T I M 



465 



T I M 



to the faith by the preaching of Paul and Barnabas on 

 the occasion of their first apostolical journey among the 

 Gentiles. Whether Timothy was himself converted by St. 

 Paul or by the teaching of his mother does not appear ; 

 but it is certain that she had taken great pains with her 

 son's education, for from a child, as St. Paul says, ' he had 

 known the Holy Scriptures.' (2 Tiinoth., iii. 15.) His 

 devotion to his new faith was so ardent, and the progress 

 he made in the knowledge of the gospel so great, that he 

 gained the esteem and good word of all his Christian 

 acquaintance. Accordingly when St. Paul paid his second 

 visit to Lystra, the believers both of that city and Iconium 

 commended him so highly to Paul," that he ' would have 

 Timothy go forth with him' as the companion of his 

 travels. Previously to commencing them however St. Paul 

 circumcised Timothy, 'because of the Jews,' who were 

 numerous and powerful in those parts, and likely to take 

 offence at the preaching and ministration of an uncircum- 

 ci*ed teacher. (Acts, xvi. 1-3.) He was then solemnly ad- 

 mitted and set apart to the office of an evangelist, or 

 preacher of the gospel, by the elders of Lystra and St. Paul 

 himself laying their hands upon him (1 Tim., iv. 14; 

 2 Tim., i. 61. though he was probably not more than 

 twenty years of age at the time. From this period 

 (A.D. 46) mention is frequently made of Timothy as the 

 companion of St. Paul in his journeys, as assisting him in 

 preaching the gospel, and in conveying his instructions to 

 the different Christian churches. His first mission was in 

 company with St. Paul and Silas, when they visitad the 

 churches of Phrygia and delivered to them the decrees of 

 the council of elders at Jerusalem, by which the Gentiles 



released from the obedience to the law of Moses as a 

 requisite for salvation. From Phiygia he proceeded in the 

 same company t Troas, and thence to Macedonia, where 

 lie assisted in foundingthe churches of Philippi, Thessalo- 

 nica, and Beroea, at the last of which cities he and Silas 

 were left when St. Paul was driven from Macedonia by 

 the persecution of the Jews in that country and retired to 

 Athens. In this city St. Paul was subsequently joined by 

 Timothy 1 T/ii'in., iii. 1), who gave him such an account 

 of the afflicted state of the Thessalonian Christians as in- 

 dutvd him to send Timothy back to ' establish and comfort 

 them, concerning their faith" : a charge both of difficulty 

 and danger. From Athens St. Paul went to Corinth, where 

 he was joined by Timothy and Silvanus, who both assisted 

 hint in converting the Corinthians and establishing the Co- 

 rinthian church, for a period of a year and a half. (2Cor.,i.) 

 When St. Paul left. Corinth, Timothy appears to have accom- 

 panied him on his return to Asia, where' they resided nearly 

 three yea.s, without interruption, except during the visit of 

 St . 1'aul to Jerusalem, to keep the feast there, in which how- 

 ever it does not appear that he was accompanied by 

 Timothy. Towards the expiration of their residence at 

 Kphcsus, St. Paul despatched Timothy and Erastus to- 

 U'ethei to precede himself on a journey to Macedonia. 



, xix. 22.) It would also seem (1 Cor., iv. 17) that St. 

 Paul at the same time charged Timothy to visit the church of 

 Corinth. On returning from Corinth to Macedonia, Timothy 

 was joined by St. Paul from Ephesus, and henceforward 

 they were frequently together, till Timothy was appointed 

 by St. Paul to govern the church of Ephesus. In the in- 

 terval between St. Paul's joining Timothy in Macedonia 

 and the appointment of the latter to the superintendence 

 of the church at Ephesus, Timothy appears either to have 

 accompanied St. Paul on his first journey to Rome, or to 

 have visited him there. St. Paul, as is well known, was a pri- 

 soner at Rome, though under but little restraint, and from 

 Hebrews (xiii. 23) we may conclude that Timothy also suf- 

 fered imprisonment either at Rome or elsewhere in Italy ; 

 and that he was released before St. Paul left that city. 

 The subsequent history of St. Paul and Timothy is not 

 clearly given either in the Acts of the Apostles or the 

 Epistles of the New Testament ; but it is reasonable to 

 suppose that when they were both set at liberty, they re- 



il the journeys made for founding new churches and 



.tint; old. (See Hebrews, xiii. 23 ; Philipp., i. 1 ; ii. 19 ; 

 1 Tim., 1. 3.) 



Timothy was eventually left with the charge of the 

 church at Kphesus, where St. Paul had made his head- 

 quarters in Asia. How long Timothy exercised this office 

 in not known, nor can we determine the time of his 

 death. A tieal tradition relates that he suffered 



martyrdom, being killed with stones and clubs (A.D. 97) 

 P. C., No. Kilfj. 



while he was preaching against idolatry in the neighbour- 

 hood of the temple of Diana at Ephesus. His supposed 

 relics were removed to Constantinople, with great pomp, 

 A.D. 356, in the reign of the emperor Constantine. Shortly 

 after Timothy's appointment to the superintendence of the 

 church at Ephesus, St. Paul wrote to him his first Epistle ; 

 the date of which was probably about A.JO. 64, after St. 

 Paul's first imprisonment at Rome. Some critics indeed 

 assign to it as early a date as A.D. 56, supporting their 

 opinion by 1 Tim., i. 3, from which it appears (1.) 

 that Timothy was in Ephesus when the Apostle wrote his 

 first letter to him ; (2.), that he had been left there when 

 Paul was going from Ephesus into Macedonia. A careful 

 examination however of the narrative in the Acts will 

 convince the reader that the contemplated journey into 

 Macedonia, of which the Apostle speaks (1 Tim., i. 3), 

 is some journey not mentioned in the Acts, and therefore 

 subsequent to St. Paul's release from his first confinement 

 at Rome. But whatever doubt there may be as to the 

 date of the first, there is none about the genuineness 

 of either of the two Epistles to Timothy. They have 

 always been acknowledged to be the undisputed pro- 

 duction of the Apostle Paul. The object and design of 

 the First Epistle to Timothy were such as we might have 

 expected from the relation between St. Paul the writer, 

 and Timothy, to whom it was addressed. It was written 

 with the view of guiding and directing the latter in his 

 responsible and difficult ministry as the head of the church 

 at Ephesus, to instruct him in the choice and ordination of 

 proper officers, and to warn him against the false teachers 

 (Michaelis thinks they were Essenes) who had ' turned 

 aside ' from the simplicity of the gospel, to idle con- 

 troversies and ' endless genealogies,' and who, setting 

 themselves up as teachers of the Law of Moses, had 

 insisted upon the necessity of obedience to it as a 

 requisite for salvation. 



In chap, i., accordingly, St. Paul alludes to the com- 

 mission given by him to Timothy at parting, and specifies' 

 the particular errors which he was to condemn, together 

 with the truths which he was to inculcate. 



In chap. ii. the apostle describes the manner in which 

 the public worship of the church at Ephesus was to be 

 conducted. 



In chap. iii. St. Paul explains the qualification of the 

 persons whom Timothy was to ordain as bishops and 

 deacons, and tells him that he had written the letter with 

 a view of teaching him ' how he ought to behave himself 

 in the house of God, which is the church of the living 

 God, the pillar and the ground of truth.' 



The last verse of this chapter has occasioned much 

 controversy respecting the reading of the word 6101;, or 

 ' God,' for which one MS. has bj, ' who,' and another u, 

 'which.' The majority of the MSS. read Gtoc, or ' God,' 

 and several of the antient versions express the 8 or 

 ' which,' instead of 6e6f. 



In chap. iv. St. Paul foretells the heresies which were 

 to arise in the church in after-times, and strongly condemns 

 them. He also exhorts Timothy to a faithful and ex- 

 emplary discharge of his duties, and to a steadfast con- 

 tinuance in the doctrines of the Gospel. 



In chap. v. St. Paul instructs Timothy in the right 

 method of admonishing the old and the young of both 

 sexes. He also describes the age and character of such 

 widows as were to be employed by the church in teaching 

 the younger women the principles of religion, for which it 

 would seem that the former received some recompense 

 from the funds of the church. 



In chap. vi. St. Paul describes the duties which he 

 wished Timothy to inculcate on Christian slaves, as owing 

 from them to their masters, whether infidels or believers. 

 He also reprobates strifes about words, and perverse dis- 

 putings, which seem to have been rife in the Ephesian 

 church ; condemns an inordinate love of money, exhorts 

 Timothy to charge the rich to be ' rich in good works,' 

 and concludes with a most solemn charge before God and 

 Jesus Christ, that he should keep ' the commandment,' 

 without spot and unblameable. 



The Epistle was written from Nicopolis in Macedonia 

 (Titus, ill. 12), and not from Laodicea, as the subscription 

 informs us. The undesigned coincidences between it and 

 the Acts of the Apostles are given in Paley's 'Horar 

 Paulinae,' p. 323-338. 



The Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy. Prom chap, i., 



VOL. XX.IV. o O 



