The First and Second Letters to Timothy (The Anchor Yale Bible | AYB)
Overview
The letters of Paul to Timothy, one of his favorite delegates, often make for difficult reading in today’s world. They contain much that makes modern readers uncomfortable, and much that is controversial, including pronouncements on the place of women in the church and on homosexuality, as well as polemics against the so-called “false teachers.” They have also been of a source of questions within the scholarly community, where the prevailing opinion since the nineteenth century is that someone else wrote the letters and signed Paul’s name in order to give them greater authority.
Using the best of modern and ancient scholarship, Luke Timothy Johnson provides clear, accessible commentary that will help lay readers navigate the letters and better understand their place within the context of Paul’s teachings.
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- Offers original translations, including alternative translations, annotations, and variants
- Provides verse-by-verse commentary on the text
- Presents the reader with historical background, including analysis of authorship and dating
- Features an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary literature
- First Timothy: Translation, Notes, and Comments
- The Greeting (1:1–2)
- The Opening Commission (1:3–11)
- Thanks for Empowering Mercy (1:12–17)
- The Charge Repeated (1:18–20)
- Instructions on Prayer (2:1–7)
- Gender Roles in Worship (2:8–15)
- Qualifications of the Supervisor (3:1–7)
- Behavior in the Household of God (3:8–16)
- Opposition to Healthy Teaching (4:1–7a)
- Modeling Healthy Teaching (4:7b–16)
- Crisis in the Care of Widows (5:1–16)
- More Community Directives (5:17–6:2a)
- Cravings for Wealth (6:2b–10)
- Closing Commission (6:11–21)
- Second Timothy: Translation, Notes, and Comments
- Greeting (1:1–2)
- Thanksgiving (1:3–5)
- Paul as a Model of Patient Suffering (1:6–14)
- The Example Set by Onesiphorus (1:15–18)
- More Examples for Imitation (2:1–7)
- Jesus as Exemplar (2:8–13)
- The Delegate as Proven Workman (2:14–21)
- The Character of the Lord’s Servant (2:22–3:9)
- The Living Tradition (3:10–17)
- Final Exhortation (4:1–8)
- Paul’s Network of Communication (4:9–22)
Top Highlights
“I have translated the phrase as ‘faithful attention to God’s way of ordering things.’” (Page 149)
“Paul has receded to the status of a legendary hero who serves mainly to legitimate this new form of Christianity. His voice is reduced to an echo; his startling insights have become the ‘deposit of faith’ for future generations. Paul’s eschatological urgency has been reduced to a matter of ‘good citizenship.’” (Page 80)
“The order of creation as expressed in the biblical account is used to support the ordering of the social unit of the family.” (Page 201)
“This verse carries over three elements: that a woman should learn (manthanetō), that she should do so ‘quietly’ (en hēsychia, note hēsychios in 2:2), and that she should do so in ‘complete subordination’ (en pasę̄ hypotagę̄). There can be no softening of hypotagē, which suggests not simply an attitude, but a structural placement of one person below another (Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 3.66.3; 2 Cor 9:13; Gal 2:5).” (Pages 200–201)
“In this composition, there is no radical discontinuity between the will of God and the structures of society. The structures of the oikos (household) and the ekklēsia (church) are not only continuous with each other, but both are parts of the dispensation of God in the world. Timothy’s work to stabilize and secure such structures is therefore to be in service of the oikonomia theou and itself an expression of pistis (faith).” (Page 149)
- Title: The First and Second Letters to Timothy
- Author: Luke Timothy Johnson
- Series: Anchor Yale Bible (AYB)
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication Date: 2001
- Pages: 512
Luke Timothy Johnson is professor of New Testament at the Chandler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia. He is the author of The Letter of James in this series, The Writings of the New Testament, Reading Romans in Reading the New Testament Commentary (12 vols.), and of the best seller The Real Jesus, as well as other books and numerous articles on the New Testament.