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The First Epistle to Timothy is a book of the canonic New Testament, one of the three so-called "pastoral epistles" (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and the Epistle to Titus). It is offered as a letter from Paul to Timothy.
1 Authorship and date
1.1 Traditional view
The traditional view accepts Paul as the author, and a date around AD 66 or 67. According to Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), "it is a letter from Paul to Timothy. Paul's authorship was undisputed in antiquity, as far as known, but is frequently doubted today.
"Paul in this epistle speaks of himself as having left Ephesus for Macedonia (1:3), and hence not Laodicea, as mentioned in the subscription; but probably Philippi, or some other city in that region, was the place where this epistle was written. During the interval between his first and second imprisonments he probably visited the scenes of his former labours in Greece and Asia, and then found his way into Macedonia, whence he wrote this letter to Timothy, whom he had left behind in Ephesus."
1.2 Critical view
Since none of the pastoral epistles were included in Marcion's canon of ten epistles, which was assembled c. 140Alternate uses, see Number 140''. Events Pope Pius I succeeded Pope Hyginus. Ptolemy completes his Almagest (approximate date). Births Deaths 140., and since there is no certain quotation of any of these epistles before IrenaeusIrenaeus (c. 130 202) was bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, which is now Lyons, France. He is recognized as a saint by both the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology., c. 170Alternate uses, see Number 170''. Events Births Deaths Marcus Cornelius Fronto, Roman grammarian, rhetorician and advocate (approximate date) An Shih Kao, Buddhist missionary 170., the critical view is that they were written about the middle of the 2nd century1st century 2nd century 3rd century other centuries) Events Roman Empire governed by the Five Good Emperors' ( 96 180) Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius. Significant persons Cai Lun, Chinese inventor Galen, medical writer Saint Irena. Critics examining the text fail to find its vocabulary and literary style similar to Paul's unquestionably authentic letters, fail to fit the situation of Paul in the epistle into Paul's reconstructed biography, and identify principles of the emerged Christian church rather than those of the apostolic generation. In the First Epistle to Timothy the task of preserving the tradition is entrusted to ordained presbyters, in a sense of presbuteros as an indication of an office that is alien to Paul and the apostolic generation.
