172 HORiE PAULINA. 



CHAPTEU XI. 



THE riRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 



From the third verse of the first chapter, " As I besought 

 thee to abide stiU at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia," 

 it is evident that this epistle was written soon after St. Paul 

 had gone to Macedonia from Ephesus. Dr. Benson fixes its 

 date to the time of St. Paul's journey recorded in the begin- 

 ning of the twentieth chapter of the Acts : "And after the 

 uproar" excited by Demetrius at Ephesus " was ceased, Paul 

 called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and de- 

 parted for to go into Macedonia." And in this opinion Dr. 

 Benson is followed by Michaelis, as he was preceded by the 

 greater part of the commentators who have considered the 

 question. There is, however, one objection to the hypothesis, 

 which these learned men appear to me to have overlooked ; 

 and it is no other than this, that the superscription of the 

 second epistle to the Corinthians seems to prove, that at 

 the time St. Paul is supposed by them to have written this 

 epistle to Timothy, Timothy in truth was with St. Paul in 

 Macedonia. Paul, as it is related in the Acts, left Ephesus 

 " for to go into Macedonia." When he had got into Mace- 

 donia he wrote his second epistle to the Corinthians. Con- 

 cerning this point there exists Httle variety of opinion. It 

 is plainly indicated by the contents of the epistle. It is also 

 strongly implied, that the epistle was written soon after the 

 apostle's arrival in Macedonia ; for he begins his letter by a 

 train of reflection, referring to his persecutions in Asia as to 

 recent transactions, as to dangers from which he had lately 

 been delivered. But in the salutation with which the epis- 

 tle opens, Timothy teas joined luith St. Paul, and conse- 

 quently could not at that time be "left behind at Ephesus." 

 And as to the only solution of the difficulty which can be 

 thought of, namely, that Timothy, though he was left behind 

 at Ephesus upon St. Paul's departure from Asia, yet might 

 follow him so soon after as to come up with the apostle in 



