishments upon them. The persecution, which at first affected only the Christians at Rome, was afterwards extended to Christians in the provinces, and it was made criminal to profess the Christian faith (see the passages quoted by Lewin from Tacitus, Sulpitius Severus, and Orosius). The frequent allusions to persecution and suffering in the First Epistle of St. Peter (1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 3:16; 1 Peter 4:1, 1 Peter 4:12-16; 1 Peter 5:8, 1 Peter 5:9) seem to point distinctly to this general persecution. It only required the active malice of any one or more persons to bring any Christian before the Roman governors on a charge of impiety. It is very likely that the bitter enmity of the Jews of Corinth, who plotted against his life a few years before (Acts 20:3), took advantage of these persecuting edicts to accuse him before the Proconsul of Achaia.

Be this, however, as it may, what is certain is that St. Paul was once more a prisoner at Rome, and may have arrived there in August, as above suggested. It would appear, from 2 Timothy 4:16, 2 Timothy 4:17, that his ease had come before Nero soon after his arrival — say in the end of August or September — and that he did not expect it to come on again before the winter vacation (2 Timothy 4:21). He accordingly wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy, in which the uppermost thought was to encourage Timothy, and exhort him not to be cast down by the calamitous state of the Church, and the apostle's imprisonment, of which the news had doubtless spread rapidly from Corinth to Ephesus, but to be ready to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. St. Paul expresses in touching language his own unmoved faith and constancy and trust; complains gently of the defection of false friends; makes loving mention of old kindnesses received from faithful followers now departed; gives earnest counsel to Timothy; foretells coming dangers; presses home faithful warnings and loving exhortations to fearlessness in the duties of his great office; and then ends with a brief statement of the chief events of interest which had occurred since they parted, including his own defense before Nero, together with an earnest request, twice repeated, to Timothy to come to him before the winter. He also mentions that he had sent Tychicus — he does not say when, or from whence — to Ephesus, doubtless for the purpose of taking Timothy's place when he came to Rome.

Here, however, it may be well to emphasize one or two points. One, that the news of St. Paul's being a prisoner must have been communicated to Timothy by some previous message, either from St Paul himself or, with his privity, possibly by Tychicus, or in some other way, as this Epistle clearly supposes Timothy to be already acquainted with the circumstance. The other that St. Paul did not expect to be called for his final trim for the next three months at least, since it would take so long for his letter to reach Timothy and for Timothy to travel to Rome. A third point is important to note, viz. that the details given in the last chapter are a distinct proof that the journey to which those details refer — embracing Miletus, Troas, Macedonia, Corinth, and Rome — was a very recent one, and that as the last stage in that journey was Rome, it is demonstrated that this was not the same visit to Rome as that related by St. Luke, which was by way of Malta, Syracuse, Rhegium, and Puteoli.
Still treading upon uncertain ground, we go on to observe that, taking the Epistle to the Hebrews as written at this time, it would appear that Timothy, on receipt of St. Paul's Second Epistle, immediately started to come to Rome, but was arrested on the way, the persecution of Christians being now active in the provinces. The place of his arrest is not indicated, but it may probably have been Achaia, through which he would be passing on his way from Ephesus to Rome. The welcome intelligence, however, had now reached the writer of the Hebrews that Timothy was set at liberty, and was on his way (apparently) to Rome. If St. Paul was the writer of the Epistle, it would appear, further, that at this time — some three or four months later than 2 Timothy — he had hopes of his own speedy liberation. Upon what these hopes were built we have no means of deciding. But several months had elapsed since his "first defense;" Timothy was released; perhaps there was some slackening in the persecution, and some reason to hope that it had served its turn in diverting suspicion from Nero, and was near its close. Anyhow, he hoped to be "restored unto them soon," and to come to them with Timothy (Hebrews 13:19, Hebrews 13:23).

But this expectation was not destined to be fulfilled. Nor do we know whether Timothy arrived in time to see him alive. Perhaps he did, if the traditional date of St. Paul's martyrdom, June 29, is true, as that would allow plenty of time for Timothy to reach Rome. It would also be intensely interesting to know whether St. Peter and St. Paul met before or at the time of their respective martyrdoms. Had the writing of the Epistle to the Hebrews (supposing it to be St. Paul's) by the apostle of the Gentiles anything to do with a desire on the part of the apostle of the circumcision to show the perfect unity that existed between himself and St. Paul? Were they the same body of Hebrews in whole or in part as those to whom St. Peter wrote his First Epistle? It is certainly remarkable that both Epistles imply that those to whom they were addressed had lately been under grievous persecution, and both have a strong light thrown upon them by the circumstances of the Neronian persecution (Hebrews 10:32-34; Hebrews 11:32-40; Hebrews 12:1-13; Hebrews 13:3; 1 Peter 2:12; 1 Peter 3:14-18; 1 Peter 4:12-19; 1 Peter 5:8-10). Moreover, the passage 2 Peter 3:15 distinctly asserts that St. Paul had written them an Epistle. And if 2 Peter was written to the same body of Christians as 1 Peter was (2 Peter 3:1), then we are told, in so many words, that the Epistle of St. Paul to which allusion is made was addressed to the Hebrews "of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia." Could this Epistle be the Epistle to the Hebrews? There is certainly a very strong resemblance in the allegorical teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews to that in the Epistle to the Galatians. Compare the passage about Hagar (Galatians 4:22-31) with that about Melchisedec; the coming of Mark to St. Paul at Rome (2 Timothy 4:11) from St. Peter at Babylon (1 Peter 5:13); the mission of Crescens to Galatia (2 Timothy 4:10); and the presence of St. Peter and St. Paul together at Rome at the time of their martyrdoms, as related by Clemens Romanus, Eusebius, and others; — all point to some intercourse between the two apostles about this time. It occurs to one, therefore, that St. Peter might, in order to emphasize the union between himself and St. Paul, and between the Jewish and Gentile Churches, have requested St. Paul to write to the Jews of the Dispersion, and that St. Paul, in complying with the request, with his usual delicacy of feeling, may have withheld his apostolic style, and given his Epistle more the form of a treatise than of a letter (see, too, Hebrews 13:22).

Not, however, to dwell upon uncertain speculations, the practical matter is that, if the Epistle to the Hebrews was written at this time, we may register the further fact of Timothy's imprisonment and release, and, if written by St. Paul, that of his own expectation of being released, and must also modify the statement in the note to 2 Timothy 4:22, that we have there the last utterance of the great apostle.

Upon the whole, we conclude, with confidence, that the pastoral Epistles were written subsequently to St. Paul's imprisonment at Rome related in Acts 28., and shortly before his martyrdom in the imperial city as related in ecclesiastical history.

3. As regards the absolute date of the pastoral Epistles, they may, with most probability, be assigned to the year A.D. 65, A.D. 66, or A.D. 67, according as St. Paul's martyrdom is assigned to A.D. 66, A.D. 67, or A.D. 68. Eusebius says, under the thirteenth year of Nero, that Peter and Paul suffered martyrdom; while Jerome places it in the fourteenth year. It is impossible to arrive at certainty in the matter. Some considerations point strongly to A.D. 65 for the Epistles, and A.D. 66 for the martyrdom.

§ 3. THE CONTENTS AND STYLE OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.

The contents and style of these Epistles need detain us but a short time, having been already partially discussed in the preceding pages. In regard to style, the three Epistles go together, and show plain indications of having been written nearly at the same time. But in regard to their contents, the Epistle to Titus and the First Epistle to Timothy go together, and the Second Epistle to Timothy stands alone. The object and motive of the two first were precisely similar. Paul, having left Titus in the temporary oversight of the Churches of Crete, and Timothy in that of the Church of Ephesus, writes plain practical instructions to both of them how to order and rule the Churches committed to them. The conduct of the public prayers, the qualifications of the clergy, the discipline of the Church societies, the example to be set to the Christian communities by the chief pastor, together with earnest warnings in regard to growing heresies, make up the bulk of both Epistles, supplemented by a few directions peculiar to each case. Nothing can be more obvious, more artless, and less open to suspicion of any concealed motive, than the treatment of the subjects in hand. The Second Epistle to Timothy is of a different character, as it was caused by wholly different circumstances. Its main purpose was to encourage Timothy, under the new danger which had come upon the Church through the Neronian persecutions, and the apostle's imprisonment under a capital charge. By his own noble example of faith and constancy, by cogent reasonings and exhortations, and by the strongest Christian motives, St. Paul strives to comfort and sustain Timothy under the trying and perilous circumstances in which he was placed, and adds some prophetic warnings concerning coming heresies, and directions as to how Timothy is to meet them. A brief statement of the present condition of his affairs at Rome, with a pressing entreaty to Timothy, twice repeated, to hasten to him, and the usual salutations, complete the Epistle.

Some remarkable features of the style of the pastoral Epistles have been pointed out in the preceding sections. They cannot be too carefully weighed by those who would form a sound judgment on the difficult questions connected with them. The fact of there being a hundred and sixty-five words, nearly all good classical Greek, which occur in the pastoral Epistles, but nowhere else in the New Testament, and few of them in the LXX. (see Appendix); about thirty common to the pastoral Epistles and the Epistles of St. Paul, not found elsewhere in the New Testament (with only three or four exceptions); and twenty-two found elsewhere in the New Testament only in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistles of St. Peter and St. James, in St. Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, — are significant facts, which, if rightly used, must throw light upon the situation. The natural inferences from them, and from the heretical opinions referred to, and the exact phase of Church government and Church institutions disclosed, undoubtedly is that these Epistles belong to a somewhat later period than the other Epistles of St. Paul; that in the interval St. Paul had read a good deal of classical Greek; that the Epistle to the Hebrews was either St. Paul's composition, or, at least, that he had a good deal to do with it; that St. Peter had seen St. Paul's Epistles, or some of them; and that both writers were acquainted with the Acts of the Apostles.

With regard to the general scheme of St. Paul's last journey to Rome, proposed in the preceding pages, it may be well to call attention to the fact that it springs directly from the pastoral Epistles themselves. Assuming, as a starting-point, the expedition to Spain, indicated by Clement of Rome as having immediately preceded Paul's martyrdom, we come in regular order to Crete, Miletus, possibly Ephesus, Troas, Macedonia, Corinth, Nicopolis, Rome. There are no imaginary journeys, or trials at Ephesus, or vacant years to be filled up with supposed events, as in other schemes. But we have one consistent journey, every stage of which is indicated in the Epistles themselves, and the period of one year from spring to winter also indicated, within which the events naturally fall. And it is further satisfactory to find that these indications, together with others above referred to, fall in with the best authenticated ecclesiastical traditions, which bring St. Peter and St. Paul together to Rome in the time of the Neronian persecution, to seal with their blood their united testimony to the truth of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

APPENDIX: LIST OF WORDS PECULIAR TO THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.

ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖβ: 1 Timothy 1:3; 1 Timothy 6:3. C.

ἀπεραìντος: 1 Timothy 1:4. C., LXX.

ἐκζηìτησις: 1 Timothy 1:4.

μῦθος: 1 Timothy 1:4; 1 Timothy 4:7; 2 Timothy 4:4; Titus 1:14; 2 Peter 1:16. 2 Peter 1:0., LXX., X.

ἀστοχηìσαντες: 1 Timothy 1:6. C., LXX.

ἐζετραìπησαν: 1 Timothy 1:6; Hebrews 12:13. C., LXX., X.

ματαιολογιìα: 1 Timothy 1:6. C.

διαβεβαιοῦνται: 1 Timothy 1:7; Titus 3:8. C., X.

νομιìμως: 1 Timothy 1:8; 2 Timothy 2:5. C., LXX. (once).

ἀνυποταìκτοις: 1 Timothy 1:9; Titus 1:6; Hebrews 2:8. C., LXX. (?), X.

ἀνοσιìοις: 1 Timothy 1:9; 2 Timothy 3:2. LXX.

βεβηìλοις: 1 Timothy 1:9; 1 Timothy 4:7; 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 2:16; Hebrews 12:16. Hebrews 12:0., LXX, X.

πατραλωìͅαις: 1 Timothy 1:9. C.

μητραλωìͅαις: 1 Timothy 1:9. C.

ἀνδροφοìνοις: 1 Timothy 1:9, 1 Timothy 1:10., LXX.

ἀνδραποδισταῖς: 1 Timothy 1:10. C.

ἐπιοìρκοις: 1 Timothy 1:10. C.

ὑγιαινουìσῃ (in the sense of "sound," etc.): 1 Timothy 1:10; 2 Timothy 4:3; Titus 2:1. C.

βλαìσφημος (applied to a person): 1 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 3:2.

διωìκτης: 1 Timothy 1:13.

ὑπερεπλεοìνασε: 1 Timothy 1:14.

πιστοÌς ὁ λοìγος: 1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Timothy 3:1; 1 Timothy 4:9; 2 Timothy 2:11; Titus 3:8.

ἀποδοχῆς: 1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Timothy 4:9.

ὑποτυìπωσιν: 1 Timothy 1:16; 2 Timothy 1:12. C.

ἐντευìξεις: 1 Timothy 2:1; 1 Timothy 4:5. C., LXX.

ὑπεροχῇ (in the dense of "authority"): 1 Timothy 2:2. C.

ἠìρεμος: 1 Timothy 2:2. C. (late).

διαìγειν: 1 Timothy 2:2; Titus 3:3. C.

εὐσεβειìᾳ: 1 Timothy 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Timothy 4:7, 1 Timothy 4:8; 1 Timothy 6:3, 1 Timothy 6:5, 1 Timothy 6:6, 1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 1:1. Elsewhere only in Acts 3:12; 2 Peter 1:3, 2 Peter 1:6, 2 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 3:7. X.

σεμνοτηìς: 1 Timothy 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:4 (T.R.); Titus 2:7. C.

ἀποìδεκτον: 1 Timothy 2:3; 1 Timothy 5:4. C.

μεσιìτης (as applied to Jesus Christ): 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24. X.

ἀντιìλυτρον: 1 Timothy 2:6.

καταστοληì: 1 Timothy 2:9. C.

κοìσμιος: 1 Timothy 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:2. C.

πλεìγμασι: 1 Timothy 2:9. C.

ἐπαγγεìλλεσθαι, (in the sense of "to profess"): 1 Timothy 2:10; 1 Timothy 6:21. C.

θεοσεβειìα: 1 Timothy 2:10. 1 Timothy 2:3., LXX.

τεκνογονιìα: 1 Timothy 2:15.

ὀρεìγεται: 1 Timothy 3:1; 1 Timothy 6:10; Hebrews 11:16. C., X.

ἀνεπιìληπτον: 1 Timothy 3:2; 1 Timothy 5:7; 1 Timothy 6:14. C.

νηφαìλιον: 1 Timothy 3:2, 1 Timothy 3:11; Titus 2:2. C.

σωìφρονα: 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8; Titus 2:2, Titus 2:5. C.

φιλοìξενον: 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8; 1 Peter 4:9. C., X.

διδακτικοìν: 1 Timothy 3:2; 2 Timothy 2:24.

παìροινος: 1 Timothy 3:3; Titus 1:7. C.

πληìκτην: 1 Timothy 3:3; Titus 1:7. C. (but rarely).

αἰσχροκερδῆ: 1 Timothy 3:3 (T.R.), 8; Titus 1:7. C. (rare).

ἀìμαχον: 1 Timothy 3:3; Titus 3:2. LXX., C.

ἀφιλαìργυρον: 1 Timothy 3:3; Hebrews 13:5. X.

νεοìφυτον: 1 Timothy 3:6. LXX.

τυφωθειìς: 1 Timothy 3:6; 1 Timothy 6:4; 2 Timothy 3:4. C.

διλοìγους: 1 Timothy 3:8.

διαβοìλους (in the sense of "slanderers"): l Timothy 3:11; 2 Timothy 3:3; Titus 2:3. C.

διακονηìσαντες (in the sense of "serving as deacons"): 1 Timothy 3:10, 1 Timothy 3:13.

ἑδραιìωμα: 1 Timothy 3:15.

ὁμολογουμεìνως: 1 Timothy 3:16. C., LXX.

ῥητῶς: 1 Timothy 4:1. C. (rare; ῥητοìς common).

ὑìστερος: 1 Timothy 4:1. C., LXX.

πλαìνος (as an adj.): 1 Timothy 4:1. C.

ψευδολοìγων: 1 Timothy 4:2. C.

κεκαυτηριασμεìνων: 1 Timothy 4:2. C.

μεταìληψιν: 1 Timothy 4:3. C.

ἀποìβλητον: 1 Timothy 4:4. C., LXX.

ὑποτιθεìμενος: 1 Timothy 4:6 (in the sense of "putting in mind"). C., LXX.

μαρτυρουμεìνη (in the sense of "well spoken of"): 1 Timothy 5:10, frequent in the Epistle to Hebrews, and Acts 10:0.

ἐντρεφοìμενος: 1 Timothy 4:6. C.

γραωìδεις: 1 Timothy 4:7. C.

γυìμναζε: 1 Timothy 4:7; Hebrews 5:14; Hebrews 12:11; 2 Peter 2:14. C., X.

γυμνασιìα: 1 Timothy 4:8. C., LXX. (once).

ἁγνειìᾳ: 1 Timothy 4:12; 1 Timothy 5:2. C.

ἐπιπληìξῃς: 1 Timothy 5:1. C.

ἐìκγονα: 1 Timothy 5:4. C., LXX.

ἁμοιβαÌς: 1 Timothy 5:4. C., LXX.

ἀποìδεκτον: 1 Timothy 5:4. C. (rare).

μεμονωμεìνη: 1 Timothy 5:5. C.

σπαλατῶσα: 1 Timothy 5:6 (and James 5:5). C., LXX.

καταλεγεìσθω: 1 Timothy 5:9. C.

ἐτεκνοτροìφησεν: 1 Timothy 5:10. C.

ἐξενοδοìχησεν: 1 Timothy 5:10. C.

ἐπηìρκεσεν: 1 Timothy 5:10, 1 Timothy 5:16. C.

καταστρηνιαìσωσι: 1 Timothy 5:11.

φλυìαροι: 1 Timothy 5:13; 1 Timothy 4:0 Macc. C.

περιìεργοι: 1 Timothy 5:13 (and Acts 19:9). C., X.

τεκνογονεῖν: 1 Timothy 5:14. C. (rarely).

οἰκοδεσποτεῖν: 1 Timothy 5:14.

προκριìματος: 1 Timothy 5:21.

προìσκλισιν: 1 Timothy 5:21. C.

ὑδροποìτει: 1 Timothy 5:23. C.

προìδηλοι: 1 Timothy 5:24, 1 Timothy 5:25; Hebrews 7:14. C., LXX., X.

νοσῶν: 1 Timothy 6:4. C., LXX.

λογομαχιìας: 1 Timothy 6:4.

ὑποìνοιαι: 1 Timothy 6:4. C.

διαπαρατριβαιì: 1 Timothy 6:5.

πορισμοìς: 1 Timothy 6:5. C., LXX.

σκεπαìσματα: 1 Timothy 6:8. C. (rare).

φιλαργυριìα: 1 Timothy 6:10. C., LXX.

περιεìπειραν: 1 Timothy 6:10. C. (rare).

πρᾶυπαθειìαν (R.T.): 1 Timothy 6:11. Philo.

ἀπροìσιτον: 1 Timothy 6:16. C. (late).

μακαìριος (applied to God): 1 Timothy 1:11; 1 Timothy 6:15. C.

ἀδηλοìτητι: 1 Timothy 6:17. C.

ἀγαθοεργεῖν: 1 Timothy 6:18 (ἀγαθοεργοìς, ἀγαθοεργιìα). C.

εὐμεταδοìτους: 1 Timothy 6:18. C. (rare).

κοινωνιìκους: 1 Timothy 6:18. C.

ἀποθησαυριìζοντες: 1 Timothy 6:18. C. (rare), LXX. (rare).

παραθηìκην (or παρακαταθηìκην): 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:12, 2 Timothy 1:14. C.

κενοφωνιìΑ: 1 Timothy 6:20; 2 Timothy 2:16.

ἀντιθεìσεις: 1 Timothy 6:20. C.

μαìμμη: 2 Timothy 1:5. C.

δι η῞῞ν αἰτιìαν: 2 Timothy 1:6, 2 Timothy 1:12; Titus 1:13; Hebrews 2:11. X.

ἀναζωπυρεῖν: 2 Timothy 1:6. C., LXX.

δειλιìας: 2 Timothy 1:7. C. σωφρονισμοῦ: 2 Timothy 1:7. C. (rare).

συγκακοπαìθησον: 2 Timothy 1:8.

ἐìχε: 2 Timothy 1:13; 1 Timothy 1:19; 1 Timothy 3:9 (in a peculiar use).

ἀπεστραìφησαν (with an accus.): 2 Timothy 1:15; Titus 1:14; Hebrews 12:25. C., X.

ἀνεìψυξεν: 2 Timothy 1:16. C.

πραγματειìαις: 2 Timothy 2:4. C., LXX.

στρατολογηìσαντι: 2 Timothy 2:4. C.

ἀθλῇ: 2 Timothy 2:5. C.

λογομαχεῖν: 2 Timothy 2:14 (ἁìπαξ λεγοìμενον).

χρηìσιμον: 2 Timothy 2:14. C., LXX.

καταστροφῇ: 2 Timothy 2:14 (in a moral sense ἁìπαξ λεγοìμενον); 2 Peter 2:6. LXX., X.

ἀνεπαιìσχυντον: 2 Timothy 2:15 (ἁìπαξ λεγοìμενον).

ὀρθοτομοῦντα: 2 Timothy 2:15. C., LXX.

περιϊστασο (in the sense of "avoid"): 2 Timothy 2:16; Titus 3:9. Josephus, Lucian.

ἀνατρεìπουσι: 2 Timothy 2:18; Titus 1:11. C.

εὐìχρηστος: 2 Timothy 2:21; 2 Timothy 4:11 (Philemon 1:11). C., LXX. (once).

νεωτερικας: 2 Timothy 2:22. Josephus.

ἀπαιδευìτους: 2 Timothy 2:23. C., LXX.

γεννῶσι (in a figurative sense): 2 Timothy 2:23. C.

ἀνεξιìκακον: 2 Timothy 2:24. C. (late).

ἀντιδιατιθεμεìνους: 2 Timothy 2:25 (ἁìπαξ λεγοìμενον).

ἀνανηìψωσιν: 2 Timothy 2:26. C. (somewhat rare).

ἐζωγρηìμενοι: 2 Timothy 2:26, Luke 5:10. C., LXX.

φιìλαυτοι: 2 Timothy 3:2. C. (Aristotle).

φιλαìργυροι: 2 Timothy 3:2; Luke 16:14. C., X.

ἀχαìριστοι: 2 Timothy 3:2; Luke 6:35. C., LXX., X.

ἀìσπονδοι: 2 Timothy 3:3 (omitted in R.T. Romans 1:31). C.

ἀκρατεῖς: 2 Timothy 3:3. C.

ἀνηìμεροι: 2 Timothy 3:3. C.

ἀφιλαìγαθοι: 2 Timothy 3:3. C. (φιλαìγαθος, Aristotle).

φιληìδονοι: 2 Timothy 3:4. C.

φιλοìθεοι: 2 Timothy 3:4. C. (Aristotle).

ἀποτρεìπου: 2 Timothy 3:5. C.

ἐνδυìνοντες: 2 Timothy 3:6. C.

γυναικαìρια: 2 Timothy 3:6. C. (late).

κατεφθαìρμενα: 2 Timothy 3:8; 2 Peter 2:12. C., X.

ἀγωγῃ: 2 Timothy 3:10. C. (Aristotle), LXX.

γοìητες: 2 Timothy 3:13. C.

ἐπιστωìθης: 2 Timothy 3:14. C., LXX.

θεοìπνευστος: 2 Timothy 3:16. C.

ἐπανοìρθωσιν: 2 Timothy 3:16. C. (Aristotle, etc.), LXX.

ἀìρτιος: 2 Timothy 3:16. C.

κνηθοìμενοι: 2 Timothy 4:3. C.

ἐπισωρευìσουσι: 2 Timothy 4:3. C. (late and rare).

ἀναλυìσεως: 2 Timothy 4:6. C.

φελοìνην: 2 Timothy 4:13.

μεμβραìνας: 2 Timothy 4:13.

χαλκευìς: 2 Timothy 4:14. C.

παρεγεìνετυ (in a technical sense): 2 Timothy 4:16 (R.T.). C.

ἀψευδηìς: Titus 1:2. C., LXX. (once; Symmachus once).

ἐπιδιορθωìσῃ: Titus 1:5. C. (late and rare).

ὀργιìλος: Titus 1:7. C., LXX.

φιλαìγαθος: Titus 1:8. C. (rare), LXX. (once, Wisd. 7:22).

ἐγκρατηìς: Titus 1:8. C.

ματαιολοìγος: Titus 1:10. C.

ἐπιστομιìζω: Titus 1:11. C.

βδελυκτοìς: Titus 1:16. LXX.

ἱεροπρεπηìς: Titus 2:3; 4 Macc. (twice). C.

καταìστημα: Titus 2:3; Titus 3:0 Macc. (once). C.

καλοσισαìσκαλος: Titus 2:3 (ἁìπαξ λεγοìμενον).

σωφρονιìζωσι: Titus 2:4. C.

φιλαìνδρους: Titus 2:4. C.

οἰκουροìς, or οἰκουργοìς: Titus 2:5. C.

ἀδιαφθοριìα: Titus 2:7. C. (ἀδιαìφθορος).

ἀκαταìγνωστος: Titus 2:8; Titus 2:0 Macc. 4:7.

σωτηìριος (adj.): Titus 2:11; Wisd. 1. 14; 3 Macc. 7:18. C.

περιουìσιον: Titus 2:14. LXX.

περιφρονειìτω: Titus 2:15; 4 Macc. 6:9.

διαìγοντες (τοÌν βιìον): Titus 3:3; 1 Timothy 2:2. C., LXX.

στυγητοìς: Titus 3:3. C. φροντιìζωσι: Titus 3:8. C., LXX.

ἀνωφελεῖς: Titus 3:9; Hebrews 7:18. C., X., LXX.

αἱρετικοìν: Titus 3:10. C.

ἐξεìστραπτα: Titus 3:11. C., LXX.

The result of the above enumeration is that there are —

165 words found only in the pastoral Epistles.
11 only in the pastoral Epistles and Hebrews.
11 only in the pastoral Epistles, Peter, James, Luke, and the Acts.
187 total.

§ 5. LITERATURE ON THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.

A considerable range of literature, both English and German, has gathered round the question of the authorship of the pastoral Epistles. The following are some of the chief works bearing on it.

English: Dean Alford's 'Prolegomena to the Pastoral Epistles,' a very able and conclusive statement; "Introduction to the Pastoral Epistles," in the 'Speaker's Commentary,' by Professor Wace; article by Dr. Salmon, in the Christian Observer, 1877, p. 801; "Introduction to the Epistles to Timothy," in Dr. Schaaf's 'Popular Commentary on the New Testament,' by Dean Plumptre; article on "Timothy Epistles," in 'Dictionary of the Bible,' by Dean Plumptre; "Introduction to the Pastoral Epistles of St. Paul," in 'New Testament Commentary for English Readers,' edited by Bishop Ellicott, by Canon Spence; "Excursus on the Genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles," in the Appendix to vol. 2. of Farrar's 'Life and Work of St. Paul;' "Appendix on the Date of the Pastoral Epistles," in Conybeare and Howson's 'Life and Epistles of St. Paul;' see also Paley's 'Horse Paulinae,' ch. 11. — 13.

Translated from the German: "Introduction to Pastoral Epistles," in Meyer's 'Commentary,' by Huther; "General Introduction to Pastoral Epistles," by Wiesinger, in Olshausen's 'Biblical Commentary.'

The above all support the authenticity of the pastoral Epistles, and some of them with great ability and learning. Alford adds the following list: Hug, Bertholdt, Fielmoser, Guerike, Bohl, Curtius, Klug, Heydenreich, Mack, Planck, Wegscheider, Beckhaus. Some German critics, as Schleiermacher, J. E. C. Schmidt, Ustin, Lucke, Neander, and Bleek, only reject 1 Timothy, but accept Titus and 2 Timothy as genuine.
Of those which impugn the authenticity of the pastoral Epistles in whole, the following are the most important.
Of English writers: Dr. Davidson, 'Introduction to the Study of the New Testament'. But Dr. Davidson states the case so unfairly as to make his argument valueless. The statement, most weighty if true, that the theory of "Paul's release and second imprisonment arose from exegetical difficulties inherent in the Epistles themselves," and that "the entire hypothesis is a fiction intended to prop up the authenticity of the writings," is absolutely unfounded in truth. The testimonies of Clement, the Muratorian Fragment, Eusebins, Jerome, Chrysostom, Venantius Fortunatus, and others, to a journey to Spain and a second imprisonment, have nothing whatever to do with "exegetical difficulties." They may be vague and unsatisfactory, but they are an entirely independent evidence of a belief prevalent in the early Church, that St. Paul did go to Spain, and did undergo a second imprisonment at Rome. The pastoral Epistles confirm this belief. Again, such criticisms as that Clement would not have said ἐλθωìν of St. Paul "going" to Spain, and that τοÌ τεìρμα τῆς δυìσεως means "the western part of the empire generally," are surely unworthy of a scholar. There is also a strange incongruity in borrowing Baur's plausible assertion that the phrase, ἀντιθεìσεις τῆς ψευδωνυìμου γνωìσεως, is due to Marcion, and yet placing the writing of the pastoral Epistles between A.D. 115 and 125, when Marcion was a youth, and had written nothing. The objections, too, to the style and matter of the pastoral Epistles are most captious, and for the most part irrelevant. Tate's 'Continuous History of St. Paul' is quoted by Dr. Davidson.

Of German writers the first was Eichhorn, 'Introduction to the New Testament; 'then came Baur's elaborate works, 'Die Pastoral-briefe des Apostel Paulus,' and 'Der Apostel Paulus;' De Wette followed him, more or less, in his 'Kurz-gefassten Handbuch,' placing the Epistles, however, before the middle of the second century; then Schott, Schrader ('Der Apostel Paulus'), Credner ('Einleitung'); and, quoted by Dr. Farrar ('St. Paul,' 2:514), Zeller, Hilgenfeld, Schenkel, Ewald, Hausrath, Renan, Pfieiderer ('Paulinism'), Krenkel, Reuss ('Les Epitres'), etc.

The question of authenticity really turns upon whether or no there are any distinct indications in the pastoral Epistles of the Gnostic heresy having then assumed the proportions that it attained under Marcion in the middle of the second century. The one suspicious phrase is the ἀντιθεìσεις τῆς ψευδωνυìμου γνωìσεως, because ἀντοθεìσεις was the name of one of Marcion's works, and γνῶσις is the proper designation of the doctrine of the Gnostics. But there is not the slightest improbability in the peculiar style of teaching meant by ἀντιθεìσεις having begun in the time of St. Paul, or in the conceited claim to exclusive γνῶσις having been already made by the precursor of Marcion and his brother heretics.

Excursus on the Testimony of Hegesippus as preserved by Eusebius,
'Eccl. Hist.,' 3. 32.

Eusebius quotes Hegesippus as saying that, till the death of the apostles, the Church had been as a pure virgin; but that when the apostles were all dead, τῆς ἀθεìου πλαìνης τηÌν ἀρχηÌν ἐλαìμβανεν ἡ συìστασις, impious error was first formed into a compact system, through the deceit of the false teachers (τῶν ἑτεροδιδασκαìλων); who, now having no apostle to oppose them, dared to oppose the preaching of the truth by the preaching of science falsely so called (τηÌν ψευδωìνυμον γνῶσιν). The natural and obvious inference from this passage is that Hegesippus was acquainted with St. Paul's First Epistle to Timothy, and quoted its ipsissima verba to show what had taken place in spite of his apostolic warning, though in accordance with his apostolic prediction (1 Timothy 4:0.). The ἑτεροδιδαìσκαλοι who lurked in secret in the apostle's time, and carried on their enterprise "against the sound canon of saving doctrine" in darkness, had now emerged into the light, and formed schismatical and heretical communities. The passage is a strong testimony to the authenticity of I Timothy. The suggestion that Hegesippus was an Ebionite is absolutely baseless. All we know of him stamps him as a Catholic Christian (see art. "Hegesippus," in the 'Dictionary of Christian Biography'). The contradiction between Hegesippus's statement, and the representation of an incipient heresy existing in St. Paul's time, as gathered from I Timothy, exists only in Dr. Baur's imagination.

Excursus on the Passage in Clement's 'Epistle to the Corinthians' bearing upon St. Paul's Visit to Spain.

The passage, as found in Hefele's edition of the ' Apostolic Fathers,' is as follows: ̔Ο Πέτρος διὰ ζῆλον ἄδικον οὐχ ἕνα οὐδὲ δύο ἀλλὰ πλείονας ὑπένεγκεν πόνους καὶ οὕτω μαρτυρήσας ἐπορεύθη εἰς τὸν ὀφειλόμενον τόπον τῆς δόξης. Διὰ ζῆλον καὶ ὁ Παῦλος ὑπομονῆς βραβεῖον ὑìπεσχεν ἑπταìκις δεσμαÌ φορεìσας φυγαδευθειìς λιθασθειìς Κηìρυξ γενοìμενος ἐìν τε τῇ ἀνατολῇ καιÌ ἐν τῇ δυìσει τοÌ γενναῖον τῆς πιìστεως αὐτοῦ κλεÌος ἐìλασβεν δικαιοσυìνην διδαìξας ὁìλον τοÌν κοìσμον, καιÌ ἐπιÌ τοÌ τεÌρμα τῆς δυìσεως ἐλθωÌν καιÌ μαρτυρηìσας ἐπιÌ τῶν ἡγουμεìνων οὑìτως ἀπηλλαìγη τοῦ κοìσμου καιÌ εἰς τοÌν ἁìγιον τοìπον ἐπορευìθη κ.τ.λ

The exact English of the above is as follows: "Peter, on account of unjust envy, underwent not one or two, but many labors, and so, having borne witness [suffered martyrdom], he went to the place of glory which was his due. On account of envy, Paul too received the prize of endurance, having been in chains seven times, expelled, stoned. Having preached [the gospel] both in the East and in the West, he obtained the noble reputation due to his faith. Having taught righteousness to the whole world, and having come as far as the utmost bounds of the West, and having borne witness [suffered martyrdom] before the rulers, he so passed out of the world, and came to the holy place," etc. It is to be observed on the above passage:

(1) That the coupling together of Peter and Paul as martyrs is decidedly in favor of St. Paul's second imprisonment at Rome, and the ecclesiastical tradition which makes him and Peter suffer martyrdom at the same time.

(2) That the phrase μαρτυρηìσας, being used of both, is a proof that martyrdom, and not mere confession, is meant in St. Paul's case.

(3) That his having come to "the bounds of the West" must mean something precise and definite, different from the general statement that he preached the gospel in the West.

(4) That Clement, writing from Rome, would never have called Rome "the bound of the West," but that by Roman writers Spain, and especially Gades, or Cadiz, was habitually described as the extreme western point. "Omnibus in terris quae sunt a Gadibus usque Auroram et Gangem" (Juvenal, 'Sat.,' 10.). Statius calls Gades "cubilia solis;" Horace, "remotis Gadibus;" Silius Italicus, "hominum finem Gades." Geryon, King of Hesperia (the West), fed his oxen in the island of Erythria (the isla de Leon, i.e. Gades), which was also the name of one of the Hesperides, whose abode was fixed by the earliest traditions on Oceanus, in the extreme West. Strabo calls Gadeira ἐσχαìτη ἱδρυμεìνη τῆς γῆς (3. 1:8), "situated at the extreme end of the earth." He calls the promontory Hieron (near Gades) "the most western point [or, 'boundary-mark,' σημεῖον], not only of Europe, but of the whole world" (3.1:4). Pindar, too, speaks of Gades as the point beyond which no mortal could advance ('Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography,' art. "Herculis Columnae"). So that to a Roman, τεÌρμα τῆς δυìσεως would be the natural description of Gades. And it is to Gades that Venantius Fortunatus sends St. Paul. "Transit et oceanum, vel qua facit insula portum," etc., which, of course, means Gades.

(5) The visit to the extreme bounds of the West immediately precedes his martyrdom at Rome, in Clement's enumeration of St. Paul's doings.

(6) The use of οὑìτως, in the passage about St. Peter which precedes, teaches us not to put a full stop after ἡγουμεìνων, and begin a new sentence with οὑìτως, as in the Latin version in Hefele, and Dr. Farrar's quotation; but to construe it, as is much more natural and more in accordance with Greek idiom, with ἀπηλλαìγη (as the previous οὑìτω is with ἐπορευìθη), as referring to the circumstances under which he passed away and went to a better place.

(7) The manuscript text of Clement is very imperfect. The difficulty of breaking up the passage into its component parts, due apparently to the absence of proper copulative particles, may probably be assigned to this cause. But there is no ground whatever for saying, with Dr. Farrar, that, "if Spain is intended, and if ματυρηìσας means 'martyrdom' then the author, taken literally, would imply that St. Paul perished in Spain." What the writer says is that, having successively taught righteousness to the whole world, reached the utmost bounds of the West, and suffered martyrdom before the rulers, he at last passed out of this world and received his reward in the kingdom of heaven. (See translation of the 'Epistle of Clement' in Bishop Lightfoot's 'Appendix to St. Clement of Rome,' which agrees substantially with that given above.)