Tag: 1 Timothy (Page 2 of 10)

McKnight, The Pastoral Epistles (NCBC)

November 12, 2023 / Chuck Bumgardner

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.

Pao, 1–2 Timothy, Titus

November 8, 2023 / Chuck Bumgardner

David Pao, 1-2 Timothy, Titus. Brill Exegetical Commentary 1. Leiden: Brill, 2023.

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.”

The Pastorals at ETS and SBL 2023

October 23, 2023 / Chuck Bumgardner

The 2023 ETS program does not appear to list any sessions whose titles specify a connection to the Pastorals. Note the following possibilities, however:

The Evangelicals and Women session titled “Come Let us Reason Together: Women, Authority and Scripture”

David W. Hester, “Did Paul Accept the Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres as Scripture?”

Julie Walsh, “Theological Motivations: Eph 5.33 Compared to Other NT Household Code Subsection Interpretations”

Kyeong Seo, “Anthropological Significance in the Emergence of the Concept ‘Conscience’ in the Pauline Epistles.”

The 2023 SBL Annual Meeting Program lists the following sessions which may be of interest to Pastorals researchers:

Isaiah Allen, Booth University College, “The Fictional Household of Titus 2:1–15”

Michael Bird, Ridley Melbourne, “Can We Place the Pastoral Epistles in the Chronological Space of the Second Century?”

Esther Cen, Seattle Pacific University, “A Chinese Interpretation of Youth Leadership and the Household Metaphor in 1 Timothy”

A. Andrew Das, Elmhurst University, “The Faithful Univira and Remarriage in the Pastorals”

Tobias Hägerland, University of Gothenburg, “To the Jew First but Also to the Greek: Why Are There Three Pastoral Epistles?”

Jens Herzer, Universität Leipzig, “Between Cowardice and Courage: A Philonic Background of 2 Tim 1:7?”

Lyn Kidson, Macquarie University, “‘Go Home!’ Divisions between Private and Public Space in the Pastoral Epistles“

Lyn Kidson, Macquarie University, “Intimate Partner Violence, Male Headship, and Reading 1 Timothy 2:13 as the Basis for Women’s Autonomy”

Scot McKnight, Northern Seminary, “Eusebeia as Social Respectability: The Public Life of the Christian Pastor”

Katherine Shaner, Wake Forest University, “Timothy, Slave of Christ, Slave of Paul?”

W. Andrew Smith, Shepherds Theological Seminary, “ECM Pastoral Epistles: Report”

Note also the panel discussion on Edith M. Humphrey, Mediation and the
Immediate God: Scriptures, the Church, and Knowing God, which appears to engage 1 Timothy 2:5 substantively.

New IBR research group on Pastoral Epistles

October 21, 2023 / Chuck Bumgardner

The Institute for Biblical Research has established a new Research Group on the Pastoral Epistles, with the first meeting slated at the SBL annual meeting in San Antonio.

Led by Osvaldo Padilla and Lyn Kidson, the first session will present research regarding “The Pastoral Epistles and Space.” The scheduled presentations are as follows:

Lyn Kidson, Macquarie University
“Go Home!” Divisions between Private and Public Space in the Pastoral Epistles

Scot McKnight, Northern Seminary
Eusebeia as Social Respectability: The Public Life of the Christian Pastor

Isaiah Allen, Booth University College
The Fictional Household of Titus 2:1–15

Michael Bird, Ridley Melbourne
Can We Place the Pastoral Epistles in the Chronological Space of the Second Century?

Theophilus, “Numismatic Insights into Pauline Ethics”

August 21, 2023 / Chuck Bumgardner

Though the title may not immediately grab students of the Pastorals, Michael Theophilus’s new article will be of interest:

Michael P. Theophilus, “Numismatic Insights into Pauline Ethics: ΕΥΕΡΓ- on Roman Provincial, Parthian and Seleucid Coinage.” New Testament Studies 69.3 (2023): 313–31. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0028688522000339

Abstract: Numismatic inscriptional evidence consistently employs the ΕΥΕΡΓ- word group in describing a superior providing some material public benefit to an inferior, typically an entire city, nation or kingdom. This is evidenced in the present study’s comprehensive survey of several hundred numismatic types, extant in many thousands of specimens from the second century BCE to the first century CE. Within this context, 1 Timothy 6.2 is discussed, wherein it is noted that the apparent identification of a slave’s labour as ɛὐɛργɛσία not only heightens the significance and value of that service but is a deliberate inversion of expected social and linguistic norms.

The article is open-access, available here.

LaFosse, Honouring Age

August 5, 2023 / Chuck Bumgardner

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.

From the publisher’s website:

“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. 2^nd 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.

Review of Wright, Integration: A Conversation between Theological Education and the Letters to Timothy and Titus

June 26, 2023 / Chuck Bumgardner

Paul S. Jeon, Lecturer in NT at Reformed Theological Seminary and senior pastor at NewCity Church in Vienna, VA, has reviewed the recently published volume by David C. Wright, Integration: A Conversation between Theological Education and the Letters to Timothy and Titus, International Council for Evangelical Theological Education Series (Carlisle: Langham Global Library, 2022). The review is exclusive to this blog and may be accessed here.

The Pastorals in Bibel und Kirche 78.2 (2023)

June 25, 2023 / Chuck Bumgardner

The most recent edition of Bibel und Kirche, a “journal on the Bible in research and practice [Die Zeitschrift zur Bibel in Forschung und Praxis],” has taken the Pastorals as its theme. It describes its theme in this summary:

“The two letters to Timothy and the letter to Titus are the focus of this issue. In current biblical scholarship, the three letters have a decidedly poor image. A majority assumes that the sender and addressees are a literary fiction: Neither were the letters really written by Paul, nor were Timothy and Titus their real recipients.In recent years, however, there has now been renewed movement in the discussion. The Pastoral Epistles are one of the focal points of the renewed debates about dating and authorship of the New Testament writings. There is also a new discussion about the content, especially the history of impact on the image of the church, questions of office – and also on the image of women and the question of women’s offices.” (Translation from German via DeepL)

The contents include the following articles:

Stefan Krauter
Auf den zweiten Blick
Eine Hinführung zu den Pastoralbriefen

Karl Matthias Schmidt
Larven des Lehrers
Der Abschluss der neutestamentlichen Paulus-Pseudepigraphie

Joram Luttenberger
Prophetenmantel oder Bücherfutteral?
Überlegungen zu den persönlichen Notizen in den Pastoralbriefen

Ulrike Wagener
Was sollen die Außenstehenden von uns denken?
Orientierung an der Reaktion der nichtchristlichen Umwelt
in den Pastoralbriefen

Gerd Häfner
»Eine gute Aufgabe« (1 Tim 3,1)
Ämter in den Pastoralbriefen und ihre Fortschreibung
in neuen Kontexten

Angela Standhartinger
Ältere Frauen, Presbyterinnen und Witwen in den Pastoralbriefen

Bettina Eltrop
Die Israelvergessenheit der Pastoralbriefe

Barbara Lumesberger-Loisl
“Predigtberbot für Frauen – bis heute?” Ein Zwischenruf

Literatur zum Heftthema, Mitgliederforum

Sanchez, “Making an Example”

June 21, 2023 / Chuck Bumgardner

A new article situated in 1 Timothy:

Jonathan Sanchez, “Making an Example: The Rhetorical Usefulness of Timothy in 1 Timothy.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 45.4 (2023): 351–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/0142064X231163230

Abstract: Scholars of pseudepigraphal letters have recognized that pseudepigraphy troubles the identification of the alleged addressee with the historical addressee. This means that the rhetorical addressee is a matter of choice. Building on Benjamin Fiore’s work on exemplarity, I argue that Timothy as addressee of 1 Timothy helps the Pastor articulate specific aspects of his program. Timothy, like Paul, is an example and serves as a link between Paul’s exemplarity and this letter’s readers. Through Timothy’s exemplarity, the Pastor legitimates young leadership, addressing a second-century controversy in the Jesus movement. Finally, the Pastor reframes Timothy’s reputation, distancing him from Jewish law.

Jenks, “Eve as Savior of Humanity?”

June 10, 2023 / Chuck Bumgardner

Within the Pastorals, 1 Timothy 2:9–15 holds pride of place as having more secondary literature devoted to it than any other passage in the letters. Within that passage, verse 15 has received particular focus, and has been interpreted in a surprising number of ways. With the amount of attention given to this crux interpretum it might be thought that possible understandings of the verse have been exhausted, but a new article presents yet another take on this disputed passage:

R. Gregory Jenks, “Eve as Savior of Humanity? From the Genesis Narrative to Paul’s Comments on Childbearing in 1 Timothy 2:15.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 66.1 (2023): 133–61.

Abstract: As the concluding text to one of the more controversial Pauline teachings about women in the church community, 1 Timothy 2:15 carries a host of grammatical, semantic, and cultural questions that tax the most motivated and careful exegete. It is rendered distinctly troublesome by the change in number in the verbs and debates about their referent(s), the meaning of “salvation,” and Paul’s choice of desired attributes. I examine Paul’s use of the figure of Eve by looking first at the Genesis passage, where I consider her role as Adam’s helper, her fall, her curse, and her recovery as keys to interpret her mention in 1 Timothy 2. I offer a surprising solution: Adam, not Eve, is saved through childbirth; that is, humanity is saved from extinction through the woman’s role of mother with the condition that the couple, that is, men and women in the church, maintain the godly attributes listed.