I Timothy 1:1-11
Today we leave Paul’s “city letters” behind and move on to his “Pastoral Epistles” to Timothy and Titus for the next month or so. Today, I Timothy. First, an intro to this letter – there are two significant items worth noting. First, there is substantial controversy over whether Paul was the author of these letters, the main argument being that more than 300 words appear in these three letters that do not appear in any of the rest of Paul’s letters that we have. But most conservative Biblical scholars accept Paul’s authorship.
The second item is more compelling – that Paul had a FOURTH missionary journey (after Acts 28), and that these three letters were written while he was on that journey or after that journey when he was imprisoned again. In addition to The Chronological Study Bible I have a NASB Study Bible, published by Zondervan, which has a two-page (half-page each) presentation for this fourth missionary journey, with Biblical references to justify that argument. I will send those pages to you in a separate note. The NASB Study Bible doesn’t do “ifs” and “maybes”; it states clearly that Paul had this fourth journey. That was all news to me. Intriguing!
Slava Bohu!
This is great, thank you! I heard rumors but no specifics about a 4th trip.
One thing I noted is that in v. 10, Paul includes slave traders in his list of sinners. Interesting addition!