Category: Bibliography (Page 1 of 2)

Robertson, Reading the Letter to Titus in Light of Crete

July 15, 2023 /

Monographs on the Pastorals are uncommon enough that I wanted to mention this forthcoming volume even though it won’t be available for half a year:

Michael Robertson, Reading the Letter to Titus in Light of Crete: Dynamics of Early Christian Identity Construction. Critical Approaches to Early Christianity 3. Leiden: Brill, 2024.

Brill provides this summary of the volume: “This volume argues that Titus’s invocation of Crete affected the ways early readers developed their identities. Using archaeological data, classical writings, and early Christian documents, he describes multiple traditions that circulated on Crete and throughout the Roman Empire concerning Cretan Zeus, Cretan social structure, and Cretan Judaism. He then uses these traditions to interpret Titus and explain how the letter would intersect with and affect readers’ identities. Because readers had differing conceptions of Crete based on their location and access to and evaluation of Cretan traditions, readers would have developed their identities in multiple, conflictual, even contradictory ways.”

Robertson’s monograph joins his other publications, past and forthcoming, related to the Pastorals. In chronological order:

“Neophyte Pastors: Can Titus 1 Be Used to Justify Placing New Converts in the Office of Pastor?” Southwestern Theological Journal 57.1 (2014): 77‒86.

“1 and 2 Timothy.” In James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart, eds., Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements. 28 October 2021.

“Letter of Paul to Titus.” In James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart, eds., Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements. 28 October 2021. Retrieved from https://www.cdamm.org/articles/titus.

“Pauline Apocalypticism and the Pastoral Epistles.” In James Crossley and Alastair Lockhart, eds., Critical Dictionary of Apocalyptic and Millenarian Movements. 28 October 2021. Retrieved from https://www.cdamm.org/articles/apocalypticism-pastoral-epistles

“Zeus in the Interpretation of the Letter to Titus in the Church Fathers and the Acts of Titus.” Apocrypha 33, forthcoming.

“Anti-Judaism in the Pastoral Epistles.” In Judeophobia in the New Testament: Texts, Contexts, and Pedagogy. Edited by Sarah Rollens, Eric Vanden Eykel, and Meredith Warren. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, forthcoming.

“Deutero-Pauline Epistles.” In James Crossley and Michelle Fletcher, eds, Introduction to the New Testament. London: SCM Press, forthcoming.

“Eve in the New Testament.” In Katie B. Edwards and Caroline Blyth, eds., Routledge Handbook of Eve. London: Routledge, forthcoming.

“Pauline Pseudepigrapha as Lieux de Mémoire: Using and Applying Pseudepigraphic Texts in the Church.” In Proceedings of the Pastoral Implications of Pseudepigraphy and Anonymity in the New Testament Conference, ed. David Capes. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, forthcoming.

Luke Timothy Johnson and the Pastorals

April 17, 2023 /

I learned a good deal by reading Luke Timothy Johnson’s recently published memoir, The Mind in Another Place: My Life as a Scholar (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022), from both his interesting and detailed account of his scholarly preparation and career, and his incisive treatment of the intellectual and moral virtues of a scholar. Researchers in the Pastorals are, of course, familiar with his work in the letters, most notably his volume on the letters to Timothy in the Anchor Bible series. That volume is remarkable not least for its robust disagreement with the position that the Pastorals are pseudonymous, but also for its extensive treatment of history of research in the letters. On the former point regarding authorship, he notes, “Of particular importance was my demonstrating how the ‘consensus’ view of scholarship was based not on the power of argument but on the weight of custom” (165).

Johnson’s oeuvre is far broader than his work on the Pastorals, and his specific remarks about his work in those letters are actually fairly brief. I have pulled three pertinent excerpts, thinking they might be of interest to students of the letters. They may be read here.

Annual Bibliographies on the Pastorals (2023)

April 3, 2023 /

It’s that time of year again! For some years now, we’ve been compiling and posting annual bibliographies for researchers in the Letters to Timothy and Titus. These projects are intended to help researchers in the Pastorals maintain control of the secondary literature, and give some idea of research trends. Our compilation of these bibliographies involves the input of Pastorals scholars who have published previously on the letters. Our thanks to all who contributed!

Our annual bibliography of recent publications on the Letters to Timothy and Titus covers contributions from all of 2022 and early 2023. Over 170 items long and international in scope, the list contains monographs, journal articles, and commentaries, as well as lists of dissertations and conference presentations on the letters. It is available for viewing and downloading here.

Our annual bibliography of forthcoming academic publications on the Letters to Timothy and Titus is wide-ranging, containing over 60 forthcoming works on the Pastoral Epistles, including essays, monographs, and commentaries. In some cases, authors have provided a brief synopsis of their work. This bibliography is available for viewing and downloading here.

Καλός/καλῶς in the Pastorals

October 29, 2022 /

“Good is a major theme in the PE.” (Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, 33.)

Without considering ἀγαθός for the moment, note that καλός/καλῶς are found in 1 Tim 16x/4x; 2 Tim 3x/0x; Titus 4x/0x (note also καλοδιδάσκαλος, Titus 2:3).

See focused discussion of καλός and/or καλῶς in the Pastorals in Roberto Amici, “Principi e norme di non estraneità al mondo nelle lettere a Timoteo e a Tito,” EstBib 67.3 (2009): 447–56; Rüdiger Fuchs, “Bisher unbeachtet—zum unterschiedlichen Gebrauch von ἀγαθός, καλός, und καλῶς in den Schreiben an Timotheus und Titus,” EuroJTh 15 (2006): 15–33; W. Grundmann, “καλός,” TDNT 3:549–50; Lock, Pastoral Epistles, 22–23; Marcheselli-Casale, Le Lettere Pastorali, 393–95; Marshall, Pastoral Epistles, 227–29; Jerome D. Quinn, The Letter to Titus, AB 35 (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 175–76; Pietro Rossano, “L’ideale del bello (Καλός) nell’etica di S. Paolo,” in Studiorum Paulinorum Congressus internationalis catholicus 1961, AnBib 18 (Rome: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1963), esp. 377–81; M. Silva, “καλός, κτλ.,” NIDNTTE 2:610; Spicq, Les épîtres pastorales, 676–84; J. Wanke, “καλός,” EDNT 2:245.

The Pastorals in WUNT

June 17, 2022 /

Recently, the Pastorals seem to be having an outsized presence in Mohr Siebeck’s Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament series. The following are recently published and forthcoming volumes in WUNT 1 and and WUNT 2 which each focus solely on one or more of the Pastorals. Authorship/editorship is widespread: Australia (Kidson), Germany (Herzer, Zimmermann), Nigeria (Manomi), Switzerland (Bulundwe), USA (Langford).

Lyn Kidson, Persuading Shipwrecked Men: Rhetorical Strategies in 1 Timothy (WUNT 2/526; 2020) (RBL review) (JETS) (ABR) (JSNT)
Dogara Ishaya Manomi, Virtue Ethics in the Letter to Titus: An Interdisciplinary Study (WUNT 2/560; 2021)
Jens Herzer, Die Pastoralbriefe und das Vermächtnis des Paulus: Studien zu den Briefen an Timotheus und Titus (WUNT 476; 2022)
Ruben Zimmermann and Dogara Ishaya Manomi, eds. “Ready for Every Good Work” (Titus 3:1): Implicit Ethics in the Letter to Titus (WUNT 484; 2022)
Andrew M. Langford, Diagnosing Deviance: Pathology and Polemic in the Pastoral Epistles (WUNT 2/ ; 2022 est.)
Kampotela Luc Bulundwe, 2 Timothée dans le corpus paulinien. Analyse mémorielle (WUNT 2/ ; 2022 or 2023)

To be sure, plenty of single essays on one or more of the Pastorals have appeared in edited WUNT collections. However, before the recent spate of volumes just noted, only the following WUNT volumes (to my knowledge) focused solely on one or more of the Pastorals (or, for Trebilco and Smith, were monographs with a very significant Pastorals component):

Ulrike Wagener, Die Ordnung des “Hauses Gottes.” Der Ort von Frauen in der Ekklesiologie und Ethik des Pastoralbriefe (WUNT 2/65; 1994)
Andrew Y. Lau, Manifest in Flesh: The Epiphany Christology of the Pastoral Epistles (WUNT 2/86; 1996)
Hanna Stettler, Die Christologie der Pastoralbriefe (WUNT 2/105; 1998)
Paul R. Trebilco, The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius (WUNT 166; 2004)
Bernhard Mutschler, Glaube in den Pastoralbriefen: Pistis als Mitte christlicher Existenz (WUNT 256; 2010)
Claire Smith, Pauline Communities as “Scholastic Communities”: A Study of the Vocabulary of “Teaching” in 1 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus (WUNT 2/335; 2012)

The first batch of volumes above has six WUNT volumes on the Pastorals being published in around four years (2020–2023). The earlier batch of volumes, another half-dozen, spans nearly two decades (1994–2012).

Annual Bibliographies on the Pastorals

April 12, 2022 /

For some few years now, we have been producing annual bibliographies for researchers in the Letters to Timothy and Titus. These bibliographies are meant to help students of these letters keep up with the secondary literature, and give some idea of research trends. We compile this list each year by contacting academic publishers and Pastorals scholars who have published previously on the letters. Our thanks to all who contributed!

Our annual bibliography of recent publications on the Letters to Timothy and Titus covers contributions from all of 2021 and early 2022. Over 170 items long and international in scope, the list contains monographs, journal articles, and commentaries, as well as lists of conference presentations and dissertations on the letters. It is available for viewing and downloading here.

Our annual bibliography of forthcoming publications on the Letters to Timothy and Titus is wide-ranging and academically oriented, containing over 60 forthcoming works on the Pastoral Epistles, including essays, monographs, and commentaries. In some cases, authors have provided a brief synopsis of their work. This bibliography is available for viewing and downloading here.

Merz, “Gendered Power and the Power of Genre” and Van Houwelingen, “Power, Powerlessness, and Authorised Power in 1 Timothy 2:8–15”

April 2, 2022 /

A couple of decade-old Pastorals essays have recently been translated and revised for inclusion in a new volume.

Originally published in German in HTS Theological Studies in 2012, an English-language revision of Annette Merz’s “Gen(de)red power: Die Macht des Genres im Streit um die Frauenrolle in Pastoralbriefen und Paulusakten” is now available:

Annette B. Merz, “Gendered Power and the Power of Genre in the Debate about Women’s Roles in the Pastoral Letters and the Acts of Paul.” Pages 173–194 in Power in the New Testament. Edited by Annette B. Merz and Pieter G. R. de Villiers. Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology 107. Leuven: Peeters, 2021.

Abstract from the original article: “Two texts that contributed to the discussion on gender roles in formative Christianity, 1 Timothy and the Acts of Paul, are investigated. In both cases the emphasis is on the much-disputed role of women. Power plays a role on different levels. On the one hand power relations between the sexes are depicted or directly addressed by the text (‘gendered’ power), while on the other hand the power of persuasion is brought to bear on both male and female readers to legitimize the patriarchal, videlicet the encratitic model of gender. This is done by rhetorical means that are text-specific, but also make use of genre-specific persuasion strategies. This ‘genred power’ is still mostly unchartered territory in exegetical discussions and is therefore the focus of my investigation. Especially important in both genres are intertextual allusions to authoritative texts. Fictive self-references which enable the author (’Paul’) to correct himself are one focus of interest. Narrative strategies (i.e. character and plot development) which also have an intertextual dimension are a second focal point. The take-over of the role of Peter who denies Jesus and repents by Paul in the Acts of Thecla turns out to be of major rhetorical significance.”

Originally published in Dutch in HTS Theological Studies in 2012, a English-language revision of Rob van Houwelingen’s “Macht, onmacht en volmacht in 1 Timoteüs 2:8−15” is in the same volume as Merz’s:

P. H. Rob van Houwelingen, “Power, Powerlessness, and Authorised Power in 1 Timothy 2:8–15.” Pages 195–222 in Power in the New Testament. Edited by Annette B. Merz and Pieter G. R. de Villiers. Contributions to Biblical Exegesis and Theology 107. Leuven: Peeters, 2021.

The essay is available on Academia, where a summary is given: “Exploring whether and in what respect the Pastoral Epistles demonstrate thinking in terms of ecclesiastical power, the present essay examines 1 Timothy 2:8–15. This passage is much debated when it comes to the role of women in the church. A close reading of the text within the corpus paulinum, including the self-attestation of 1 Timothy as a letter of the apostle Paul, shows three aspects. Under the heading Power, the underlying problem is discussed that Timothy faced: the male/female relationship within the congregation in Ephesus that threatened to degenerate into a power struggle. With Powerlessness, the creation account as referred to in verses 13–15 comes into view. Its focus is the woman God created, Eve. It tells the story of human weakness, which in 1 Timothy becomes a sort of triptych about Eve and creation, Eve and the fall, and Eve and redemption. From all this, Paul draws the conclusion that a woman is not allowed to teach in the church or to exercise authority over a man. Finally, Authorised power refers to speaking with another’s authority—in Paul’s case, as an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Paul wanted to regulate a problematic situation involving male/female relationships in Timothy’s congregation by giving his apostolic instructions. He did so, in order to create space for the trustworthy Word. Paul’s instructions could easily be considered a kind of misogynistic power play. However, the apostle should be interpreted on his own terms. This applies both to his social context and to his missionary drive, as is explained in a brief reflection.”

Schieferstein, “Formation, Deception, and Childbearing: Reading 1 Timothy 2:13–3:1a in Light of Genesis 2–4”

February 25, 2022 /

Another essay has been added to the ocean of literature on 1 Timothy 2:8–15:

Mary Schieferstein. “Formation, Deception, and Childbearing: Reading 1 Timothy 2:13–3:1a in Light of Genesis 2–4.” Presbyterion 47.1 (2021): 112–20.

The paper has no abstract. Schieferstein notes lexical connections between the 1 Timothy and Genesis passages. She finds that “it seems that Paul understands teaching and exercising authority … to be a role for qualified man, rooted in this creational order” (114). She follows Schreiner’s explanation of the situation in Eden: Satan turned the ordered relationship between Adam and Eve on its head, targeting Eve while bypassing Adam, who was present but failed to intervene, abrogating his position of male leadership. In v. 15, it is Eve who will be [spiritually] saved by means of childbearing, and it is Adam and Eve who are in view as continuing “in the virtues which evidence saving faith” (118–19). Being saved by means of childbearing points to the fact that Eve’s giving birth eventuated in the birth of Christ many centuries later; “had Eve never undergone the process of giving birth, there would be no Christ and therefore no salvation” (119).

Schieferstein’s article in Presbyterion comes on the heels of a triad of articles on the larger passage in the same journal:
Marjorie J. Cooper and Jay G. Caballero. “Reasoning through Creation Order as a Basis for the Prohibition in 1 Timothy 2:12.” Presbyterion 43.1 (2017): 30–38.
Marjorie J. Cooper. “The Prohibition in 1 Timothy 2:12 in Light of Eve’s Having Been Deceived (1 Tim. 2:14–15).” Presbyterion 44.1 (2018): 115–25.
Marjorie J. Cooper. “Analysis and Conclusions regarding 1 Timothy 2:9–3:1a.” Presbyterion 45.1 (2019): 96–107.

The Pastorals in New Testament Abstracts 65.3

February 23, 2022 /

The following entries in New Testament Abstracts 65.3 may be of interest to researchers in the Pastorals.

1002. Philippe Van den Heede. “La participation à la mort du Christ par le baptême (Rm 6,3–11): Une conception pré-paulinienne (Rm 6,8; 2 Tm 2,11).” Revue Biblique 128.1 (2021): 99–115. (notice)

1035. Raymond F. Collins. “Paul in the Pastoral Epistles: A Life Well Lived.” The Bible Today 59.5 (2021): 308–15.

1036. Mary Ann Getty. “Elders and Widows.” The Bible Today 59.5 (2021): 301–7.

1037. Romeo Popa. “Ethic als Vermittlung zwischen Generationen in den Pastoralbriefen.” Sacra Scripta 18.1 (2020): 70–96.

1038. Mary Schieferstein. “Formation, Deception, and Childbearing: Reading 1 Timothy 2:13–3:1a in Light of Genesis 2–4.” Presbyterion 47.1 (2021): 112–20.

1039. Edward Mazich. “Lois and Eunice: Faith of Our Mothers.” The Bible Today 59.4 (2021): 242–48.

1040. T. Christopher Hoklotubbe. “Civilized Christ-Followers among Barbaric Cretans and Superstitious Judeans: Negotiating Ethnic Hierarchies in Titus 1:10–14.” Journal of Biblical Literature 140.2 (2021): 369–90. (notice)

1068. Michael Theobald. “Kirche im Neuen Testament.” Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche 117.4 (2020): 377–402. [note Pastorals on pp. 406–7]

(p. 437) Abraham M. Antony and Jose Varickasseril, eds. An Affable Pastor: A Commemorative Volume in Honour of Archbishop Dominic Jala SDB. Shillong, India: Vendrame Institute Publications, 2020. [note the article by Abraham M. Antony on the credentials of the episkopos in 1 Tim 3:1–7 in the context of the Pastoral Epistles]

(p. 438) Benjamin H. Dunning, ed. The Oxford Handbook of New Testament, Gender, and Sexuality. Oxford Handbooks. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. [note Jorunn Økland, “Pauline Letters,” pp. 315–32, with the Pastorals discussed on pp. 325–26]

(p. 444) Robert W. Wall. Studies in Canonical Criticism: Reading the New Testament as Scripture. Library of New Testament Studies 615. London: T&T Clark, 2020. [note “Reading the Pauline Pastorals in Canonical Context,” pp. 93–126, which is excerpted from Wall and Steele, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus]

(p. 454) Martin Wright. The Dividing Wall: Ephesians and the Integrity of the Corpus Paulinum. Library of New Testament Studies 646. London: T&T Clark, 2021.

(p. 455) Jaime Clark-Soles. Women in the Bible. Interpretation Resources for the Use of Scripture in the Church. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2020. [note chap. 10, “The Muting of Paul and His Female Coworkers: Women in the Deutero-Pauline Epistles,” pp. 281–306]

(p. 457) E. Elizabeth Johnson. Ecclesiology in the New Testament. Core Biblical Studies. Nashville: Abingdon, 2020.

(p. 457) Dorothy A. Lee. The Ministry of Women in the New Testament: Reclaiming the Biblical Vision. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021. [*Note the treatments of 1 Tim 2:11–15; 3:2–12 in chap. 6, “Paul’s Letters: Key Texts”]

(p. 458) William A. Simmons. The Holy Spirit in the New Testament: A Pentecostal Guide. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2021. [note chap. 13: “The Holy Spirit in the Pastoral Epistles: The Spirit of Power, Love and Self-Control,” 161–72]

(p. 467) Karl-Heinrich Ostmeyer and Adrian Wypadlo, eds. Das Ziel vor Augen: Sport und Wittkampf im Neuen Testament und seiner Umwelt. Beiträge zur Wissenschaft vom Alten und Neuen Testament 226. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2020. [note Thomas Söding, “Der Sport des Apostels: Die Dialektik von Kampf und Seig auf dem Weg von Phil 3 zu 2 Tim 4,” pp. 81–100]

Herzer, Die Pastoralbriefe und das Vermächtnis des Paulus

February 8, 2022 /

An important volume of collected essays on the Pastorals is now available:

Jens Herzer, Die Pastoralbriefe und das Vermächtnis des Paulus: Studien zu den Briefen an Timotheus und Titus [The Pastoral Epistles and Paul’s Legacy: Studies on the Letters to Timothy and Titus]. Edited by Jan Quenstedt. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 476. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2022.

Jens Herzer has been writing on the Pastorals for nearly twenty years. It is largely his work which has spurred the continuing discussion about reading the letters individually as opposed to corpus-reading them (Michaela Engelmann, Unzertrennliche Drillinge?, a published dissertation completed under Herzer, should also be mentioned here). As he puts it in the volume introduction, “In my view, a decisive methodological prerequisite for an adequate view of the Pastoral Epistles is to dissolve their all too close ‘relationship’ and to perceive them in their own profile” (“Eine entscheidende methodische Voraussetzung für eine angemessene Sicht auf die Pastoralbriefe besteht aus meiner Sicht darin, ihre allzu enge ‘Verwandtschaft’ aufzulösen und die Briefe in ihrem je eigenen Profil wahrzunehmen”) (3).

Herzer’s scholarly literary output vis-à-vis the Pastorals has brought him to the highest rank in terms of sheer number of publications, a circle which includes Raymond Collins, Giuseppe De Virgilio, Michael Gourgues, Luke Timothy Johnson, Abraham Malherbe, Cesare Marcheselli-Casale, I. Howard Marshall, Yann Redalié, Ceslas Spicq, Michael Theobald, Philip Towner, Manabu Tsuji, and Korinna Zamfir. Students of the Pastorals will recognize that most of these scholars have also built upon earlier publications with a commentary on one or more of the letters (Malherbe was working on the Pastorals volume in Hermeneia at the time of his passing, and Tsuji’s Bokkai Shokan should be available soon). Likewise, Herzer is at work on the Pastorals volume in the Theologischer Handkommentar zum Neuen Testament, replacing the volume by Gottfried Holtz (1965; 5th ed., 1992). Indeed, as Herzer notes in the volume introduction [English translation by DeepL], it was his commission to produce this THKNT volume over twenty years ago which led to his various publications on the Pastorals, which in turn will, of course, inform the commentary.

As will be seen from the table of contents at the end of this post, the twenty essays (with one exception) are in German; English-language abstracts are, however, provided at the end of the volume (523–30). All of the essays have been published previously except the last (“Ethik, Ethos und die Wahrheit”), which is slated for publication in the delayed WUNT volume gathering the proceedings of the 2019 “Ethics in Titus” conference. Because the essays have been slightly revised (though in non-substantive ways) for republication, scholarly work should now normally cite them from this volume if possible, not from their original published locations.

Edited volumes of essays on the Pastorals are not unknown, but not common:

  • Reimund Bieringer, ed. 2 Timothy and Titus Reconsidered / Der 2. Timotheus- und der Titusbrief in neuem Licht. Colloquium Oecumenicum Paulinum 20. Leuven: Peeters, 2018.
  • Giuseppe de Virgilio, ed. Il deposito della fede: Timoteo e Tito. Supplementi alla Rivista Biblica 34. Bologna: Dehoniane, 1998.
  • Karl Paul Donfried, ed. 1 Timothy Reconsidered. Colloquium Oecumenicum Paulinum 18. Leuven: Peeters, 2008.
  • Andreas J. Köstenberger and Terry L. Wilder, eds. Entrusted with the Gospel: Paul’s Theology in the Pastoral Epistles. Nashville: B&H, 2010.
  • Andreas J. Köstenberger and Thomas R. Schreiner, eds. Women in the Church: An Interpretation and Application of 1 Timothy 2:9–15. 3rd ed. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016.
  • Ἡ πνευματική παρακαταθήκη τοῦ Ἀποστόλου Παύλου. Ποιμαντικές Ἐπιστολές [The Spiritual Depository of Paul the Apostle: Pastoral Epistles]. Εἰσηγήσεις ΙΑ´ Συνάξεως Ὀρθοδόξων Βιβλικῶν Θεολόγων: Λευκάδα 25–28 Σεπτεμβρίου 2003 (Thessaloniki: privately published, 2004).
  • Hans-Ulrich Weidemann and Wilfried Eisele, eds. Ein Meisterschüler: Titus und sein Brief. Michael Theobald zum 60. Gerburtstag. Stuttgarter Bibelstudien 214. Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 2008.
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