- Chapters
- 6
- Verses
- 0
- Where it sits
- The Letters of Paul
What it is
Addressed to Timothy, left in charge at Ephesus and dealing with teachers of what Paul calls myths and endless genealogies. It is the most practical thing in the Pauline corpus: what to look for in a man before you ordain him, how public prayer should go, how to look after widows, how to handle money.
Known for
3:1–13, the qualifications for bishops and deacons. 6:12.
A note for Orthodox readers
Chapter 3 is still the vocabulary of Orthodox ordained ministry — episkopos, presbyteros, diakonos — whatever one concludes about who held the pen.
Where it sits
The Pastorals — 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus — are the most disputed group in the New Testament. The grounds: a great deal of vocabulary found nowhere else in Paul, a different prose style, and a settled church structure that many read as later than Paul’s lifetime. Defenders point to early external attestation and to the difference in subject matter. The Orthodox Church reads all three as Paul’s in the Liturgy.
---