The voluminous literature addressing 1 Timothy 2:11-15 has been supplemented by a new essay:
Archer, Melissa. “Was the Spirit Poured out on Women to Remain Silent in the Church? Reading 1 Corinthians 14.34–35 and 1 Timothy 2.11–15 in the Light of Pentecost.” Pages 123–34 in Grieving, Brooding, and Transforming: The Spirit, The Bible, and Gender. Journal of Pentecostal Theology Supplement Series 46. Edited by Cheryl Bridges Johns and Lisa P. Stephenson. Leiden: Brill, 2021.
Doug Moo has now published his important volume on Pauline theology in the Biblical Theology of the New Testament series:
Douglas J. Moo. A Theology of Paul and His Letters: The Gift of the New Realm in Christ. Biblical Theology of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2021.
After two introductory chapters, Moo examines the theology of Paul’s letters one by one before addressing Paul’s theology from a biblical theological standpoint. Each of the Pastorals receives its own individual treatment (1 Timothy, 316–34; Titus, 335–39; 2 Timothy, 340–44). As well, since Moo accepts the Pastorals as authentically Pauline, he incorporates them into his larger Pauline theology.
A recent article engages the topic of wealth in the context of the Pastorals, a topic which happens to be pertinent to the upcoming presentations in the ETS Pastorals study group.
Jackson Reinhardt. “‘God, Who Giveth Us Richly’: Wealth, Authorship, and Audience in 1 Timothy 6.” Journal of the Oxford Graduate Theological Society 2.1 (2021): 101–14.
Abstract: “While prior biblical scholarship has firmly rejected the Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles (1–2 Timothy and Titus), rarely has analysis focused on socio-economic context. I argue that examining the economic conditions and theology of 1 Timothy provides additional reasons to rejects the letter’s authenticity. While Paul’s audience was primarily impoverished urbanites, the author of 1 Timothy (i.e., the Pastor) was writing to a prosperous congregation who needed instruction on the proper handling of their wealth. Paul’s theology of wealth, in turn, reflects the context of his audience: he supported inter-ecclesial programs of mutual interdependence and a rejection of the prevailing modes of economic exploitation that existed in first-century Palestine. The Pastor does not promote any similar alternative economy among believers. He contends that wealthy believers should be charitable so as to build up a heavenly treasure and secure posthumous favor.”
A PDF of the article is freely available here.
Phil Towner has added an essay to the voluminous literature on 1 Tim 2:8–15:
Philip H. Towner. “Resonance, Dissonance, Resistance and 1 Timothy 2.8–15: The Eschatological Obsolescence and ‘Rewriting’ of a Proscriptive Text.” Między Oryginałem a Przekładem 53.3 (2021): 67–84.
A PDF of the article (which is in English) may be obtained at https://journals.akademicka.pl/moap/article/view/3861 .
The article is a reworked version of Towner’s 2010 ETS presentation of nearly the same title. According to the introductory article in the journal, the essay was presented “in the Workshop on Contemporary Theory and Practice of Bible Translation, an interconfessional seminar which takes place at the Pontifical Urbaniana University at the beginning of every academic year.”
Abstract: “This study asks whether translation might be a valid mode of (literary)
criticism. It approaches a hortatory biblical text (1 Timothy 2.8-14 [3.1a]),
somewhat notoriously and rigidly applied in some quarters of the church
as containing timeless ethical instruction concerning women in the church,
from the standpoint of its intertextual network, listening for resonance and
dissonance as the relevant intertexts and precursor texts are explored. It
is ultimately diagnosed as a text that is eschatologically obsolescent, and
translated/rewritten, on the basis of its intertextual composition, to reflect
the openness inscribed by the authorial Other.”
Sidney Machado, of the Faculdades Claretianas in Brazil, and visiting professor at the Pontifical Ateneo Santo Anselmo in Rome, has added to the extensive literature on 1 Timothy 3:16 with a recent article in Revista Pistis Praxis.
Sidney Damasio Machado. “‘Manifestado na carne’ (1Tm 3,16): Considerações sobre a transmissão damensagem cristã na Igreja primitive // ‘Manifested in the flesh’ (1Tm 3,16): Considerations on the Transmission of the Christian Message in the Early Church.” Revista Pistis Praxis 13.2 (2021): 758–85. (full-text article available at https://doi.org/10.7213/2175-1838.13.02.DS05)
The article is in Portuguese, but the abstract in English will provide guidance:
Abstract: The theme of epiphany/vision unifies most religious and philosophical expressions in the early Greco-Roman world. The use of the expression “manifested in the flesh” (“ἐφανερωθη ἐν σαρκί” (1Tm 3,16)) in the Pastoral Letters [is indicative] of the efforts of early Christianity to dialogue with the culture and inculturate the content of the Christian faith in the Hellenistic environment. Seeing the commitment to inculturated evangelization in the early Church constitutes an incentive and a provocation in view of an inculturated evangelization.
Researchers in the Pastorals may be interested in a new article on moral formation as an integral part of Christian higher education. This is, to my knowledge, the first article in the five-year-old Journal of Theological Interpretation specifically focusing on a passage from the Pastorals:
Seth Heringer. “Beginning with the End: 1 Timothy 1:3–6 and Formative Theological Education.” Journal of Theological Interpretation 15.2 (2021): 365–80. https://doi.org/10.5325/jtheointe.15.2.0365
Abstract: Institutions of Christian higher education are currently facing numerous and substantial challenges pressuring them to direct resources into training students in professional skills and away from religious and moral formation. Contrary to this prevailing movement, Joel Green has emphasized that Christian education should be orientated toward the church with the goal of forming students to love God with their whole being. This article will argue that Green’s position is rooted in 1 Tim 1:3–6, where Paul juxtaposes heterodox and orthodox instruction. Heterodox instruction seeks “myths” and “genealogies,” leading to worthless arguments and the destruction of relationships. Orthodox instruction teaches about God’s ordering of the world according to his plan as revealed in the gospel. The telos of orthodox instruction is love brought about by three penultimate ends: “a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.” If these ends are to be sought by Christian institutions, then formative instruction is a biblically mandated, essential aim that must be sought through institution-wide efforts and measured like other educational outcomes.
The schedule for the SBL 2021 Annual Meeting in San Antonio is now available. The following sessions should be of interest to specialists in the Pastorals. Click here to read abstracts of these presentations.
Carson Bay, University of Bern
“To Instruct, to Rebuke, to Correct”: 2 Timothy 3:16, Josephus Against Apion 1.3, and Hellenistic Apologetic between Christian Epistolography and Jewish Historiography
Greg Beale, Reformed Theological Seminary
“Fight the Good Fight” in 1 Tim. 1:18
Brad Bitner, Westminster Seminary California
1 Timothy and the Confession Inscriptions of Asia Minor
David R. Edwards, Florida State University
“Taken Up in Glory”: Early Christian Traditions of the Ascension of Jesus in Light of 1 Tim. 3:16
Paul Robertson, University of New Hampshire
Cluster Mapping Paul’s Letters: Grouping and Identifying the Location of Stylistic Similarities
Jonathan Sanchez, University of Notre Dame
Making an Example: The Rhetorical Usefulness of Timothy in 1 Timothy
W. Andrew Smith, Shepherds Theological Seminary
Progress towards the ECM of the Pastoral Epistles
Angela Standhartinger, University of Marburg, Germany
Duties of Age: Old Women in the Pastoral Epistles in Context
Adam White, Alphacrucis College
Setting the Boundaries: Reading 1 Timothy and Titus as Community Charters
Sławomir Torbus is “a graduate of the Institute of Classical Philology and Ancient Culture at the University of Wroclaw.… He received his doctorate from the University of Wroclaw in 2004. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Hellenic Studies Institute of Classical Studies, Mediterranean and Oriental at the University of Wroclaw. He is a specialist in the history and theory of rhetoric and especially the analysis of the rhetoric of the New Testament.” (source)
He has a previous article on 1 Tim 4:7 in Polish (with an English-language abstract): “‘Baśnie starych kobiet’ w 1 Tm 4,7: Wokół interpretacji przymiotnika γραώδης [“‘Old Women’s Fables’ in 1 Tim. 4,7: Interpretations of the Adjective γραώδης”],” Theologica Wratislaviensia 10 (2015): 139–49. He has just published a second article (in English) which builds upon the first one:
Torbus, Sławomir. “Oral Teachings of Old Women in 1 Timothy 4:7.” Quaestiones Oralitatis 5 (2020): 133–43.
Abstract: “The paper attempts to consider the possibility that the expression γραώδεις μῦθοι used in 1 Timothy 4:7 might refer to oral teachings conveyed by older women in Ephesus. It can be observed that in the Pastoral Epistles, the word μῦθοι denotes false teachings which stand in sharp contrast with the truth contained in the written Scriptures. The context of 1 Timothy may suggest the possibility that older women could convey such oral teachings in the space of the οἶκος, which was a natural ecclesiastical environment of the earliest Christian church.”
Both articles are available at Academia.
I gratefully acknowledge the help of Dominik Tomczyk for his assistance in all things Pastorals-related in the Polish language (and there are many!). He has recently published an article on 1 Timothy 6:17–19 (which happens to connect topically with this year’s ETS theme):
Tomczyk, Dominik. “Bogactwo jako hojność dawania. Analiza lingwistyczno-teologiczna 1Tm 6,17–19 / Wealth as Generosity in Giving: Linguistic and Theological Study of 1Tm 6:17–19.” Wrocławski Przegląd Teologiczny [Wrocław Theological Review] 29.1 (2021): 71–93.
The article is in Polish, but has an English-language abstract (reproduced below), and I found that the pdf translated reasonably well using Google Translate — enough to get the gist of the article. Note also that in the first footnote there is a good bibliography of earlier treatments of the article’s passage of interest. The article is available at Academia.
Abstract: The author of the article provides a linguistic and theological study of
the text from 1Tm 6:17-19, which is a sort of “instruction” offered by the author of the Letter on the Christian attitude towards wealth. Each one of these three verses is analysed separately. The paper draws the reader’s attention to the fact that the material riches owned by a man is a gift from God and brings with itself a threefold accountability: to man, to society and to God. The text under study underlines two main components of wealth which are captured by the adjectives εὐμετάδοτος (generosity beyond measure) and κοινωνικός (the social dimension of wealth). God’s intention for providing men with tangible assets (wealth) is, primarily, doing good to others, also by generous sharing of their possessions. We should perceive wealth from the eschatological point of view which ought to influence the present attitude of wealthy people. A rich man should put his trust not in ephemeral and temporary things but in God who is everlasting and eternal. He is the source of all abundance and wealth. Rich Christians should imitate God in His universal attitude of sharing with everybody.
An article for those interested in the reception history of the Pastorals, and of 1 Tim 2:8–15 in particular:
J. R. C. Cousland, “‘What the Thunder Said’: A Note on Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley and I Timothy 2.11–14.” Brontë Studies (2021). (doi) [the individual article appears to be available online without having been formally incorporated into a journal issue yet]
Abstract: Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley (1849) offers a revealing example of how she herself might interpret Scripture when she has her heroine Caroline Helstone offer an alternative reading of I Timothy 2. 11–14. Her reading is prescient in recognising the hermeneutical problems posed by the passage, but also reveals a deep-rooted dissatisfaction with the social structures that prohibit women from gaining the theological education afforded to men. Brontë’s innate conviction that women are also made in the imago dei is the propelling force in her willingness to question patriarchal narratives of Scripture.
If the title of the article intrigues you (as it did me!), you can find Brontë’s Shirley online here, and the pertinent section appears to be on pp. 270–72.
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