First and Second Letters to Timothy: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, The

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2003 by Richards, E Randolph

The First and Second Letters to Timothy: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary. By Luke Timothy Johnson. AB 35A. New York: Doubleday, 2001, xiv 494 pp., $40.00.

With the death of Jerome Quinn (The Letter to Titus, AB 35 [New York: Doubleday, 1990]) in the fall of 1988, the Anchor Bible series on the Pastoral Epistles remained incomplete. We applaud the choice of Luke Timothy Johnson, who maintained Quinn's tradition for erudite scholarship although not remaining in Quinn's theological tradition. Anyone familiar with Johnson's previous work on the Pastorals, seen first in his general NT introduction (The Writings of the New Testament [Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986]) and later in his shorter commentary (256 pp.) on the Pastorals (Letters to Paul's Delegates [Valley Forge: Trinity Press International, 1996]), is well aware of Johnson's sometimes impatient critique of scholars who have rejected Pauline authorship of the Pastorals, a position he now terms somewhat negatively as "conventional wisdom."

Johnson begins by acknowledging the current state of modern scholarship on the authorship of the Pastorals: "Prospects for scholarly unanimity are slender. The clear majority of scholars today considers the Pastorals as a whole to be pseudonymous. Yet a small but stubborn minority holds-in various ways and with varying degrees of enthusiasm-to the more traditional position that the letters are authentic. There is little communication between the positions. Few converts are won from one side to the other" (p. 14). Johnson then presents (pp. 55-90) what may be the best concise defense of Pauline authorship yet available-allowing for his "pit-bull" style.

Three additional parts make up his general introduction: (1) he briefly summarizes the evidence for the critical text of the Pastorals; (2) in an insightful analysis, Johnson reviews the history of research on the Pastoral Epistles (pp. 20-54), demonstrating how Pauline scholarship has reached its present state; and (3) he consistently argues that the three Pastoral letters should not be considered a distinct sub-corpus. Each letter must be taken individually. For example, when discussing the identity of those "who wish to be teachers of the law" (1 Tim 1:7), he argues that "it is important to keep the portrait of the opponents in each of the letters separate" and that we should not connect these teachers with the opponents of Titus, who are clearly outsiders "from the circumcision party" (p. 166). The opponents of 1 Timothy are false teachers who are ambitious and elitist members of the Ephesian church (p. 146), who (1) have demonstrated questionable moral character and (2) have disputed among themselves over leadership (p. 235). The opponents of 1 Timothy are Christian, unlike those in Titus, but Paul holds out no hope of their coming around, unlike his attitude in 2 Timothy (p. 146). The opponents in 2 Timothy cannot be identified by the complaints in 2:14-3:5 of word-chopping, vain debates, profane chatter, etc., since these were standard elements of the rhetoric. Only in the unusual complaints of "sneaking into homes" (3:5) and "claiming the resurrection had already happened" (2:18) can we see a peek of the opponents.

Conceding that "virtually everything about these compositions is a matter of dispute" (p. 14), Johnson follows his general introduction with, as we have come to expect from him, a stimulating and thorough commentary. He rejects classifying 1 Timothy as a manual on early church order (p. 139). Rather, 1 Timothy (and Titus also) is what Benjamin Fiore (1986) termed "mandata principis" (commandments of a ruler), earlier termed "a royal correspondence" (p. 141; cf. Wells, 1934). Johnson cites official examples, as well as some "unofficial" examples, such as a letter sent from one colleague to another (e.g. Atticus to Cicero; pp. 140-41). Such letters were a "reminder" of the "ruler" to his "delegate" to be read before the assembly, containing a combination of personal commands (such as what should be the delegate's general attitude and behavior) as well as public commands (such as the job description of the delegate and other entolai to be heard by others as well as the delegate; p. 140). Johnson argues a parallel situation for (Titus and) 1 Timothy (p. 141). Johnson classifies 2 Timothy not as a farewell discourse but as a personal paranetic letter (p. 322), citing parallels to Hellenistic protreptic discourses (pp. 323-26, 394) which make common use of the themes of memory, model, and imitation followed by direct maxims (thus explaining the sudden maxim in 2:14). These genre classifications are his unique contribution to the study of the Pastorals, but it is not necessary to agree to benefit from this commentary. The strength is the exegesis which locates the text in a concrete, historical situation in Ephesus, encased in the language and conventions of the first-century world.

Johnson begins the commentary with a fresh translation with few surprises. Those considering a commentary are often interested in how certain phrases are translated (and the underlying debate); here are a few examples from Johnson's translation of 1 Timothy: