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Montague’s First and Second Timothy, Titus

October 14, 2008 / Rick Brannan

Thanks again to Baker Academic who provided a copy of George T. Montague, SM’s $amz(0801035813 First and Second Timothy, Titus); which is part of Baker’s new Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series.

I’ve had a chance to poke around the book and must say I’m impressed. This commentary is designed to be used, and that’s refreshing. Here is a list, in no particular order, of some of the features of the print book.

The translation used is the New American Bible (NAB), which is what one would expect for a Catholic commentary.
Cross References. Each translation section is followed by cross references—to the Old Testament, the New Testament, and also to the Catholic Catechism (by topic and page, as shown below). References to the Lectionary (and also the "Lectionary (Byzantine)") are also made, where applicable.

Sidebars. There are Biblical Background sidebars and Living Tradition sidebars that frequently occur throughout the text. These bring to light different sorts of background information (literary, cultural, historical, theological) and highlight portions of later non-canonical writings (Apostolic Fathers, other Greek & Latin fathers.
Pictures and Maps. There are pictures. This is great for a commentary; one example is a picture of the theatre in Ephesus. Another is a picture of Schøyen MS 2649 (portions of a scroll of Leviticus that is actually relatively legible) in the context of 2Ti 4.13, "… bring me the scrolls and parchments". These sorts of things bring the setting into view of the reader and make the whole exercise a little more real.
Reflection and Application. At the end of each commentary section is another section titled "Reflection and Application". Here all sorts of things may be discussed, the primary task seems to be to discuss the text in the context of the present. For instance, the portion on 1Ti 2.5-7, "For there is one mediator between God and men …" discusses the Catholic practice of invoking saints in prayer, particularly Mary.
Glossary. There is a short glossary at the back; words in the text that occur in the glossary have a dagger† next to them. The entries are short and generally helpful (though the definition for "aorist" is not good at all, equating it with the simple past tense).
Indexes. There are two indices, one "Index of Pastoral Topics" and another "Index of Sidebars". A reference index would be nice, if only to catch the section cross-references in one easy-to-consult place. It would’ve also been nice to have an index with the mounds of references to writings of the Fathers and the catechism and lectionary references.
Greek Words. Greek words, where directly discussed, are in transliteration throughout. It would’ve been nice to have an index to the Greek words as well.

In short, I love the features of the book and the way it is put together.

If you’re Catholic and you’re studying the Pastoral Epistles, this is a no-brainer: $amz(0801035813 buy the book now), particularly if you’re not looking for some deep academic tome. If you are Catholic and looking for a deep academic tome, $amz(0801035813 you still want to buy it) (and probably $amz(0814658148 Fiore), too).

If you’re not Catholic but you’re studying the Pastoral Epistles, I’d use another commentary as a primary (pick one: $amz(0802825133 Towner), $amz(0830829318 Witherington), $amz(0849902452 Mounce), $amz(0802823955 Knight)), but I’d consider getting $amz(0801035813 Montague’s CCSS volume) simply because it is a good alternate view at understanding and applying the text.

RBL Reviews Fiore’s Pastoral Epistles (Sacra Pagina)

October 13, 2008 / Rick Brannan

This is Benjamin Fiore’s $amz(0814658148 The Pastoral Epistles) in the Sacra Pagina series. The review is available on RBL, of course. On authorship, Fiore thinks the Pastorals are pseudonymous, dated between 80-90 (largely because he sees the ecclesiology of the Pastorals as somewhere between so-called ‘genuine’ Paulines and Ignatius).

I’ve read Fiore’s introduction and parts of the commentary; overall it is good though is presuppositions do flavor the commentary. As with anything, it is best to read critically.

The primary reason I’d purchased Fiore (last year at SBL) was to get a specifically Catholic commentary on the Pastorals. Since then, Baker Academic has published $amz(0801035813 Montague’s volume on the Pastorals for the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture) series. If you’re looking for a volume on the Pastorals written from a Catholic perspective, I’d recommend $amz(0801035813 Montague) over $amz(0814658148 Fiore).

Received: George T. Montague, SM; First and Second Timothy, Titus(Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture)

October 8, 2008 / Rick Brannan

The good folks at Baker Academic have sent along a hot-off-the-presses copy of $amz(0801035813 First and Second Timothy, Titus), from the newly-commenced commentary series Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture. The text of the NAB (New American Bible) is provided in the commentary.

If you’re unfamiliar with the series, a video overview is available on the series web site.

There are excerpts from the book on Baker Academic’s web site (here, here and here); there is a 16-page discussion guide designed for “Personal Reflection or Small Group Study”. This is cool stuff; Baker should be commended for putting together the whole package on the book’s web page.

Most of the blurbs in the front matter and back cover are about the series, not the book. Here’s the book blurb from BakerAcademic.com:

George Montague offers a Catholic pastoral commentary on the letters to Timothy and Titus in the second volume in the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS). He presents sound exegesis followed by reflection on the pastoral, theological, and practical applications of the text.

Here’s the blurb from $amz(0801035813 Amazon.com):

In the second volume of the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (CCSS), George Montague offers a Catholic pastoral commentary on the letters to Timothy and Titus, presenting sound exegesis followed by reflection on the pastoral, theological, and practical applications of the text. The CCSS offers readable, informative commentaries from the best of contemporary Catholic scholarship to help readers rediscover the Word of God as a living word in which God himself is present. Each commentary relates Scripture to life, is faithfully Catholic, and is supplemented by features designed to help readers understand the Bible more deeply and use it more effectively in teaching, preaching, evangelization, and other forms of ministry. This series is perfect for professional and lay leaders engaged in parish ministry, lay Catholics interested in serious Bible study, and Catholic students.

Yeah, pretty much the same thing though the Amazon.com blurb works in the series description as well.

Here’s the table of contents:

Illustrations
Editor’s Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction to the Pastoral Letters

The First Letter to Timothy
Timothy’s First Charge (1 Timothy 1)
Liturgy and Conduct (1 Timothy 2)
Qualifications of Ministers (1 Timothy 3)
False Teaching and Advice to Timothy (1 Timothy 4)
Rules for Different Groups (1 Timothy 5)
Final Directives: Slaves, Truth, Riches (1 Timothy 6)

The Second Letter to Timothy
Timothy’s Gifts and Paul’s Lot (2 Timothy 1)
Counsels to Timothy (2 Timothy 2)
Meeting the Challenges of the Last Days (2 Timothy 3)
Final Charge to Timothy and Paul’s Faith amid His Loneliness (2 Timothy 4)

The Letter to Titus
Organizing the Church in Crete (Titus 1)
Virtues for Different States of Life (Titus 2)
How We Should Live—and Why (Titus 3)

Suggested Resources
Glossary
Index of Pastoral Topics
Index of Sidebars
Map

I have not had a chance to read the book yet. I will say it was designed well. And it is one of the few commentaries that I have seen that actually has pictures (black & white photos) of different areas or artifacts relevant to the discussion. That’s pretty cool.

I couldn’t contain myself, however, and peeked to see how 1Ti 1.20 is handled. You know:

18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1Ti 1.18-20, ESV)

I’ve never checked an explicitly Catholic commentary on this verse and wanted to see how the verse was related to excommunication. Well, it is directly and equivalently related: “These two Paul handed over to Satan, a technical term for excommunication.” (Montague 47, emphasis his). That doesn’t surprise me, and it doesn’t seem altogether wrong to me either. These guys were given the right boot of fellowship. It’s just that ‘protestant’ commentaries rarely ever cross the line and call it excommunication. The goal isn’t separation, the eventual goal is reconciliation, as Montague aptly concludes.

I’m looking forward to giving this one the once-over. Thanks, Baker Academic!

Towner on Christology in the PE

October 1, 2008 / perry

I have just recently read Phil Towner’s “Christology in the Letters to Timothy and Titus” in Contours of Christology in the New Testament, edited by Richard Longenecker (Eerdmans, 2005). Towner discusses the key Christological passages in the three letters interacting with recent scholarship and synthesizing the Christology found in each letter. It is the sort of careful work we have come to expect from Towner and, therefore, is a good entry way into this area of study. Towner continues (rightly I believe) to stress the fact that, while these letters have some significant commonality, they also have their distinct emphases.

Though I agree with most of the essay, for the sake of conversation I will here point out two smaller things I question. The first has to do with discerning the background of some of the Christological language. Discussing the “epiphany” language, Towner asserts,

“Undoubtedly … epiphany language must have been deliberately chosen to engage the dominant religious-political discourse of the day and to force a rethinking of these categories by the proclamation of God’s story in Hellenistic dress.” (225; emphasis mine)

I think this may be overstated. Since, as Towner notes, this language appears in the Septuagint describing “Yahweh’s interventions in the world” then the use in the PE could arise for a number of reasons. Towner mentions emperor worship elsewhere so I wonder if that is what he has in mind here. I am not convinced that emperor worship is in view. I want to be cautious when trying to establish specific background connections.

Secondly, Towner refers to Timothy’s “dwindling courage and lagging commitment” in 2 Timothy (238). This is a common assertion, but I think it reads too much into 2 Timothy 1. Simply because Paul calls on him to stir up his gift (1:6) does not mean he is failing. The fact that Paul exhorts him not to be timid (1:6) or ashamed (1:8) does not mean that he is being these things. It is, rather, what is to be expected by a father figure as he exhorts his “son” to face hardship well. Paul is simply exhorting Timothy to “strap it on”, wade into the fray and take his lumps in the “good fight.” The similarities between this letter and letters from commanding officers to their subordinates would seem to support my reading as well.

These are not major points in Towner’s essay, and as I noted the essay as a whole is very profitable. These two points are ones I see in other essays so I raise my critique here to see if a profitable discussion might be raised.

Titus 3.10 and αιρετικον ανθρωπον

September 19, 2008 / Rick Brannan

Roger Pearse (whose blog you really should be reading) has some questions on how αιρετικον ανθρωπον should be translated in Titus 3.10.

He lists a number of English translations (plus the Vulgate) and has some other discussion; but the meat of his question is:

The most natural English usage would appear to be ‘heretic’ or ‘heretical man’. Why don’t we say so? How would we translate this in a patristic text? The Vulgate does not hesitate to say “haereticum hominem” – “heretic man”.

A heretic is not necessarily a “divisive person”, after all. The Greek word, surely, will relate more to the variety of belief in the philosophical schools (haereses) than to modern ecumenism, or indeed even to 4th and 5th century doctrinal debates?

It’s been awhile since I’ve worked through the text of Titus, but I consulted my notes on this word instance from a few years back; here’s what I wrote:

While the typical literal translation of αἱρετικός (hairetikos) seems to be factious, this word is somewhat difficult in that it is not a common word, and its meaning is not readily at hand for many readers. Thus I’ve translated as division-causing instead of the other seeming option, heretical. This is one who not only believes contrary to the sound teaching of Paul, but causes problems in the community by advancing his own heretical agenda (hence factious or division-causing).

Anyone else have ideas? If so, feel free to comment here or (better) head to Roger’s blog and interact there.

Köstenberger on 1Ti 2.12

September 12, 2008 / Rick Brannan

Andreas Köstenberger blogs further on 1Ti 2.12 ("Was I Wrong on 1 Timothy 2:12?"), a section of scripture that he’s done fairly intensive syntactical research on for his edited volume on $amz(080102904X Women in the Church).

Do check it out.

Saving Yourself and Your Hearers (1Ti 4.16)

September 3, 2008 / Rick Brannan

I’ve blogged about the phrasing found in this reference before, on ricoblog (here, here, here and here) and on the previous incarnation of PastoralEpistles.com (here).

It’s the phrasing that intrigues me, “you will save both yourself and your hearers” because similar phrasing turns up in other writings ($af(2Cl 15.1), $af(IEph 16.1-2)) as well.

Here’s what I found in Hermas, Mandates 2.2 (27.2):

First, speak evil of no one, and do not enjoy listening to someone who does. Otherwise you, the listener, will be responsible for the sin of the one speaking evil, if you believe the slander which you have heard, for by believing it you yourself will hold a grudge against your brother. In this way you will become responsible for the sin of the one who speaks the evil.

Holmes, M. W. (1999). The Apostolic Fathers : Greek texts and English translations (Updated ed.) (377). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.

Similar, but not quite the same. But still interesting as it tries to explain how the listener falls under guilt of the speaker. Blogged here for posterity so I can find it again when I look into it next.

Best sentences I’ve read today

August 28, 2008 / Rick Brannan

From Matthew Brook O’Donnell, $amz(1905048114 Corpus Linguistics and the Greek of the New Testament), p. 388:

It seems unlikely that by simply counting words it is possible to differentiate between authors. While a particular author may have a core or base vocabulary, as well as an affinity for certain words (or combination/collocation of words), there are many factors, for instance, age, further education, social setting, rhetorical purpose and so on, that restrict or expand this core set of lexical items. In spite of this, New Testament attribution studies and many commentaries (sadly, some rather recent ones at that) have placed considerable weight on counting the number of words found in one letter but not found in a group of letters assumed to be authentic. (O’Donnell, 388)

I can’t tell you the times that I’ve read authorship discussions on the Pastorals in commentaries where the argument boils down to "read P.N. Harrison’s Problem of the Pastoral Epistles, he got it right". This pawning the argument off on what is essentially a misdirected attempt at stylometry through hapax-legomena counting. Statistics are not easy to understand, and when someone makes a statistical case that sounds good it is easy to accept, point to, and never think about again. "So-and-so has all sorts of numbers, statistics, math and tables that I don’t fully understand, so it must be right."

I’m not saying that all commentaries, monographs and such that dispute Pauline authorship do this. Some do not, and they are well worth reading because they’re really wrestling with the stylistic issues. But if your reason for discounting Pauline authorship rests solely on comparative proportions of hapax legomena between two different slices of a corpus … well, you’re not standing on firm ground.

Update

August 19, 2008 / Beka Johnson

I have been very quiet on the PE front as I am now working on a project on the Bible and Spirituality. However, I’d just like to mention a couple of news items. First, my article “Women as Gossips and Busybodies? Another Look at 1 Timothy 5:13” will be published shortly in the Lexington Theological Quarterly. Second, I shall shortly be returning to the PE as I shall be working on the notion of ‘the good life’ in the PE for the project.

Congratulations to my fellow contributors for news on projects they are engaged in.

Lloyd Pietersen

The PE in the New NLT Study Bible

August 19, 2008 / Rick Brannan

I have just thumbed through the study notes on the Pastorals in the brand new $amz(0842355707 NLT Study Bible). The notes are written by Jon Laansma who teaches at Wheaton and did his PhD at the University of Aberdeen.

In the interest of full disclosure, two things could be thought to impinge on my judgment here. First, I know Jon and am working on a project with him. Second, I wrote the notes on the Pastorals for the $amz(1433502410 ESV Study Bible), which could be thought of as a competitor of this study Bible.

I was impressed with these study notes. They were thoughtful, clear and ample. Honestly, as I read, particularly the introductory material, I thought, “Wow! I hope my notes come across as well as these.” In brief compass Jon advocates Pauline authorship and situates the letters after the close of Acts (positions with which I agree). He describes 1 Timothy and Titus as similar to the mandatis principis and does not directly address the genre of 2 Timothy. He does a good job of briefly dispelling the idea that these letters are church manuals and points to their great concern for the gospel shaping life.

On 1 Timothy 2:11-15 there is an extended essay which describes three major positions without embracing any of the three.

These notes are well done. For me the only drawback is the use of the NLT for in depth study. I appreciate the NLT but for in depth study I encourage people to use a more literal translation. Jon’s notes, however, are good resource for briefly explaining these letters.

Pastoral Epistles