Sermon Tone Analysis

1 Timothy 1

1 Timothy 1

Sean Emslie / General

1 Timothy

 

› Background

Modern scholars question the Pauline authorship of the Pastorals including 1 Timothy.

Pauline authorship was unquestioned until about 100 years ago.

An Introduction to the New Testament Adoption into the Canon
Adoption into the Canon

This letter is quoted by Polycarp, Athenagoras, and later writers.

Clearly, it was widely regarded as written by Paul and accepted as canonical.

An Introduction to the New Testament Provenance



Provenance

Not enough is known to identify the place of origin with certainty.

The best suggestion is that the letter was written from Macedonia.

Paul does not explicitly say that he was in that province when he wrote, but he does say, “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus” (1:3).

This appears to mean that he had been with Timothy in Ephesus, from which point he went on to Macedonia, leaving his young assistant behind.

Now in Macedonia, Paul writes reiterating the instruction he had given Timothy at the point of departure.

Date

If Paul was released from his imprisonment in Rome and wrote this letter during the course of his subsequent missionary activities, we should date it during the 60s, probably the early 60s.

It has traditionally been held that the apostle was martyred under Nero (who died in 68).

The chronology of his life is not absolutely certain, but it is usually thought that he arrived in Rome, as narrated in Acts, in 59 or 60.

Allowing for the couple of years of his imprisonment there (Acts 28:30), he would have been released in 62.

His letter to the Romans shows that he wanted to go to Spain, and he may have done this immediately on release and gone to Macedonia later.

Or he may have gone immediately to the East and left a trip to Spain until a later time.

Many modern scholars think that we should place his death at the height of the Neronian persecution, say in 64, in which case 1 Timothy will be a year or two earlier.

Eusebius says Paul died in 67; if this is correct, we could put the writing of the letter at 65 or even 66.

The Opening Greetings (1:1–2)

Complete Jewish Bible Chapter 1

1 Ti 1:1 From: Sha’ul, an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua by command of God our deliverer and the Messiah Yeshua our hope, 
 2 To: Timothy, a true son because of your trust: 
 Grace, mercy and shalom from God the Father and the Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

From Sha'ul

The writer of this letter is the Apostle Paul.

Paul is also known as Sha'ul.

The Complete Jewish Bible uses the name Sha'ul for all references to the Apostle Paul in the Brit Hadashah.

Sha'ul was his Hebrew or "synagogue" name (Reumann 2008, Volume 33b, Page 53).

Like other Jews of the time, he also adopted a Græco-Roman second name, Paulus or in English, Paul (Deissmann 1901, 315-317) .

This second "Gentile" name was usually chosen based on a similar sound or other relationship to the Hebrew name (O'Brien n.d., 44) .

This choice of names is similar to how people who convert to Judaism or were not raised religious adopt a Jewish name later in life similar to their birth name, for example, Robert- Reuben or Susan-Shoshanna.

Starting in Acts 13:9 we read:

“Then Sha’ul, also known as Paul, filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, stared straight at him and said,” (Acts 13:9, CJB)

From this point in Acts forward, Luke refers to Sha'ul by his Græco-Roman name, Paul.

Paul also refers to himself in all of his letters as Paul(Betz 1992, Volume 5, Page 187).

This change of name from Sha'ul to Paul in Acts could be understood as marking a change of focus and field of service, from Sha'ul the Jewish disciple to Paul the Apostle of Messiah to the whole world, his globally recognized name reflecting on his new global mission (Deissmann 1901, 315--317) .

This is in contrast to the teaching that he changed his name from Sha'ul to Paul to demonstrate his rejection of Judaism and his life as a Jew to become Paul the Christian.

God our deliverer

The Greek word “soteria” may be rendered “deliverer” (Hebrew go˒el) or “savior” (Hebrew moshia˓).

God as “deliverer” appears in the seventh blessing of the ˓Amidah:

“Look on our affliction, plead our cause and deliver us quickly for your name’s sake; for you are a mighty deliverer.

Blessed are you, Adonai, deliverer of Israel.”

In the first blessing of the ˓Amidah, God is spoken of as bringing a “deliverer” (go˒el) in the future, but being himself “savior” (moshia˓):

“Blessed are you, … God, … who remembers the pious deeds of the Patriarchs, and who in love will bring a redeemer [go˒el] to their children’s children for your name’s sake.

King, helper, savior [moshia˓] and shield!

Blessed are you, Adonai, shield of Abraham.”

Except for Lk 1:47 and Yd 25, where God is praised in the language of the Tanakh, only in this book (here, 2:3, 4:10) and sometimes in Titus is the word “sôtêr” applied to God the Father.

Elsewhere in the New Testament it refers to Yeshua, the redeemer whom God has brought to the Patriarchs’ children’s children.

For more on “sôtêr” see Lk 2:11N.

to Timothy

Timothy was one of the most loyal co-workers of the Apostle Paul who joined him as he was beginning his Second Missionary Journey where he was going to the Messianic communities of Asia Minor to share the rulings of the Jerusalem Council announcing the opening of Gentiles into the Messianic Community as Gentiles, without the need to convert to Judaism.

Timothy is introduced in Acts 16:1-4,

“Sha’ul came down to Derbe and went on to Lystra, where there lived a talmid named Timothy.

He was the son of a Jewish woman who had come to trust, and a Greek father.

All the brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of Timothy.

Sha’ul wanted Timothy to accompany him; so he took him and did a b’rit-milah, because of the Jews living in those areas; for they all knew that his father had been a Greek.

As they went on through the towns, they delivered to the people the decisions reached by the emissaries and the elders in Yerushalayim for them to observe.”

(Acts 16:1–4, CJB)

In this introduction, it can be seen that Timothy was the son of a Jewish mother who had become a follower of Yeshua (and we will also learn that his grandmother Eunice was also a Messianic Jew in 2 Tim 1:5, making him a 3rd generation Messianic Jew) and a Greek father.

Though we do not know why Timothy was uncircumcised on the eighth day, it appears from the text that his father was Greek which would mean that his father objected to having his son circumcised.

Timothy's father's objection to circumcision may be based on the Greek aesthetic concern for desecrating the perfect human form by removing the foreskin or it could have been a rejection of Jewish separateness from Gentile society by being circumcised and having a mark on the flesh to denote inclusion in the People of Israel and distinction from the "uncircumcised" world (Schäfer 2014, 98,105).

So as not to have any confusion or an issue to disrupt the work of spreading the Gospel with Timothy at his side, Paul circumcised Timothy (Acts 16:3).

Paul did not want Timothy's ambiguous Jewish identity to pose a roadblock in the work of sharing their message among the Jewish populations of Asia Minor that were familiar with him and the fact that he was Jewish and uncircumcised would have caused a stumbling block to the mission of sharing the Jewish Messiah with fellow Jews.

(Stern 1996, Acts 16:3) .

Paul demonstrates Timothy's importance to him as a co-worker and disciple by mentioning Timothy in eight of his letters, and he is also a recipient of two of Paul's letters (Stern 1996, Phil.

1:1) .

Grace to you and shalom

The standard greeting for letters in Greek would use the word, χαίρειν that mean "greetings."

Paul in his letters changes χαίρειν (chairein/greetings) to χάρις (charis/grace) (O'Brien n.d., 50) .

This reflects a substantial change from offering his readers just "greetings" but "grace," an opening word reflecting on a core teaching of the Messianic faith.

Paul also adds εἰρήνη (eirene/peace), the Greek word used for שלום (shalom/peace) in the LXX (Septuagint).

This can be seen as Paul reflecting on the deep meaning of shalom in Hebrew Bible as being a spiritual completeness or wholeness (Silva 2007, 38) .

The use of these two greetings, grace and shalom, could be seen as reflecting Paul sending the Philippians a common Greek and common Jewish greeting to begin his letter to this community of Gentile and Jewish Yeshua followers (Bockmuehl 1997, Phil.

1:2) .

from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

Paul completes the greeting making clear to the Timothy that grace and shalom come from God the Father and the Lord Yeshua.

We can see that Paul acknowledges the divine nature of Yeshua and his eternal unity with God the Father and elsewhere with the Spirit of God to form the triune God (Fee 1995, 70).

Instructions concerning False Teachers (1:3–11)

Warning against false teachers (1:3–11)

Complete Jewish Bible Chapter 1

3 As I counseled you when I was leaving for Macedonia, stay on in Ephesus, so that you may order certain people who are teaching a different doctrine to stop. 
 4 Have them stop devoting their attention to myths and never-ending genealogies; these divert people to speculating instead of doing God’s work, which requires trust.

5 The purpose of this order is to promote love from a clean heart, from a good conscience and from sincere trust.

When I was leaving for Macedonia.

This trip of Paul’s is not recorded in the book of Acts.

Perhaps after being imprisoned in Rome (Acts 28) he was released and able to travel to the congregations he had started in Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea (Acts 16–17).

If you remember Paul mentions in Philippians that he hoped to return there to visit them, though we have no record if he was able to go to them.

stay on in Ephesus

Paul here is leaving his traveling companion Timothy in Ephesus as he travelled alone to Macedonia.

He here is making Timothy aware of his establishment as a leader in Ephesus as Paul’s representative.

confronting false teaching

It appears that the false teaching involved a false teaching over heredity.

Dr. Stern said that it could be Messianic Jews touting their Jewish heritage as making them more important in the community and seeking to make Gentiles feel less as they lacked Jewish heritage.

It could also be as we see even today that Gentile believers obsessed with genealogical research to find a Jewish relative or someone at least with a Jewish sounding name to bolster their status.

The clear teaching of Paul is that Jews are Jews and Gentiles are Gentiles and all are part of the Messianic community and these endless genealogies and myths (makes me think of the teacher that was telling Hispanic people that if their name ended in S or Z or their name is an animal or plant they must be of Jewish descent.

the purpose is unity

As in all of Paul’s letters the value of unity and oneness in the Body of Messiah is paramount.

This is seen here as Timothy is called to put an end to this teaching that is separating the community and distracting people by following after fruitless studies.

Complete Jewish Bible Chapter 1

6 Some, by aiming amiss, have wandered off into fruitless discussion.