PASTORAL EPISTLES, THE. This is a title given to three New Testament epistles which purport to have been written by St. Paul to Timothy (two) and Titus. From the second century onwards it was recognised that these three epistles bore specially upon church work and orders; but it was not until the eighteenth century that some German scholars devised the convenient term "Pastoral" to denote the group. "How people ought to bear them selves in the household of God" (I. Tim. iii.i5) is the general subject of all three, and special stress is laid upon the responsi bilities of Christian ministers in their pastoral care of the Church. The epistles contain much personal information, especially 2 Timothy, but their common aim differentiates them from a semi-private letter like Philemon. In outlook, diction and style, they stand by themselves in the New Testament canon.
I. First Timothy is a pastoral letter in the form of counsels from St. Paul to his younger colleague Timothy (i.1-2), but the plural "you" in the final greeting (vi.2i) reveals the fact that all along the writer has the Church in his mind. After reminding Timothy that he had been left at Ephesus to safeguard the faith of local Christians, the writer proceeds to contrast the anti nomian practices of the errorists with the Pauline gospel as the norm of faith and morals 0.30. To this apostolic trust and tra dition Timothy is bidden. adhere. Then follow a series of regula tions on various aspects of church-life (ii. if) ; for whom and by whom prayer is to be offered in worship, the latter counsel (8f) drifting into a word on the subordination of women; the qualifications of a bishop (iE' f), of deacons and deaconesses (9f) ; the general advice at the close of this section (i4f) im plies that even organisation and worship cannot altogether elim inate heresies and moral aberrations, so that the writer passes (iv.' 0 to the need for Timothy meeting such dangers by a faith ful ministry. This includes wise behaviour towards individual groups in the church (v.' f), such as widows (3-16), presbyters (17f) and slaves (vi.if). A brief conclusion (vi.3f) contrasts the true "man of God" with the errorists who profaned religion by their quarrelsomeness and self-seeking.
Second Timothy is less loosely knit and less discursive. After (iA) warning Timothy against false shame, when his chief was imprisoned and suffering, he urges the younger man (i3f) to follow the heroic example of a certain Onesiphorus, who had proved himself loyal to Paul and the Pauline cause, and to uphold at all costs (1iA) the gospel of his chief, transmitting the apos tolic tradition to subordinate agents, teaching and practising it himself, and maintaining a firm position against (i6f) contro versial errorists of the period. After exposing their methods and
spirit OLIO, the writer warns Timothy again (iii.iof) by his own example that suffering is inevitable in the service of the gospel, and that the apostolic gospel must be upheld (13f) un flinchingly (iv.if). The final paragraphs (iv.6f) solemnly describe the critical position of the apostle as he faces a martyr's death, and the epistle closes with a number of personal messages.
Titus is on the whole more of a unity than either of the others. After the greeting (i.I-4), the writer recalls the duties of Titus in the island of Crete, where presbyters have to be appointed with care, and the local errorists dealt with sharply. Then come in structions on the sound doctrine which Titus is to convey to various classes of people (HA), in the light of the true gospel (Iof) ; these general counsels are reiterated OLIO in view of the outside world, believers being expected to rise above worldli ness and wrangling. A few personal remarks (iii.12f) conclude the epistle.
The only passage in Titus which seems out of place is i.7-9, which reads like a later interpolation, breaking the connection between ver.6 and ver.bo; it may be a marginal gloss added by the writer himself, or inserted by some editor who was interested in the monarchical episcopate. Such additions were not uncommon in writings used for ecclesiastical procedure. "It is very probable that the Pastoral Epistles contain many interpolations in which statements about errors and even directions about discipline have been somewhat altered to suit the requirements of the middle of the second century" (Lindsay, Church and Ministry in the Early Centuries, p. 141). Thus it is possible that the formula "Faithful is the saying" (I. Tim. i.15, etc.) is an appended phrase. I. Tim. v.23 also reads like a marginal gloss, unless it originally lay else where. That some passages have been displaced is a fair hypothe sis; e.g. I. Tim. i.12-17 would come better between ver.2 and ver.3, whilst vi.17-21 is either a later edition or misplaced from the vicinity of ver.8, and the correct place for v.16 is after v.4. In 2 Tim. iv.9f the heterogeneous character of the text is most apparent ; there is no good reason to doubt the authenticity of the contents, but it is hardly possible to take them as they stand, and the general conclusion is that we have here two or three notes written at various times, which have been put side by side by the editor, and which refer to some earlier phases in the apostle's life.