I’ve made a first attempt at compiling a chronological list of relatively recent Pastorals scholarship. This first edition provides a year-by-year accounting of scholarly monographs and commentaries on the Pastorals from 1970 to the present (and future!), in any language. The table is available via the “Scholarship Timeline” tab at the top of the page. The full presentation is available here, and includes, in addition to the table, a full bibliography of all the works listed in the table.
I put together an early version of this table to help me to see what scholarship a given author had to draw upon at any given time in the last fifty years, and thought this sort of thing might be useful for others involved in Pastorals research.
As a service to researchers in the Pastorals, we regularly note new publications that have been added to the secondary literature, and (especially through our annual bibliographies) we try to surface scholarly work in the letters that is in languages other than the relatively standard research languages of English, German, and French. My own accounting suggests there is easily as much secondary literature on the Pastorals in Italian as in French, and Polish and Dutch works are not lacking.
As many differences as there may be among, say, English, German, French, Dutch, Polish, and Italian, they are all spoken in Europe and share many similarities, not least of which is the same basic alphabet. At the time I began searching for works on the Pastorals written in Asian languages, I realized I was in a very different linguistic world. This post provides an unusual opportunity in that regard, allowing me to acknowledge a new major commentary:
Manabu Tsuji, Bokkai Shokan (Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles). Tokyo: Shinkyô Shuppansha, 2023. [Japanese]
Tsuji is Professor of Religious Studies at Hiroshima University. He holds his doctorate from the University of Berne; his dissertation was published as Glaube zwischen Vollkommenheit und Verweltlichung: Eine Untersuchung zur literarischen Gestalt und zur inhaltlichen Kohärenz des Jakobusbriefes, WUNT 2/93 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1997). A few years back, he contributed to a list of Japanese-language scholarly articles on the Pastorals, which we posted here at pastoralepistles.com.
At 759 pages, Bokkai Shokan is a major work. Comparing page count to English works isn’t necessarily an apples-to-apples proposition, but one might think of Mounce’s 778-page WBC volume as similar in heft. Tsuji provided this summary of his work, which will give readers of the blog a good sense of where the commentary is located in the realm of Pastorals scholarship:
“This commentary consists of an approximately 60-page introduction that discusses the name ‘Pastoral Epistles,’ problems of authorship, opponents, and theological and literary characteristics, followed by nearly 700 pages of detailed exegesis and bibliography. According to the author, the three letters were written by a single author as the Corpus Pastorale, a collection of Pauline letters to individuals (Timothy and Titus) modeled after the Corpus Paulinum and intended to be read in the order of 1 Timothy, Titus, and 2 Timothy. Titus serves as a ‘spatial extension’ of the content of 1 Timothy, showing that the content of 1 Timothy is equally applicable to churches in other regions, while II Timothy serves as a ‘temporal extension,’ showing that the issue of confronting false doctrine (the main theme of 1 Timothy) remained an important concern for Paul until the end of his life. This Corpus Pastorale was written against the backdrop of conflicts over Paul’s understanding: The role of these letters is to let Paul himself speak about the ‘final correct answer’ to the questions he left unresolved or ambiguous, such as the autonomy of women and the understanding of the resurrection. The author criticizes as ‘false doctrine’ an ascetic understanding of Paul (which prohibits marriage and the consumption of certain foods). The Pastoral Epistles were written in the first half of the second century AD. Their theological characteristics (e.g., God, Christ, faith, etc.) reflect how Pauline Christianity was preached and received in the post-Pauline Hellenistic pagan world.”
Tsuji’s previous publications on the letters include the following:
“1 Tim 5:17–25: Its Context and Structure.” Shin’yakugaku Kenkyu [New Testament Studies] (Japan Society of New Testament Studies) 25 (1997): 13–24.「Ⅰテモテ 5:17–25 の文脈と構成」、『新約学研究』（日本新約学会）25 号 (1997 年）13–24 頁。[Japanese]
“II Timothy 1:6: Laying on of Hands by Paul for Ordination?” Annual of the Japanese Biblical Institute 39 (2013): 65‒76.
“Beyond the Original Context: Reception of the Pauline Letters in the First Century.” Pages 5–21 in Scrinium: Revue de patrologie, d’hagiographie critique et d’histoire ecclésiastique, vol. 6: Patrogia Pacifica Secunda: Selected Papers Presented to the Asia-Pacific Early Christian Studies Society Fifth Annual Conference (Sendai, Japan, September 10–12, 2009) and Other Patristic Studies. Edited by Vladimir Baranov, Kazuhiko Demura, and Basil Lourié. Piscataway, NJ: Georgias, 2010. = 「元の文脈を超えて――紀元一世紀におけるパウロ書簡の受容史」、『ペディラヴィウム』65号（2010年）38–56頁。[Japanese]
“‘Different teachings’ and ‘Rich Women’: On the Structure and Background of 1 Timothy 6:3–21.” Shingaku Kenkyu [Theological Studies] (Society of Theological Studies of Kwansei Gakuin University) 43 (1996): 17–38.「『異なる教え』と『富める女性』――1テモテ6,3–21の構成とその背景――」、『神学研究』 43号（1996年）17–38頁。[Japanese]
“Die Intertextualität von 1 Tim 2,1–3/Tit 3,1–2.” Pages 99–110 in Neutestamentliche Exegese im Dialog: Hermeneutik—Wirkungsgeschichte—Matthäusevangelium. Festschrift für Ulrich Luz zum 70. Geburtstag. Edited by Peter Lampe, Moises Mayordomo, and Migaku Sato. Neukirchener-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 2008. = 「Ⅰテモテ2,1–3/テトス3,1–2の間テクスト性」、『人間文化研究』第3号（2011年3月）36-48頁。[Japanese]
“Laying on of Hands by the Elders (1 Timothy 4:14) and by Paul (2 Timothy 1:6),” in: Shingaku Kenkyu [Theological Studies] (Society of Theological Studies of Kwansei Gakuin University) 51 (2004): 63–75.「長老団の按手（Ⅰテモテ4:14）とパウロの按手（Ⅱテモテ1:6）」、『神学研究』 51号（2004年）63–75頁。 [Japanese]
“On the Enrollment of ‘Widows’ (1 Timothy 5:3–16).” Shin’yakugaku Kenkyu [New Testament Studies] (Japan Society of New Testament Studies) 26 (1998): 17–29.「『やもめ』の登録 (1 テモテ 5:3–16) をめぐって」、『新約学研究』26 号 (1998年) 17–29 頁。 [Japanese]
“The Pastoral Epistles: On the Advocates of their Authenticity.” Shogaku Ronkyu [Journal of Business Administration of Kwansei Gakuin University] 50.4 (2003): 135–152.「牧会書簡――真筆性擁護の動きをめぐって」、『商学論究』 50巻4号（2003年）135–52頁。[Japanese]
“Persönliche Korrespondenz des Paulus: Zur Strategie der Pastoralbriefe als Pseudepigrapha.” New Testament Studies 56.2 (2010): 253–72. = 「パウロの個人宛書簡――偽名文書としての牧会書簡の戦略――」、『聖書学論集』43号（2011年4月）71–96頁。[Japanese]
“Saved through Childbearing: Context and Background of 1 Timothy 2:15.” Seishogaku Ronshu 41 (“Bible as Experience. Festschrift for Prof. ONUKI Takashi”) (2009): 463–79.「子を産むことによって救われる――1テモテ2:15の文脈と背景――」、日本聖書学研究所編『経験としての聖書：大貫隆教授献呈論文集』（聖書学論集41）リトン社、2009年3月、463–79頁。 [Japanese]
“Der zweite Timotheus als letzter Gefangenschaftsbrief.” Kwansei Gakuin University Humanities Review 11 (2006): 1–11. = “2 Timothy as the Last Captivity Letter.” 「獄中書簡としてのⅡテモテ書」、『新約学研究』 31号（2003年）42–55頁。 [Japanese]
“Zwischen Ideal und Realität: Zu den Witwen in 1 Tim 5.3–16.”New Testament Studies 47.1 (2001): 92–104.
G. K. Beale has generously mediated his recent ZNW article through a light rewriting of it in Themelios:
G. K. Beale, “The Background to ‘Fight the Good Fight’ in 1 Timothy 1:18, 6:12, and 2 Timothy 4:7.” Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft 113.2 (2022): 202–30.
G. K. Beale, “The Greco-Roman Background to ‘Fighting the Good Fight’ in the Pastoral Epistles and the Spiritual Life of the Christian.” Themelios 48.3 (2023): 541–51.
The Themelios article is freely available here. Here’s the abstract:
“What does Paul mean by the expression “fight the fight” in 1 Timothy 1:18 (NASB)? The Greek verb στρατεύω with the noun στρατεία can be also rendered “battle the battle,” or more generally “perform military service” or “serve in a military campaign.” This expression occurs often in Greco-Roman literature as a patriotic warfare idiom for good character revealed by persevering through warfare or military campaigns. It also occurs in legal contexts to affirm someone’s innocence and good reputation before the court. This idiom is applied to Timothy to demonstrate his good Christian character and reputation over against the false teachers’ bad character. Paul similarly exhorts Timothy to “struggle the struggle” (ἀγωνίζου τὸν καλὸν ἀγῶνα) in 1 Tim 6:12, which most commentators recognize to be synonymous with “fight the good fight” in 1:18 (cf. 2 Tim 4:7).”
Michael Scott Robertson has added a article in reception history to the secondary literature on the Pastorals:
Michael Scott Robertson, “1 Timothy 1:3–4 in the Memory of Irenaeus, Tertullian, Athanasius, and Chrysostom.” Religions 14.9 (2023), article 1123.
The article is open access, and is available here.
Abstract: In this article, I discuss reception history, its place within the history of historical critical methods, and social memory theory. I apply a reception historical lens buttressed by social memory theory to 1 Timothy 1:3–4. I show that the historical circumstances of this passage’s reception problematize using early understandings of it to reconstruct the referent behind “myths and endless genealogies”. I first show how the phrase “myths and endless genealogies” is ambiguous in the historical setting of the author. Then, I demonstrate that Irenaeus, Tertullian, Athanasius, and Chrysostom use this phrase against very different groups; however, all of these authors use 1 Timothy 1:4 for a (perceived) problem against their present group.
Sarah E. G. Fein. “From Pain to Redemption: 1 Timothy 2:15 in its Jewish Context.” Pages 85–100 in Gender and Second-Temple Judaism. Edited by Kathy Ehrensperger and Shayna Sheinfeld. Lanham, MD: Lexington Fortress, 2020.
Students of the Pastorals might be interested in this treatment of 1 Timothy 2:15, which I was unaware of until recently. The author has made the chapter available at Academia.
Anna Persig, “The Language of Imperial Cult and Roman Religion in the Latin New Testament: The Latin Renderings of ‘Saviour.’” New Testament Studies 69.1 (2023): 21–34.
Students of the Pastorals may benefit from Persig’s work on σωτήρ reflected in this article, given the significance of the term in the letters. Here’s the abstract:
The title σωτήρ, ‘saviour’, is bestowed on Christ and God in the New Testament and rendered in the Latin translations by conseruator, saluificator, salutificator, salutaris and saluator. Although these terms convey the same meaning, they are not interchangeable: this study argues that conseruator, which is the most frequent word for saviour on imperial coins, is rarely attested in the Latin versions because of its association with the imperial cult. The predominant translation, saluator, was coined as an alternative rendering to the other words which had religious and political connotations.
Scot McKnight, The Pastoral Epistles. New Cambridge Bible Commentary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Cambridge has just released Scot McKnight’s revision of the Pastorals volume in the New Cambridge Bible Commentary series. The NCBC series replaces — no surprise — the Cambridge Bible Commentary series produced in the 1960s and 1970s.
The CBC volume on the Pastorals was produced by Anthony Tyrrell Hanson in 1966. In a day when publications were not nearly as prevalent, A. T. Hanson would have been considered well-published in the Pastorals, having produced Studies in the Pastoral Epistles (London: SPCK, 1968), a collection of essays expanding on what he was able to include in the CBC volume; “The Theology of Suffering in the Pastoral Epistles and Ignatius of Antioch,” in Studia Patristica 17/2, ed. Elizabeth A. Livingstone (Oxford: Pergamon, 1982), 694‒96; and the final fruit of his Pastorals work, The Pastoral Epistles, New Century Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1982). The staying power of Hanson’s scholarship is suggested by Wipf & Stock’s 2015 reprint of Hanson’s 1968 Studies.
McKnight is a well-known name in New Testament scholarship, and is bringing his wide range of expertise to the Pastorals. His previous publication specifically targeting the Pastorals, to my knowledge, consists of his “Eusebeia as Social Respectability: The Public Life of the Christian Pastor,” in Rhetoric, History, and Theology: Interpreting the New Testament, ed. Todd D. Still and Jason A. Myers (Lanham, MD: Lexington/Fortress, 2022), 161–77 (material which will be presented at the inaugural meeting of the IBR Pastoral Epistles Research Group). Note also his “From Timely Exegesis to Contemporary Ecclesiology: Relevant Hermeneutics and Provocative Embodiment of Faith in a Corona-Defined World – Generosity During a Pandemic,” HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 77.4 (2021): a6426.
The publisher gives this summary: “In the church tradition three letters, now known as the Pastoral Epistles, are attributed to the apostle Paul. They are unlike any other letters by Paul. They are written to two of his closest companions, Timothy and Titus, and they instruct those two leaders how to lead gathered Christians in Ephesus and in Crete. The letters contain plenty of instruction for how church leaders at that time, and in those places, were to function. In this commentary, Scot McKnight seeks to explain the major themes of the Pastoral Epistles – church order, false teaching, and failing Christians – and their foundational vision for how Christians could make a good impression in public life. These three brief letters express a view of how Christians were to live in the Roman empire in a way that does not offend public sensibilities. They prescribe a way of public behavior best translated as ‘civilized religion.'”
Contents and the first six pages of the introduction were available to me at Amazon; they suggest robust engagement with scholarship, including recent work by Hoklotubbe, Van Nes, and Kidson. What interests me immediately in the table of contents are the excurses scattered throughout.
David Pao, Dean and Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, has produced 1–2 Timothy, Titus as the inaugural volume of the Brill Exegetical Commentary. The cheerful-looking cover may not immediately suggest the heft of this volume, which at over 825 pages is a massive tome, and beats Mounce’s WBC contribution for page count. I’m looking forward to receiving a review copy of this volume.
I love the first paragraph of the preface:
“Those expecting an apologia here for burdening modern readers with yet another commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (PE) will be disappointed. Previous works have not exhausted either the meaning or the nuances of the PE, nor will this one. While the textual data argue against limiting the PE to either an abstract manual of ecclesiastic order or a narrow contextual response to the false teachings of the time, a consensus appears to have developed in certain circles where the author is considered to be a follower of Paul who reinvents Christianity into a faith that accommodates itself to the wider mainstream society. A reexamination of linguistic and conceptual patterns often seen as reflecting such an accommodating stance may, however, point in a different direction. Perhaps the subversive voice of the Pauline gospel can be heard afresh with the renewed appreciation of not only the rhetorical strategies of the author but also the theological significance of such strategies. And so the journey continues. It is my prayer that with this and subsequent commentaries, the complexity and richness of the PE will be further appreciated by those who may find this gospel equally relevant and urgent in the contexts they find themselves.”
Andrew Langford’s University of Chicago dissertation, completed under the guidance of Margaret Mitchell, is now available from Mohr Siebeck. Its publication continues a recent, though doubtless inadvertent, outsized presence of Pastorals work in Mohr Siebeck’s WUNT series.
Andrew M. Langford, Diagnosing Deviance: Pathology and Polemic in the Pastoral Epistles. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2/592. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2023.
Mohr Siebeck provides this summary: “In this study, Andrew M. Langford demonstrates that the single, post-Pauline author of the Pastoral Epistles (‘the Pastor’) crafts a stigmatizing depiction of his theological opponents by spatializing, demonizing, and pathologizing their alleged deviance. Through close comparative readings of ancient medical and philosophical literature, the author argues for the necessity of interpreting the Pastor’s pathologizing of deviance in light of ancient disease etiologies and models of corporeality. With this book, the author contributes to recent interpretive insights about the function of authorial fiction in antiquity and demonstrates that the Pastor is self-consciously appropriating the Pauline epistolary to craft his approach to his theological opponents.”
In connection with this new work, note an earlier article by Pastorals scholar Abraham Malherbe, which doubtless covers similar ground in seminal form:
Abraham J. Malherbe, “Medical Imagery in the Pastoral Epistles.” Pages 19–35 in Texts and Testaments: Critical Essays on the Bible and Early Church Fathers. Edited by W. E. March. San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 1980. Reprint, pages 117–34 in vol. 1 of Light from the Gentiles: Hellenistic Philosophy and Early Christianity. Collected Essays, 1959‒2012. Edited by Carl R. Holladay, John T. Fitzgerald, Gregory E. Sterling, and James W. Thompson. Novum Testamentum Supplements 150. Leiden: Brill, 2014.
A new monograph on 1 Timothy is scheduled for release in early 2024:
Mona Tokarek LaFosse, Honouring Age: The Social Dynamics of Age Structure in 1 Timothy. Studies in Christianity and Judaism. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, forthcoming 2024.
“We all age. But how we understand age and aging depends on cultural context. The early followers of Jesus experienced growing up and growing old in a world where more than a third of children never reached adulthood, married women could expect to become widows, and, above all, elders were to be honoured. In the ancient Mediterranean, expectations associated with one’s age could be a source of social power, as well as a source of tension within families and communities, and between generations.
“Honouring Age positions age as an essential aspect of communal identity and familial roles in the early Christian experience by examining one of the most contentious and perplexing texts in the New Testament: the first letter to Timothy. First Timothy reflects a one-sided conversation between an older Paul and a younger Timothy, in which the author hopes to influence both the old and young in fulfilling their traditional roles in the “household of God.” It was a time of tumult, and relations were fraught, with potential consequences for the reputation of the nascent Christian community: some children were neglecting their aging parents, which was culturally unacceptable behaviour; older women who should have been encouraging young widows to remarry were discouraging them, exposing them to ridicule; young men who should have been respectful to their elders were shamefully turning on them. In recognizing the responsibilities of young and old to each other, and the reputational damage they otherwise risked, this study demonstrates that age is integral to understanding the complexities of 1 Timothy.
“Drawing on modern ethnographies corroborated by ancient evidence to interpret social aspects of 1 Timothy, Honouring Age shows convincingly that, in emerging Christian communities in the ancient Mediterranean world, age mattered.”
I will read this monograph with interest. LaFosse’s volume will mediate her dissertation work and related publications to a wider audience. Following is a brief bibliography of her other pertinent works and conference presentations:
LaFosse, Mona Tokarek. “Age Hierarchy and Social Networks among Urban Women in the Roman East.” Pages 204–20 in Mediterranean Families in Antiquity: Households, Extended Families, and Domestic Space. Edited by Sabine R. Huebner and Geoffrey Nathan. Chicester, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2017.
________. “Age Hierarchy, Honourable Reputation, and Widows in 1 Timothy 5:3–16.” Presentation at the SBL Annual Meeting, San Francisco, 21 November 2011. Abstract: https://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/abstract.aspx?id=19640 = “Age Hierarchy and Widows in 1 Timothy 5:3–16.” Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, Montreal, QC, 29 May 2010.
________. “Age Matters: Age, Aging and Intergenerational Relationships in Early Christian Communities, with a Focus on 1 Timothy 5.” PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2011.
________. “Honour Your Elders: An Anthropological View of Aging and 1 Timothy 5:17–25.” Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, Saskatoon, SK, 28 May 2007. Abstract: https://www.csbs-sceb.ca/2007_programme_abstracts.pdf
________. “Inspiring Intergenerational Relationships: Aging and the New Testament from One Historian’s Perspective.” Religions 13 (2022): 1–10, article 628. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel13070628.
________. “‘Like a Father’: Age Hierarchy and the Meaning of Parakaleo in 1 Tim 5:1–2.” Presentation at the SBL Annual Meeting, Baltimore, 24 November 2013. Abstract: https://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/abstract.aspx?id=28327. = Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, Waterloo, ON, 29 May 2012. Abstract: https://www.csbs-sceb.ca/CSBS-2012-Long-Programme.pdf
________. “Pauline Language in 2 Timothy.” Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, Toronto, 26 May 2002. Abstract: https://www.csbs-sceb.ca/2002Abstracts.htm
________. “Situating 2 Timothy in Early Christian History.” M.A. thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University, 2001.
________. “Those Who Hear: The Power of Learners in 1 Timothy.” Pages 147–70 in Religions and Education in Antiquity: Studies in Honour of Michel Desjardins. Edited by Alex Damm. Numen: Studies in the History of Religions 160. Leiden: Brill, 2018.
________. “Why Sixty? A Question of Age and Reputation in 1 Timothy 5:9.” Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies, Fredricton, NB, 30 May 2011. Abstract: https://www.csbs-sceb.ca/2011_Programme.htm
________. “Women and ‘the Faith’ in 1 Timothy 5: A Battle for Faith and Faithfulness.” Presentation at the SBL Annual Meeting, 30 November 2020.
________. “Women, Children and House Churches.” Pages 385–405 in The Early Christian World. Edited by Philip Esler. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, 2017.
________. “Women’s Roles in the Letters to Timothy and Titus.” Christian Reflection [Center for Christian Ethics, Baylor University] (2013): 30–39.
