TIMOTHY ("one who honors God"), one of the companions of St. Paul on his missionary travels. Timothy was born either at Lystra or Derbe; his father was a Greek, his mother a Jewess (Acts xvi: 1-2). Both his mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, were Christians (II Tim. i:5), having probably been convert ed by St. Paul on his first missionary tour through Lycaonia (Acts xiv: 6). Hence Timothy early knew the [Jewish] scriptures, probably with Christian in terpretations (II Tim. iii: 15) ; but his actual conversion seems to have been effected through the instrumentality of St. Paul, if, indeed, this be the meaning of the phrase "my own son in the faith" (I Tim. i: 2). His constitution was fee ble, sensitive, with a certain tendency to asceticism, yet not free from temptation to "youthful lusts" (II Tim. ii: 22). He was strongly recommended to St. Paul by the Christians at Lystra and Iconium. The apostle therefore chose him as mis sionary colleague, and had him circum cised for the sake of facilitating his work among the Jews (Acts xvi: 3). He thor oughly gained the confidence and affec tion of St. Paul, and was with him in Macedonia and Corinth (A. D. 52-53; Acts xvii; 14, xviii: 5; I Thess. is 1), and at Ephesus, from which he was dis patched for special duty to Corinth (A. D. 55-56; I Cor. iv: 17, xvi: 10). Return ing, he was with St. Paul when the sec ond epistle to the Corinthians and that to the Romans were penned (II Cor. is 1; Rom. xvi: 21), as also when he passed through Asia Minor prior to his arrest (A. D. 57-58; Acts xx: 4), and during his imprisonment at Rome (A. D. 61-63; Col. i:1; Philem. 1; Phil. i:1). Prob ably about A. D. 64 he was left in charge of the Ephesian church. In Heb. xiii: 23 his own imprisonment and liberation are recorded. Tradition makes him ul timately suffer martyrdom, either in A. D. 96 or in A. D. 109.
The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to epistle addressed by St. Paul to Timothy. Some persons in the Ephesian church had taught, or appear ed disposed to teach, a doctrine different from that of the apostle. Paul there fore, on departing from Macedonia, left Timothy behind to restrain these false teachers (I Tim. i: 3-7), pretentious men too much given to profitless "fables and endless genealogies" (verse 4). Paul charged Timothy to preach the Gospel, defining it as a "faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sin ners" i: 5-20). Paul then commends
prayer (ii: 1-8), defines the position of women in the Christian church (9-15), explains the duties of a bishop (iii: 1-7), and of a deacon and his wife (iii: 8-13), and, expressing the hope that he soon may see Timothy (iii: 14), he gives him personal counsel (15), presents as beyond controversy the mystery (hidden thing) of godliness (16), predicts by the Spirit perilous times (iv: 1-4), adds fresh in junction to his younger colleague (v-vi), explaining what his action should be toward elderly and younger men, and eld er and younger women (v: 1-16), the Christian functionaries called elders (17), slaves (vi: 1-2), the rich (17-19), and what should be his conduct in the office which he held in trust (20-21). Eu sebius summed up the verdict of Chris tian antiquity in placing the first epistle to Timothy among the Homologoumena. Modern rationalistic critics, from Schmidt and Schleiermacher to Renan, have denied its authenticity, of which, however, there have been powerful de fenders. Various dates have been as signed it; one of the most probable is A. D. 56.
The Second Epistle of Paul the Apos tle to Timothy.—An epistle written by St. Paul after he had become a prisoner (i: 8) in Rome (17), in bonds (ii: 9), who had been at least once judicially ex amined and been required to make his "answer" (iv: 16), a crisis which, how ever, ended in his being "delivered out of the mouth of the lion" [Nero (?)] (iv: 17). Commencing by expressing his love for Timothy, and his earnest desire to see him (i: 1-5), he exhorts him to steadfastness in the faith (6-18), to har diness and unworldliness (ii: 1-7), to the avoidance of frivolous and entangling questions, to purity (ii: 8-23), and to meekness under provocation (24-26). His counsels are all the more fervent that many have deserted him for heresy or the world (i: 15, ii: 17, iv: 10), and he foresaw that a general impatience of sound doctrine was destined to appear (iii: 1-17, iv: 1-4). A certain air of sadness pervades the epistle, but the writer looks forward to his probably near martyrdom in tranquil trust in his Re deemer whom he had served so long and so well (iv: 6-8). He closes with sundry greetings and with the benediction. The evidence for the authenticity of the epis tle is the same as that for the previous letter. Two dates assigned it are A. D. 63, and July or August A. D. 65. It seems to have been the last of St. Paul's epistles.