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FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY
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TIMOTHY, FIRST EPISTLE TO. This book of the New Testament is really a pastoral letter upon church order, addressed by the apostle Paul to the Asiatic Christian communities in and round Ephesus (i.3).1 The object of the writing is stated in iii. 15: 1- 44 I €i bi airy Oeoi3 ava.Qrpkbeo-Oat. It is thrown into, the literary form2 of a letter from Paul to his lieutenant Timothy, but, as the closing salutation indicates (vi. 21, "grace be with you," spiv), the writer really has the Church in his mind all through. The Pauline standard of doctrine is set up (i. 3-20) as the norm of thought and practice. This trust and tradition is to be maintained throughout the churches. It involves, the writer proceeds to argue, the proper conduct of public worship (ii. I seq., 8 seq.), and the proper qualification forepiscopi(iii. 2 seq.) and diaconi (iii. 8 seq.). The finale of this section (iii. 15-16) leads, by way of contrast, to a sharp prophetic warning against contemporary errorists(iv. 1 seq.), with advice upon the proper management of various classes of people within the Church (v. 1 seq.). Special attention is given to the ecclesiastical widows " (3 seq.) and to presbyters (17 seq.). After a word on slaves and masters (vi. 1-2), the epistle recurs to the errorists (vi. 3 seq.), passing into a warning against wealth (6 seq.) and an impressive closing charge (II seq.). The writing closes with the , Xaptn O' vlliav of verse 21. The context and contents of vi. 17-21a suggest that it is a later interpolation, such as writings on church discipline were i The same motive occurs in the preface to Irenaeus's treatise, Adv. ivies.