Critical Conclusion.— So far as the above contentions are concerned, it may reasonably be held that neither side has advanced decisive arguments, but that, while the character of the letters does not demonstrate Paul's authorship, on the other hand, the letters have not been proved to be by another hand. Perhaps it should also be remarked that many critics who do not accept Pauline authorship for the letters as they now stand find themselves obliged to recognize that many of the historical notices, especially in 2 Timothy, are genuinely Pauline. Various attempts have been made to show how these fragments could have been woven into documents otherwise fabricated, but thus far all attempts to give a plausible explanation of such an unparalleled literary phenomenon have failed, and it is to be recognized that, in view of the acknowledged relationship of these letters to each other, any attestation of one, as this of 2 Timothy, in some sense attests them all. In the end the decision of the problem of the genuineness of these letters will probably be found to depend on the weight to be given to their acceptance and attestation by the early Church, and it may be said to be true to-day as it was in the time of the Muratorian Frag ment (perhaps 175) : Epistle to Titus and two to Timothy, written out of personal feeling and regard, are still honored in the respect of the Catholic Church in the arrange ment of ecclesiastical discipline.° Occasion and Order of If not Pauline, critics hold that these letters were worked up to confirm the traditional views of the Church against errorists of the author's own time, many holding that 2 Timothy was first composed on the basis of genuinely Paul ine memoranda, so to speak, and on this theory, although much later dates have sometimes been suggested, they could hardly have been written after 100 or before 80, while the place of com position would be absolutely indefinite. If ac
cepted as written by Paul, all is much clearer.
1 Timothy was written to Timothy at Ephesus to strengthen him in his position as represent ative of Paul in the superintendency of the churches, probably in 65 or 66; Titus was written presumably soon after to Titus, who was in Crete in a position similar to Timothy's, to advise and confirm him in his work; and 2 Timothy was sent perhaps in 67 from the prison in Rome where Paul lay chained and facing death not remotely, to express to Timo thy his thoughts in view of this situation, and to urge him to come to Rome as soon as possible.
If these epistles are not genuine Pauline letters, they yet have a certain value as testifying to the conditions in the Church during the last decades of the 1st century in regard to both erroneous thought and needed methods of administration. If genuine, they have a much greater value still as setting forth the last thoughts of the great Apostle in refer ence to dangerous errors of the time and the Importance of both right thinking and right living, and, above all, his thoughts in view of death, constituting what we might call his last will and testament for the benefit, not of Tim othy alone, but of the Church universal.
Findlay, G. G.,