Loading...Here is an annotated list of books on the Pastoral Epistles of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, most of them relevant to all the Deutero-Pauline epistles with a couple of commentaries that deal with 2 Thessalonians. One benefit of serious commentaries is that they always begin by discussing major critical issues in understanding a book: authorship, date, historical context, major themes, disputed issues, and so on.
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The Pastoral Epistles are often treated as a group, but I’ve recently read some proposals for the possible authenticity of 2 Timothy. Most often, they suggest that 2 Timothy’s differences from Paul’s other letters can be explained by their being written later in his life and on a much more personal subject matter, and that 1 Timothy and Titus were later forgeries modelled on the letter we now call 2 Timothy. Studies on the language of the Pastorals (such as P. N. Harrison’s The Problem of the Pastoral Epistles) almost unanimously place 2 Timothy as the most “Pauline”, albeit still very different; fewer hapax legomena, less common language with apostolic fathers/apologists, etc, which is particularly interesting as 2 Timothy may be expected to be the MOST different of the Pastorals. Now, this evidence certainly does not take suspicion off of 2 Timothy – it’s still far different from most Paulines – but in my mind, it does leave room for 2 Timothy to be possibly genuine or at least a forgery under a different & earlier hand, though still unlikely. What are your thoughts on the arguments for 2 Timothy’s authenticity, separated from the other pastoral epistles?
Yes, I was inclined in that way myself for many years, up until I did my deep dive into the issues for my book Forgery and Counterforgery. I ended up concluding not only that Harrison was not right (as brilliant as his book was/is) but also that 2 Timothy was almost certainly written by the author of the other two. I have a somewhat detailed discussoin of the evidence in my book on pp. 195-205 if you want to check it out. (The personal references in 2 Timothy are often the most adduced argument for it being distinct)
Hello Dr.Bart Erhman
You have said that Peter was martryd but do you also think he was crusified in Rome, i suppose Jerusalem is a more probable place for his death.
I don’t know; I don’t think there’s much evidence one way or the other.