Loading...

Pastoral Epistles - Lesson 1

Introductory Issues

Dr. Mounce introduces himself and covers the traditional issues in introductions, including his historical reconstruction of the writing and history behind the Pastorals, basic misconceptions people have of the Pastorals, and the survey of the critical issues often raised.

Bill Mounce
Pastoral Epistles
Lesson 1
Watching Now
Introductory Issues

I. Historical Reconstruction

A. First Missionary Journey (Acts 13-14)

B. Second Missionary Journey (Acts 15:36-18:22)

C. Third Missionary Journey (Acts 18:23-21:16)

D. Titus not mentioned in Acts

E. Imprisonment

F. Five major events

1. Timothy was with Paul during the Roman imprisonment, and sent to Ephesus (before his release)

2. Paul possibly went to Spain — fourth missionary journey

3. Paul and Titus had a missionary journey on Crete

4. Timothy met Paul somewhere when Paul was traveling to Macedonia (“tearful meeting”), and returned to Ephesus

5. Paul wanted to go to Ephesus to help Timothy

G. Other major chronological questions

II. Basic Misconceptions

A. All three letters are significantly different

B. Timothy/Titus are itinerant apostolic delegates

C. Not a manual written to an anonymous church situation

III. Critical Issues

A. Historical problem

1. Events of the Pastorals not fit within Acts

2. Answer: after Acts

B. Church Structure

1. The church was not uniformly charismatic in the early years

2. Synagogue structure was always present, and would have developed quickly

C. Theological problem

1. Theology different — tied into the heresy

2. Terminology different — have Pauline parallels

3. Gnosticism is second century — but the PE are pre-gnostic

D. Linguistic problem

1. Style — natural variation and the Ephesian problem reflected in Paul’s terminology

2. Terminology — possibly a different amanuensis

3. Vocabulary especially reflects the false teaching

E. Authorship

1. Fiction Hypothesis

2. Fragment Hypothesis

3. Pseudepigraphy

4. Amanuensis (Luke)


Lessons
About
Resources
Transcript
  • Dr. Mounce introduces himself and covers the traditional issues in introductions, including his historical reconstruction of the writing and history behind the Pastorals, basic misconceptions people have of the Pastorals, and the survey of the critical issues often raised.

  • Paul begins by reminding Timothy of an earlier visit, and encourages Timothy to stay on at Ephesus, dealing with the issues in the church. Paul's goal is love, which stands in stark contrast to the work of the false teachers. Throughout 1 Timothy 1, Dr. Mounce is enumerating the ways in which Timothy (and we) should deal with false teaching.

  • Paul gives the theological argument up front as to why the false teachers were wrong and Timothy needs to silence them. They are legalists, applying the Mosaic Law to all Chrsitians. Rather, salvation is by God's mercy and grace as seen in Paul's conversion. But things have gotten bad in Ephesus, and Paul had to take a firm stance on dealing with two of the leaders of the opposition.

  • Having looked at the core teaching on why the false teachers were wrong, the class now looks at the other main pasages in the Pastorals that deal theologically with the false teaching.

  • Paul begins a two chapter discussion on issues of leadership in the Ephesian church. He begins by critiquing their habit of praying only for some people, which shows their legalistic way of looking at salvation. Then he deals with issues of public worship, first men then women. These are issues that the leaderhip should have been dealing with but most likely were being caused by poor leadership.

  • While this paragraph is not a matter of orthodoxy, it is nevertheless important since there are so many women in the church. Paul lays out the basic principle that women should learn with a submissive attitude, and then restates that principle with an eye to application; they cannot teach certain people in certain situations. Paul looks to the pre-Fall creation and the relationship that Adam and Eve were created to fulfill, and then spells out a consequence of what happens when that relationship is not honored. Because Paul references Genesis 2 and not Genesis 3, this is not a cultural teaching but transcultural.

  • After dealing with some questions, the class resumes by finishing the last two verses in chapter 2.

  • Paul gives four basic requirements for the leaders of a church. He beghins by emphasizing that leadership is a good thing and insists that leaders must be a certain kind of person, a person's who character is above repreoach. To appoint unqualified people to leadership is a sin, and those appointing them share in the responsibiiltiy when they fail and damage the church. But elders must also have a proven managerial ability of people, be spiritually mature, and have a good reputation in the eyes of people outside the church.

  • We conclude our discussion of elders by looking at two other passages on the role, Titus 1:5–9 and 1 Timothy 5:17–25.

  • We now move into the discussion of deacons in 1 Tim 3:8–13. There is much overlap between elders and deacons, and yet deacons are more involved in the day-to-day service of the church and are not required to be able to teach. The major interpretive decision is in v 11 as to whether it refers to women (i.e., deaconnesses) or wives (of the deacons).

  • This paragraph is the heart of the letter, putting everything that Paul has been discussing into perspective and giving it context. The church is precious, and we should protect the gospel because of the truths it teaches.

  • Paul goes back to addressing the needs of the Ephesian church. He deals in summary fashion with people of different ages, with a special note of concern for Timothy in how he deals with young women, which leads him into a discussion of young widows. His concern is that the church care for those who are "truly widows," i.e., who are old, truly alone, and have lived godly lives. Younger widows, however, should remarry and not burden the church. The church has limited resources, and it should initially care for those who are the most vulnerable.

  • Paul concludes his letter with a series of different and not always related topics. He deals with slaves, and begins to lay the groundwork for abolition, gives Timothy two tests for correct theology and spells out the download spiral and eventual destruction of the false teacher especially related to their love of money, and then encourages Timothy three ways. And in proper biblical fashion, he concludes with a doxology. The final paragraph (skipped by Dr. Mounce, is a final word to the rich in the church and a final plea to Timothy to be careful.

  • Most of the content of Titus has been covered in the lectures over 1 Timothy. However, the letter does have something to add to the discussion of leadership, and its two salvific hymns raise the issue of the reationship between justification and sanctification.

  • Paul begins his letter to his best friend by encouraging him to continue in ministry. If ever there were a model for how you encourage someone, especially someone who looks up to you, this is the chapter. The best thing you can do is find how many ways Paul encourages Timothy, and then see how to apply those points in your own life and ministry.

  • Paul concludes his encouragement to Timothy, and points out examples of faithless friends, and of one faithful friend.

  • Paul continues to encourage the discouraged Timothy, reminding him of the glorious gospel that he proclaims. Even if Paul himself is bound, the gospel is not.

  • The false teachers come back into view with a strong emphasis on Timothy's need to remain faithful. But the encouragement is that God's foundation in Timothy's life, and others, is sealed with a promise, and yet Timothy must also pursue righteousness and flee evil. Paul uses his own life as an example of faithfulness, and concludes with a strong admonition to preach the gospel because it comes from the very mouth of God.

  • Paul concludes his discussion of the role of Scripture in Timothy's life, reminding Timothy of Paul's own life of faithfulness. Paul makes some personal remarks about a few people, and references his final trial. He knows he will die, but death is merely a loosening.

The Pastoral Epistles contain some of the most practical advice in the New Testament. Learn how to handle heresy, appoint qualified leaders, take care of those who may not be able to care for themselves, and especially how to encourage one another in ministry. Titus alone contains two of the most powerful salvific statements in all of Scripture. These 13 chapters are worth studying.

Pastoral Epistles

Dr. Bill Mounce

nt630-01

Introductory Issues

Lesson Transcript

 

Well, it's good to be here. It's good to be back in the South. I'm a Yankee. I was raised in Minnesota. My dad taught at Bethel College up in Saint Paul. And when I was starting high school. Um, my dad got a grant to start a religious department in Munster, Kentucky University in Bowling Green. And so we moved to what I thought was the Deep South and found out very quickly it was a border state and what that meant and found out that it was the war of Northern aggression. It wasn't a civil war and that you all have every intention of rising again. As we announced the first day my brother was in school, he came home from seventh grade and goes, Where did Dad move us? Some kids sit up in the back of the class and started shouting, The South will rise again. We want to go home. But we had a good time and it was in Kentucky for most of high school, most of college. And I've been wandering ever since. So it's good to be back here. I told Matt that the only thing I really want is all the southern food I can eat. And because I don't get much of that in Washington State. Frank gave a quick, quick introduction to me, and that's fine. Um, my bill mounts. Um, I went to four seminary years ago and did my doctoral work in Aberdeen in Scotland under Howard Marshall, which was really a divine appointment thing because, uh, the, the network that I got fit into is a lot of what we're building biblical training with. So I lived with Darrell Bock. I lived with Greg Blomberg, and these guys are all very good friends of mine.

 

So it was, it was a good thing to be introduced to that cross-section of the of the future leaders of the evangelical movement. So, um, did that. Todd for ten years in college, um, wanted a break and uh, had been writing a lot of software. So we moved to Spokane to try to just, I needed a break because what I needed found out that the company that had contracted to sell my software had no intention of paying me and, uh, lived in absolute poverty for five years. It was the best five years of our life. We found out what it was to trust the Lord and that the olive jar doesn't run out and shoes don't wear out. And American cars can go 160,000 miles. And it was a great time. And then I went off to Guantanamo, but I went to go in Cornwall. The carrot they held out for me was that they wanted wanted me to redo their distance education program. And I had received a very strong message from the Lord that I was to do something about the sad state of the lack of preparedness of leadership in the church. And I went to Gordon Cornwall trying to talk them into giving away everything. And I wasn't successful, but I gave it my best shot. And when that didn't work, I had I head to because I was running the language program, a fellow named Matt Smith and Matt and I decided that we should be obedient to the word of the Lord and do something about training in the church. And so we started biblical training. We're now it's been 12, 12 years old. It's about 12 years old. So 13 we have a little over 900 hours of classes.

 

We have 73 classes, everything from new believers to this level of class. And we're excited to be working with you all at getting some more classes. We try to find win win scenarios where, uh, a school helps us and we're able to help it. And on this world, many people work on a zero sum philosophy, and that is I want to win and I want you to lose. And I don't win unless you lose. And your Carolina Divinity School is not that way, thankfully. So we look forward to having a long relationship with you. All the advantages is that some of these classes that you're taking will be up on beat and content on beat is free. So, you know, if you like a class or sections of a class, you want to run your elders through it. It's sitting up there and it's available for you to do it. So it's it's a really a it's a good relationship between us and Carolina Divinity School. So thankful for that. And we'll look forward to things that all the things to come. One of the things that happened is when I was Gordon Cornwall as I got contacted to help with the ESV and so I was actually the New Testament chair. If I said I would only do it, if my dad would could be on the committee too. And Dad's joke was, I'll do all the work and you get all the flak. And I did not know how right he was. And so it was a it was a great experience. We were for ten years together on it. About 80% of the changes in the ESV New Testament are Dad's and mine and the other 20 were argued by the committee and sometimes the committee made the right decision, sometimes it didn't.

 

But I got off that committee and but I was really missing translation. So I was praying that, Lord, I'd really like to get back into translation work. And the next day I got a letter from Doug Mu saying, Would you be on the Navy? Would you? Be our, quote, friendly critic. Well, this is when the tea and Ivy had caused so much furor and all the gender issues were being dealt with, and and I said, sure, I would love to. So my indoctrination of the Navy was being locked up and Whistler may have to be locked up somewhere. Whistler is a good place to get locked up in Canada. And we were told that we have three weeks to fix the T and V and it was going to go to press as the V 2011 whether we were done or not. And so we put in a very interesting three weeks of it's kind of hard to argue about man and he when you don't know the people very well and, but we had a great experience and I've gotten to really enjoy the Navy. It's a radically different kind of translation in the U.S. Uh, but it's, uh, where I've been spending a lot of my time. So between translation work and biblical training and a little bit of writing, I stay busy, but I am glad to be able to get out and to, to actually meet people other than Ed and Matt, the two guys I work with and be able to share with you. Pastoral epistles. This wasn't anything that I was especially interested in. When the publisher approached me to do the volume, I said, Hmm, I don't know. I mean, think about it. And I didn't think very long back then.

 

You know, you're so in your thirties, you're so desperate to get in the academic community to get a major publication, you go look. And not knowing what I was getting into, but I spent the next 14 years of my life writing that thing. And in the same time, I wrote the grammars and some other stuff, too. So it wasn't 100%, but it was a it was quite an experience to bury myself in. Paul or I think Paul, what other people think was second century imitation, whole set of problems there. I will tell you upfront, I do wish those five verses about the women weren't in the pastoral. That would make my life a lot easier. There's wonderful stuff in the pastoral and when I'm invited to speak on the pastoral, I know what they want. Who wrote it? And can women be pastors? I mean, and go, guys. There's 13 chapters in the books and I can't please. This is where you go to deal with heresy. This is how you go to to build leadership in a church. This is the most wonderful statements of salvation are in Titus. The connection of salvation. Sanctification are clear in the pastors than anywhere else. Can we talk about something is really important? Well, no. I need to know whether a woman can be an elder. Oh, okay. So we will we will cover that issue. But I'm going to give it the what, five verses out of 13 chapters deserves. All right. But there's a there's so much good stuff from the pastors. And I want to help help you walk through the process as as I did. The most important teaching tool I have next to my iPad is this phrasing. And you all were sent it and hopefully I'm seeing that you printed it out.

 

I'm going to have it up on the overhead because I can draw on it and market and stuff like that. So it really works well. This is a technique that I developed completely by myself, I thought. And I call it phrasing because the idea is to take a larger passage and to break it into phrases into manageable chunks. The basic assumption is that whether it's me teaching or me writing or people listening to me preach, that if you if you do a paragraph at a time, there's too much data. And so the idea was break the passage down into its phrases, and those are often grammatical. Take the main thoughts and push them to the left and then put the subordinate ideas under the word they modify. So you see the main thought, you see the modifying thoughts and you see the flow of thought. And it's the for me, it's the single most important thing that I do to try to understand what a passage is saying. And so I use this intensely when I'm teaching. And so that's why I wanted you to have a copy of it. It was kind of strange. I was at Institute of Biblical Research's annual meeting once this 20 years ago, and Gordon Phee was reading a paper on Philippians two, and his position is that the hymn isn't a hymn, that it's not rhythmical in a Hebraic way, and it's just standard. Paul you know, the descent and the ascent of Christ. And in order to prove his case, he starts writing up on the board and it's phrasing. I mean, I wish what you copied me on your Gordon Field. You don't copy anybody. And what I found was that a lot of people are doing this.

 

They call it sentence flows, semantic diagraming. There's lots of names for it. And in fact, the new commentary series is coming out from Zondervan called The Zondervan Exegetical Commentary series is based around phrasing every every verse of the New Testament. This phrase is laid out graphically. It's if you haven't seen the series yet, it's really, really good. It's we designed it for people who've had two years of Greek. And the problem is, what do you do then? Because there's nothing written for the person at that level. Word biblical commentaries is to advance for someone with two years of Greek. But there was nothing there. So that's what the series is address. But I'd really encourage you if you kind of get used to the phrasing and like it really look at that commentary series. About seven or eight of the volumes are out the the great Greg Beals during the pastoral and he's actually the last one that is due to hand it in. So it's probably about four years out. But so the whole series will be done in ten years, which is I think going to be a record. But anyway, so that's a great series. So that's I don't need to explain this much anymore. As we go through it. It's going to it'll pop out to you and you'll see what we're going what we're doing. Okay. Um. Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. When I wrote it, there was no there was no standard evangelical commentary in the pastoral. And so I thought my role was to say everything. I am hoping to do. I'm not sure I want to do this on tape, but I'm hoping to do the second edition and cut it in half the size because there's other really good evangelical volumes out.

 

Now. I don't have to talk about everything. And I've been reading Dick Francis commentary on Mark, and it's just it is a work of art. It's just gorgeous. And Dick just shares what he thinks Mark means. I go, Oh, I wish I could have done that. And so we're going to try. I'm going to try. So. Okay, let's start with some introductory issues. There is a ton of information in the commentary, but I just want to kind of hit the high points just to make sure it's clear and we'll just go. All right. Let's start, first of all, with historical reconstruction, because it's really important to understand what's going on and to fit the past rules into their context. And we just kind of have to kind of walk through what we know of acts to fill in some of the blanks. Paul had his first missionary journey in Acts 13 and 14. This is a trip that Paul took through Asia minor, which was Timothy's home. We don't hear of Timothy during the first missionary journey, but there's a pretty good chance that Paul led Timothy to the Lord. He has a father son relationship with Timothy. It just it just seems odd that Timothy responded to the Gospel as Paul presented it. By the time you get to the second missionary journey, Timothy is already a well known Christian leader. So he had to become a Christian. During that first missionary journey. You come to the second Missionary Journey, Acts 15 and you get to him a comment about him in x 16 and I'll be reading out of the ESV when I when I'm reading the text, then I think the phrasing is all the ESV. It's really close to my own translation.

 

Not quite sure how that happened. Hmm. So sometimes it's hard to tell which which one I'm reading, but in fact 16 is where we we meet, Timothy said. Paul came also to Darby and Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer. But his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lister and Iconium. So that was he had a pretty good reputation. He had, even though he was young, he had really moved into a leadership position of sorts. Paul wanted Timothy to accompany him and he took him in circumcised. And because of the Jews who were in those places, for they knew that his father was Greek. So again, very well known person to the point that people knew that his mom and his grandmother, we're going to find out, are believers, But his dad wasn't. And so in deference to the Jews and to, uh, this is, this is a meat and no meat kind of situation, isn't it? And Timothy didn't have to be circumcised. Titus wasn't circumcised. Uh, but for the sake of the gospel. Timothy went through that. And then they went on their way through the cities and delivered to them for observation. The decisions that have been reached by the apostles and elders who were in Jerusalem. So the the findings of the Jerusalem Council. So here we have Timothy is brought in as part of Paul's inner circle, a trusted friend, a leader in the church. We'll see as the story goes on that Paul, Timothy and Silas worked in Berea, in Thessalonica. Timothy was later listed as one of the coauthors of both first and second Thessalonians. So when the when the Jews chased Paul out of Thessalonica, Timothy was left behind.

 

That's actually a very important point because of the statement, the first Timothy five, about his frequent illnesses and because of the horrible translation that says that Paul, that Tim, that God did not give us a spirit of timidity. That word can't mean timid. It's an impossible meaning. The word never means timid. It's a horrible translation and I'm sure we fixed it in the ESV or I would have resigned. Timothy was not timid. He was young, apparently physically frail, but he wasn't. And you see it by Paul's willingness to send him into the worst possible situations. So you got this crowd of Jews coming down to persecute Paul and his and his group of coworkers. So who does it leave behind? Timothy Well, you don't leave a coward behind to deal with a young church. I think Timothy was Paul's best friend. I just think there's a relation, an emotional relationship that Paul talks about. When he talks about Timothy. He doesn't talk that way about anybody else. And so I just think that Timothy was young, physically prone to sickness, but was strong in the Lord. And when Paul needed someone for the worse situations, he used Timothy and that's why he sent Timothy to emphasis. And that's where first and second Timothy come out of emphasis, as we're going to see, is a horrid mess. And we think of messes in the church. First century church, we often think of courts, right? But I don't think Corinth had anything on emphasis. It's a different kind of problem. And if you're a pastor of an established church, when you're done with the pastors, you're going to say, Yeah, the Vision Church was way worse than the Corinthian church. It's really easy to deal with upfront sin, isn't it? I mean, it's much easier, I should say, because that's what you have in Corinth.

 

It's just blatant. I'm a Paul. I'm a Paul is the only time you read them. I mean, it's destructive. But in Ephesus, it was all cloaked in religiosity because it was the elders of an established church and and the church structure that was such a problem. And I think that I would much rather deal with Corinth than with Ephesus. But we'll talk about that some other time. Um, so anyway, that's the second missionary journey and the third missionary journey. We know that Paul spent most of his time in Ephesus, spent as far as we know, spent more time in Ephesus than any other place, about three and a half years. And so the problems that Paul is addressing in first and second Timothy because Timothy Zinn emphasis are the kinds of problems you have in an established church, not a young church. Titus is a young church. The emphasis is an established church. So it's a totally different set of problems during that time. Timothy was also sent to Corinth, so again, Paul's sending his main man into the really difficult situations. When Paul was returning from his second from the third missionary journey. We have a very, very important prophecy, and it's the one in Act 20. He didn't get to emphasis. He stopped at the port city of Miletus and the elders came down. And this is the story where Utica takes a nap. Um. Would make a joke about him being Baptist, but I probably shouldn't do that. But I are one, so I guess I can poke fun at myself. But he's talking about the kinds of issues that the efficient elders are going to have to face. And the one that's the part that's really important is that toe starting in verse 26.

 

Paul says, Therefore, I testified to you to this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you. A very prophetic statement, right? I've done what I'm supposed to do. I'm not responsible for you. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock. Just. Put yourself in their position. You're in the established leadership of a church where the the Apostle Paul spent the most time. And he looks right at him. He says, Watch yourself. I hope it got their attention. I would guess from first Timothy, it didn't. But I don't know. I don't like me any clearer than that, he said. You pay attention to yourself. And to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, which, by the way, we talk about leadership tomorrow, that's I'm going to come back. That's, I think, the most enigmatic statement in all the Bible. Really, Paul, couldn't you have given a little something more? The Holy Spirit has made you the overseers. Okay, but we're the pastors. We're the nominating committee. Could you make that clear to us as to who our elders are? Wouldn't that be nice if every before, every annual meeting or however your church functions, the Holy Spirit says, pick him, Him and him? Or maybe in your case, him, her and him, you know, and it's kind of like he just says, the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, but it doesn't tell us anything else about it. It's really frustrating. Anyway, says Pay attention to care for the Church of God. It's not your church, it's God's church. In other words, you mess, you mess with the church. You're messing with God, messing with the senior pastor, which he obtained with his own blood.

 

This is not a casual thing. He died to create this thing. You can here. You can. If you really think through these words, you realize that Paul is anticipating a really, really, really serious problem. And so he's laying down the groundwork for how phenomenally important it is that these elders do what they're supposed to do. Then here comes the main part. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock and from among your own selves. Reminiscent of Jesus. Jesus with Judas, one of you is going to betray me. This is from among some of you all are these wolves in sheep's clothing. From among your own selves will arise men. And the ESV. This is one of the big issues in the pastors. But the ESV went with men here because as far as we know, all of the false teachers are men. The women were swayed heavily and were involved in transmitting the the heresy, the false teaching. But the it is seems that the false teachers are all identified as male by way. And also the ESV uses the word man in men anyway, for among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert. Remembering that for three years I did not see night or day to admonish everyone with tears. Don't you remember how I begged you all to grow up in your leadership? To grow up in Christ, to grow up in your knowledge of God, to grow up in your relationship. Please remember what's at stake. And I know some of you are the problem. Powerful, powerful prophecy, I think, and one that any sane person should have been shaking in his boots.

 

So very, very important prophecy. That prophecy is the main determiner for me of the culture of first Timothy. I think first Timothy is that prophecy being fulfilled. And in the book you've seen that I use that prophecy to define almost everything that goes on in the pastoral. Where the problems came from, that what was being taught was truly twisted. They weren't honest mistakes, things like that. We'll get to that. So that's the end of the mention of Timothy Titus just mentioned a moment in passing. He's not even in acts we're doesn't name doesn't occur as a very prominent role in the second Corinthians so we don't know that much about him. But like Timothy, he was part of Paul's trusted inner circle. So that's what we know. That's the biblical data from Timothy and Titus. Okay. My goal is going to be only to say, okay, 100 times a day, because that's my speaking or my my wife goes to Toastmasters. She when we moved to Washougal, we we we lived in Spokane for years and we moved to Washougal, which is right over the border from Portland. And we committed that we would make sure that half our friends were non-Christians. You know what happens you they have statistically the average Christian within five years of conversion has no non-Christian friends. We were determined to have a healthy dose of non-Christian friends. And so Robin started going to Toastmasters and she's had a wonderful experience there. But in Toastmasters, they count every time you say, Um. Because part of their goal is to make sure that you don't ever say, Oh, I would encourage I have no vested interest in this at all. I'd encourage every one of you to go to Toastmasters. Every one of you.

 

It is a loving, kind community that critiques in love in an attempt to make you better. Now, again, a little more sarcasm coming out here. That's kind of what the church is supposed to be, right. But we've we have found Toastmasters to be more of a church than any church we've ever attended. Never heard a critical word. Never heard a piece of gossip. Of course, they're not dealing with sin. And so there's a slightly different dynamic. But anyway, Toastmasters is great. So she's always counting my ox. Do you know that you set okay 46 times in that lecture. So I'm going to try to limit my case. Okay. There has to. Right. It's so hard as a filler for me. I don't have any other filler. Let's continue and an them because where we what we have is Paul getting imprisoned. So at the end of the so that's the other word you can't say or so very important. So we saw we have at the end of x 28 we have Paul in prison. And what's important about this imprisonment is that when you read Philippians and some of the other letters, it's every it's there's every expectation that Paul's going to be released, isn't it? He he thinks he's going to be declared innocent. And church history certainly reflects that. That belief on on Paul's part came true. That he was released. And we have a series of things that happened in church history, and we're not really sure. The order was somewhere around 61 to 63 A.D.. Okay. We know of five major events that happened. We know that Timothy was and was with Paul in Rome during the Roman imprisonment. So there was an overlap there. And it was it was from Rome that Timothy would have been sent to emphasis to deal with the problem.

 

So that fits into the x 28 pretty easily. Church history number two says that Paul went to Spain and it's a very, very strong tradition. You know, sometimes some church traditions are, well, maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But this is a very, very strong tradition. And so we believe that there actually was a fourth missionary journey to Spain. Wasn't a very long one, but he did get there. Thirdly, we know that Paul and Titus were in Crete and had a missionary journey as well. So that would make five missionary journeys that we're aware of. But again, we have no idea of the order in which these events occurred. We also know, fourthly, that Timothy met Paul. It's called the Tearful Visit and the reconstructions. Probably Paul Timothy was in Ephesus. Paul was released from imprisonment after 28 and he was on his way to Macedonia and Timothy went to meet him. So we know that there was a meeting there. And at that meeting Paul said, Timothy, you got to go back to emphasis, you got to go back. You keep dealing with the problem. The assumption is that Timothy didn't want to go back, that he had Paul, his mentor, his father, had gotten out of jail. He was so glad to see him and he didn't want to leave him. And Paul had to urge Timothy in very strong language to go back to emphasis. And then fifthly, there is the promise. And first, Timothy three, that Paul was going to head to emphasis eventually. So it's kind of like corn. You can send some letters to try to deal with the problem, but ultimately it was going to take the man himself to to take care of the mess that was in emphasis.

 

So, again, we're not really sure the order of events, although the first and the fifth would be the bookends. But that's historically what's going on. The other thing. So what we don't know is that we don't know the order of those five events. We also don't know the order of the pastors. There is obviously we know second Timothy came after first, but we don't know where the book of Titus fits historically. I started with first Timothy simply because there's more data in First Timothy, and I wanted to cover the D&D in its context and then just reference it in the Titus and the second Timothy. So there are some people that, for some reasons, think that Titus was first. There's just no way to know. But it was just more idea for didactic reasons that I covered First Timothy before, um. Titus. Okay. There are a couple of misconceptions, though, that we need to really make sure that you're that you don't have. The first misconception is that people tend to lump the past roles together. They started being called the pastoral is, what, 150 years ago. And there's a tendency to think that they're all kind of the same thing. And these three books are radically different books, radically different books. And the false teaching that we see is most prominent in well, in in first Timothy is primarily the false teaching the problems of an established church, because that's that's what First Timothy is all about. Titus is a brand new church. They appoint elders, but not deacons. There's very little about the false teaching. There's a little, but there's very little. The bulk of Titus is we got a section on elders up front, and then the rest are these two great hymns of salvation.

 

And this is what salvation is, and this is how the relationship between justification and sanctification and that that's what Titus is all about. I think it's it's when you're preaching evangelism, I think Titus is a great book to go to, but it just doesn't have the the message from the most part of first Timothy. Second Timothy is totally different from first Timothy, isn't it? It's a personal letter. It is. It is like the Fusion people don't even exist. And in the middle you kind of address the false teaching for a little bit. But the vast majority of second Timothy is intensely personal, and that's one reason I like it so much. It is the most personal look into Paul's heart if you want to know what Paul was like, second Timothy, one tells you. And this is not the the you know, I'm going to conquer the world justification by faith. Head on with the Jews that I mean, that's kind of how we associate with Paul. Right. But in first Timothy two, you have a gentle, loving, encouraging man who's deeply hurting for his best friend. And second, Timothy is a radically different book. So make sure that you keep those things separate. The second misconception is that Timothy is not a pastor. He's just not. He's an apostolic delegate. He is someone who is sent in with an apostle's authority to clean up the mess. And if you start trying to be like Timothy is a pastor, you can have all kinds of problems because Timothy has something that you don't have. He has, Paul. Now we have scripture next best thing. But Timothy came with a level of authority that none of us in the church have. And so he is he is an outsider.

 

He's come in and he is there to command and to urge and to get this church cleaned up began. If I can't do it, Paul is going to come and do it for me. That's a different situation, I think, than than most pastors are in now. We can still look at what Timothy does and apply them to pastoral roles. But Paul Timothy is not a pastor. He's a he's an outside powerbroker. He's an apostolic delegate. And thirdly, I put on the overhead. They're not anonymous. That that may not be the best way to say it. Most people's, when they work with a pastoral think that the pastoral rules are not written to a specific historical situation. It's written to an anonymous situation. It's just kind of here's a church manual and here's how churches are to behave. And there's all kinds of problems that come when you take the pastors and yank them out of its historical context. And that's why I wanted to summarize the context for you. Almost every single quality of an elder in first Timothy three. Is a counter to the negative quality in the false teachers. The elders to be above reproach because the false teachers were bringing reproach. An elder was to be a one woman man, whatever that means. Because the false teachers were sexually active in the church. They were elders are not to be greedy for gain because the false teachers were teaching for money. Better word, be generic. Yeah. Generic. It's not an anonymous situation, is what I'm getting at. But yeah, it's we tend to people tend to look at it as kind of a generic. Well here's how you deal with churches and the all what happens is that it leads to all kinds of misunderstandings.

 

And we got to view the pastors embedded into their historical situation. And so the commentary does that, and I'll be doing that a lot. So what do I say other and okay at this point. What I say to any questions? I know I'm kind of hitting going over the top of what I talk a lot about in the book, but I wanted to make sure that the main points were clear. Yes, sir. In the end. The end of. Right? Yeah. When he when Paul talks about it, remember that. You remember when the elders laid their hands on you and ordained you in the service and and prophesied that you had gifts? The question is, what are those gifts? And the assumption is that was not the assumption had been the gift of evangelism because it said so. It certainly was the gift of teaching, because that's what we see him doing. He he does all the catechetical work for Paul. And so but in those days, as you know, evangelists for itinerants, they didn't stay in one place. They went from city to city to city. So, yeah, those were his least his two major gifts. And then on top of it, he was part of Paul's circle and had to do Paul's work. Critical issues. I just I just got to teach all this in Hong Kong and never been to China before. And, you know, this is one of those things for us to do. We really need to cover these critical issues because I don't really enjoy dealing with them. I'd rather deal with the texts. But even over there in that environment, they said, well, we just basically need need to know what the other guys are saying. And so that's kind of how I approach the critical stuff.

 

I know there's pages and pages of stuff. Read it quickly. Okay. Don't you know, it'll be, you know, later on down the line, you may have a young person who's questioning the Pauline authorship of the past rules and and you may need to dig back into it. But again, there's just pages and pages and pages of stuff, because no one else was saying this when I wrote the commentary. That was what was so frustrating. There was no other in Donald Guthrie. There was no strong evangelical defense of the past rules. And, you know, I'm a member of it's Evangelical Theological Society. So it's all about inerrancy. And even in that context, it's really hard to get a discussion going if we believe in inerrancy. But are these 13 chapters part of the inerrant word? And it's and it's it's people just don't like to deal with these issues. They're really hard. And the minute you say that you think Paul wrote the pastors in in broad mainstream academic circles, they go, Oh. You're one of those stupid evangelicals that doesn't really know how to deal with critical issues and you're not smart enough. So but I think it's important to kind of be aware of what the critical issues are. And then as these situations arise in your ministry, you can delve back into the text in the commentary. Well, I've. And this is the way that I've tried it. Either. They are by Paul. Yeah. Or there. Yeah. And the as we'll see in a second, the argument is this that a super graphical writing was accepted in was honorable. Why not? That's what I think too. But let me just go over these things and just just so you're aware of the issues that are raised relative to did Paul write it? Did Paul not write it just just to make sure that we're aware of him? Okay.

 

And then we'll actually get into what Paul said in the first Timothy. There are five basic areas that the commentaries and critical scholarship have to deal with in dealing with issues of authorship. The first is the historical problem. The argument is that Paul cannot have written the past rules because we can't fit the past rules into Paul's life enacts. The answer is obviously it's because they're Acts 29 and it's a really easy answer. And people say, Well, that's just too easy. I said, Well, what's what would be hard is to look at Paul's expectation of being released and saying he wasn't released to look at church. History's unanimous affirmation that Paul was released after x 28 and then to claim that he wasn't released. I mean, it's much harder to argue that Paul dies at the end of x 28 than it is to say that Paul had ministry past Acts 28. So I think the historical problem, you know, where do the past rules fit? I mean, it is they're prophesied in Acts 20, they're expected in Acts 27, 28, they're affirmed in church history. Historical problem is not a problem. I just I just it's just not an issue. I don't think the second issue that's raised relative to authorship is church structure. It took me a long time to figure out what they were saying on this, but the argument is that the structure in the past rules is second century. In fact, the fact that there's such an emphasis on structure, on church structure proves that it's second century. Here's the basic assumption. The basic assumption of this charge is that the church initially had no structure at all, that the church was totally nomadic, it was totally spirit led. And so the idea of having an elder and a deacon of any kind of procedures, you know, organizational leadership kind of stuff, that the mere presence of those things.

 

Show that is not first century. It has to be second century. And the counter argument is that structure has always been a part of the church. It was part of the synagogue. It appears that Paul picked up synagogue structures. You have a set of elders that run the synagogue, Right. And then you one of those is kind of an equal among many where he's the head of the elders. He's the head of the synagogue. There's always been structures in Judaism. And it just makes sense that Paul. Picked up the structure of the synagogue and applied it to the church. What will happen in some of these commentaries? You'll say, Well, look at the first missionary journey. He goes through the middle part of Asia minor and evangelize, and then he retraces his steps. And what does he do? If only elders. And the argument will be, Oh, well, that's been added later. Oh, that's convenient. You take out all the data, all the facts that would disprove your argument and then claim that was added later. Paul has always shown an interest in leadership and structure. We have an as early as chapter six. Right? The seven are not called deacons. It's the is the verb diaconate or to serve there. They're somewhat performing the functions of deacons. The apostles were supposed to be set apart for prayer and for teaching, and these other guys were to take care of the day to day running of the church, especially in the Gentile conflict. So you have structure as early as next. Chapter six, you have Paul instituting structure. The reason in the in the final section of of each of the sections on the commentary, the reason I quote second century so much is that I wanted to show how different second century is from first.

 

People will say, Oh, the fact that there's structure in the church proves that the past rules are second. My argument is no, actually, when you read how the structure functions in the past rules and then you read how the structure functions in the second century, they're radically different. There's an episcopate in second century. There is. There's the bishop over a whole area. And then and then the the elders answer to him and then the deacons answer to the elders. Back in the second century, the deacons are a stepping stone to being an elder, which I think is violently contrary to first Timothy three. There is the elders and deacons have a somewhat different set of gifts. They have a different set of responsibilities. But deacons are not stepping stones to elders anywhere in the pastoral. Don't let them be that in your church either. There are some people that are gifted to serve this way. There are other people that are gifted to serve that way. And it's not a matter of establishing hierarchy. But that's what happens in the second century, is you have all these hierarchies. And so I think if you just read all that stuff that I put in the commentary, you can see now the structure and in first Timothy three is radically simpler than the second century and in fact is just synagogue stuff. So I think that the church structure issue is a very poor one. The third place that people attack is the theology problem, and they claim that theology is different and evolved from Paul. And there is a difference. I mean, you have you have to give it this. I think there is a difference, an apparent difference at the theological teaching in the pastors as there is like in Romans there there is a difference.

 

Words are used a little differently. Um. And in fact, some people say the theology, the pastoral, is so different is it's Gnostic. And we know that full blown narcissism is a second century phenomenon. The narcissism we see in the dealt with and first John is pre Gnostic thoughts. It's it's it's not developed. So they would say well that the teachings of the pastoral is clearly the theological teaching is second century it's gnostic. And again, all you have to do this just a couple of quick answers when I want you to read Gnosticism and you'll see that the pastoral is ain't Gnostic. There's just there's so radically different. There's a Paul talks. I think it's the first Timothy six. It says don't pay any attention to their and the Greek word is antithesis, which was the name of a major Gnostic second century writing. And so there's L.S. He's telling the people, Don't read the second century book on Gnosticism, and it's just not how the word's being used. But there are differences. But the main way to explain the theological differences is that Paul's dealing with the different problem, and especially liberal scholarship, simply has not taken this into consideration. You know, you can look at Galatians and you can look at the allegory of the two mountains, right? Can you find that kind of thinking anywhere else in Paul? No. It's just not there. Oh, so Paul couldn't write Galatians? It's just in in Romans Paul is dealing with Jew Gentile divide. He's doing it with justification by faith, not by works. And you know, in Galatians, he's he's talking to an established church that is leaving the spirit in the Ephesians. He's writing a more generic circular letter. I think that goes to all of Asia minor of Philippians is intensely personal, thanking them for the gift and encouraging them.

 

Corinthians written to people that can't decide whether to eat meat or not, and the women are dressing like prostitutes. And you know, all these letters are different depending upon what's going on in the church. And Paul has a unique situation in Ephesus that was his oldest, most established church. And the kind of problems he's facing, he didn't face anywhere else. So duh. Of course. Of course. What he says is going to be different. And so that's what I. But that's you want to be careful because there are there are good evangelicals that this is what really bothers them. It it feels like it's like so many times that when Paul refers to the faith in the pastoral, he's really talking about the creed, He's talking about the essence of what we believe. And then you look at Romans, you know, faith is is the commitment of the heart that's contrary to works. And the idea of faith as a creed is is not. Pauline Well, and there's four or five places epistaxis used in the regular letters of Paul, whatever you want to call them, where they means creed. We're just in. The stuff's all in the commentary. So the theology is a little different, but what would you expect from a different situation? Quickly. Fourthly is the linguistic problem. The Greek in the pastoral is different. And yes, it is different. There is a difference in style. There is a difference in vocabulary. And this is this is at the heart of the attack on falling off the ship. This is what they hold on to the most. Because especially liberal scholarship thinks that it can. Analyze the the vocabulary use and come to a conclusion as to what words Paul can use and what words Paul can't use.

 

And the reason this is so important is that this is a tool that scholarship uses across the board, not just in pastors. And if you come along and argue, as I do, that we simply don't have enough words to say. Paul could use these words. He couldn't use those words if you attacked the actual. Argument as a whole. What you're doing is attacking one of the major tools that scholarship uses across the board to prove that Paul didn't write Hebrews. To question whether Peter wrote first and second Peter. I mean, it's it's just that's just the way it is. And I think there's several answers. And again, this is why the book and this part goes on and on forever, because I think the vocabulary change is primarily due to what the false teachers were teaching. I think Paul, as Paul does all over the place, picks up their words and then argues against it. And so if if you write I don't know how many letters Paul wrote, if you're 15 letters and three of them are unique situation, you're probably going to use unique language, aren't you? You're going to use words that apply to that situation. And that's what's going on, I think, in the pastoral is that Paul is, you know, have you noticed? I mean, what bibles do you read? How many with the ESV? And I've. A.B.. So even pretty split, King James. You know King James. All right. Okay. A plethora of plethora of translations. I was raised on the RC. That's a great translation. Yeah. Now, what was I saying that for? Yeah. Where was I going? I have. I have only a few synapses left between my left and right hemisphere of my brain. And sometimes, like certain politicians, they.

 

They stop firing mid-sentence. And I forget where I was going. Styles are different. Styles are different. Oh, the languages always picked up the language. Oh, that's. Thank. Thank you. Have you noticed in the Navy all the quotation marks, especially in first Corinthians, this is one of the this is the one of the peculiar characteristics of the Navy. And I think a lot of it's Gordon Fwy. This happened before I came on the committee, but this smacks of Gordon to me that what Paul does and everyone knows this is what Paul does in Corinthians is that he quotes the opponents and then argues against it. It is good for a man not to touch a woman. And then his argument really is contrary to that. And so the Navy puts quotes around that. I think some of the newer translations are doing that same thing, trying to say that's what you say. But I say this. That's the same thing that's going on in the pastoral is Paul is simply choosing vocabulary that's addressed that that's being used and it's being it's he's reflecting that I have a suspicion and I'm not willing to say I believe it, but I would not be surprised at all if Luke was the amanuensis. And I think that that can also explain a lot of the style, apparently in writing letters back then that the amanuensis, the secretary, was given relatively a lot of freedom. Now in a book like Romans, you got Turkey, as you say, searches I'm saying hi to. He was Paul's amanuensis secretary. But we know from historical records that often writers gave the court the amanuensis a lot of freedom. And especially when you've got. Paul. I mean, with someone that he knows and trust, like Luke.

 

It would be natural for Paul to give Luke more freedom. The thing is, there's an amazing amount of similarities between Luke, between the past rules and the Gospel of Luke in very strange ways that you wouldn't expect. Turns of the phrase and word choices. Paul tends to use these words. Luke tends to use this word, and this is a word that's being used in the pastoral. The other thing is interesting, which we'll talk about when we get to it, is the incredible amount of medical imagery in the pastoral sound. Teaching is really healthy teaching. It's teaching that brings physical and spiritual health. And so you see, you wouldn't be surprised to have a medical doctor picking words that he was very familiar with. So that's there's, you know, the linguistic problem. It is a problem. The language is different, but there's easy explanations for it. Your crazy. They get pretty. What? What about my critics? This has been a very, very interesting thing, and I don't know why. People haven't touched the commentary. They haven't even in its. They haven't touched it. There was never one serious review of the book. Now I from CBD sales. I know where it is ranking in the series and it does very well for a commentary. If you want to make money writing books, don't write commentaries. There's virtually no money in at all. I think I'm at about $0.02 an hour at this point, but I know the influence it's had. And I finally called a friend of mine that is the head of the review reviewing for Westminster. And I said, Why did you all never review the commentary? We argue for inerrancy, and here's 13 chapters that most people don't think are even part of the discussion.

 

He was shocked that nobody had. I think. I don't know. I think people are scared of it. Because the minute you start arguing that Paul wrote the past rules in the larger academic community, you're pushed aside. Because this is one of the absolute accepted assured results of scholarship. Why are you even talking about it? Everybody else, Paul, didn't write it. So I think people are scared to touch it. Now, I've gotten a lot of nice letters from people, leadership around the world, especially on the women's issue. Whether they agree or disagree, they they thank me for the data. It help them make their decisions and stuff like that. But it's just it's been very strange. When I really want to do a second edition because I'm going to get footnotes. Yes. And there's only one person in the world that likes the format of this series. And it happened to have been the senior editor and he has gone home to glory. And I think we're going to get footnotes for. I think every author is willing to do a second edition in order to get footnotes. It's just awful. It's just. It's terrible. Yeah. Said it in print many times. Let let me let me conclude on authorship. And then and then we're going to take a break. There's basically. 4 to 5 positions on authorship. There's the fictional hypothesis that just says someone and someone wrote it. Usually it's second century writing it. My doctor, supervisor Howard Marshall, with whom I disagree with only very carefully. That puts it right after you, if I'm remembering it correctly, puts it right after Paul's life strongly influenced by Paul. But the theology issue was and was a was a real issue, Professor Marshall. But it's the fiction hypothesis says no matter how far away or how close to Paul the author is, it wasn't Paul.

 

There is, secondly, a fragment hypothesis. This is a strange, strange doctrine, I think. And the idea is that Paul, all they had were fragments. And so those parts of the pastoral that sound like Paul or those are the fragments and the parts of the pastoral that don't sound like Paul. That's what someone else made up as they tried to string these different fragments, different bits and pieces together into a consistent whole. Whole whole problem with that. Early and I think this is going away. But 15 years ago it was a big thing. It was the issue that you raised. It's called the fragment is called the the whole issue of sort of bigotry. And the argument is that it was accepted to write under someone else's name. And it wasn't seen as a bad thing. It was seen as as a way of respecting the person. And the argument simply is this fast rules don't fit into that category because even if super big, if we were accepted, the past rules are written with the clear intent of trying to convince the readers that it was Paul. And that sets it apart from the other false writings, writings or other people's names. And the fourth would just be the influence of an amanuensis. And that's very subtle. I just think that the amanuensis, whether it's Luke or someone else, I think had quite a bit of influence on the the on the framing of the the letters. And sometimes I wonder if Timothy was one of Paul's main amanuensis. And therefore it's why it's so different, because Timothy can't be the amanuensis for his own letter. But that's just me totally guessing. Okay. That's that's all that I really want to spend on issues of introduction.

 

Uh, unless there was any burning questions. It just is fictitious, just totally fictitious, fictitious, fragmentary, pseudo pig iffy, or the influence of an amanuensis. It's the past. Rules are different. I had to get over that in my research. It just it doesn't read like Romans. But see, Romans doesn't read like Ephesians. They're just different. And boy, I tell you, when I write a letter to my son was with him. It's all text. But when I when I write a letter to my son, it's radically different than when I write a letter to the church. And first Timothy was meant to be read by the church, but it's focusing on his best friend. So of course it's going to be different. We don't have no one has a writing style. In today's world. Aircraft carriers and their. Derive some. See everything else in. Right. That they they said that on one side. That they haven't, actually. I think that That's right. That's you know, I had never thought about that. We still do that today, don't we? That if. Well, if I. Okay. For biblical training, we'll do a newsletter and I'll say, Man, I'm really busy. Can you write it up? And then I'll then normally go out under my name. But he writes half of them, but he writes them. I look them or tweak this and that, and then they go out sign Bill and we're not trying to deceive anyone. It is coming from me. But every once in a while Matt will use the word I tend not to use. And it doesn't matter. So. Yeah, but we do it. How many CEOs of Fortune 500 companies write their memos? Yeah. Not many, I would guess.