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epistle, therefore, in the names of the cities, in the order in which they are enumerated, and in the place at which the enumeration stops, corresponds exactly with the history.

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But a second question remains, namely, how these persecutions were known" to Timothy, or why the apostle should recall these in particular to his remembrance, rather than many other persecutions with which his ministry had been attended. When some time, probably three years afterwards, (vide Pearson's "Annales Paulinas,") St. Paul made a second journey through the same country," in order to go again and visit the brethren in every city where he had preached the word of the Lord," we read, Acts xvi. 1, that, when "he came to Derbe and Lystra, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus." One or other, therefore, of these cities was the place of Timothy's abode. We read, moreover, that he was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium; so that he must have been well acquainted with these places. Also again, when Paul came to Derbe and Lystra, Timothy was already a disciple: "Behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus." He must therefore have been converted before. But since it is expressly stated in the epistle, that Timothy was converted by St. Paul himself, that he was "his own son in the faith;" it follows that he must have been converted by him upon his former journey into those parts, which was the very time when the apostle underwent the persecutions referred to in the epistle. Upon the whole, then, persecutions at the several cities named in the epistle are expressly recorded in the Acts: and Timothy's knowledge of this part of St. Paul's history, which knowledge is appealed to in the epistle, is fairly deduced from the place of his abode, and the time of his conversion. It may further be observed, that it is probable from this account, that St. Paul was in the midst of those persecutions when Timothy became known to him. No wonder then that the apostle, though in a letter written long afterwards, should remind his favourite convert of those scenes of affliction and distress under which they first met.

Although this coincidence, as to the names of the cities, be more specific and direct than many which we have pointed out, yet I apprehend there is no just reason for thinking it to be artificial for had the writer of the epistle sought a coincidence with the history upon this head, and searched the Acts of the

Apostles for the purpose, I conceive he would have sent us at once to Philippi and Thessalonica, where Paul suffered persecution, and where, from what is stated, it may easily be gathered that Timothy accompanied him, rather than have appealed to persecutions as known to Timothy, in the account of which persecutions Timothy's presence is not mentioned; it not being till after one entire chapter, and in the history of a journey three years future to this, that Timothy's name occurs in the Acts of the Apostles for the first time. (dd)

CHAPTER XIII.

THE EPISTLE TO TITUS.

No. I.

A VERY characteristic circumstance in this epistle, is the quotation from Epimenides, chap. i. 12: "One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies."

Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί.

I call this quotation characteristic, because no writer in the New Testament, except St. Paul, appealed to heathen testimony; and because St. Paul repeatedly did so. In his celebrated speech at Athens, preserved in the seventeenth chapter of the Acts, he tells his audience, that in God "we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring :"

—τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμέν.

(dd) It is a curious and instructive circumstance, that this passage, which is really such a confirmation of the genuineness of the letter, was adduced by Schleiermacher as a mark of its spuriousness, and this too in a treatise published several years later than the Hora Paulinæ. Would the apostle, he asks, if he wished to confirm the courage of his companion, have therein mentioned persecutions, of which Timothy was not an eye-witness, since they occurred in the time which preceded his acquaintance with him, and have passed over in silence the far severer ones at Philippi, Thessalonica, and Jerusalem?

Now this objection is really the most triumphant confirmation of Paley's reasoning. We see that this learned critic, looking superficially at the subject, just as a forger would have done, thinks that the persecutions at Thessalonica were the first that Timothy witnessed, and hence that these should have been the earliest mentioned. But in reality, as Paley has shown, the persecutions at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra must have been known to Timothy, because he lived either at Lystra or Derbe, and was a convert of the apostle at the very time that he was enduring those persecutions. The mention of these persecutions rather than others is thus a clear sign that the letter is genuine, and not the production of a mere forger, who, like a neologian objector, would have viewed the events more superficially, and begun with the troubles in Macedonia rather than those in Pisidia and Lycaonia. The last paragraph of Paley's remarks could not have received a more striking commentary than Schleiermacher's objection, fifteen years later, has supplied.-ED.

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The reader will perceive much similarity of manner in these two passages. The reference in the speech is to a heathen poet; it is the same in the epistle. In the speech the apostle urges his hearers with the authority of a poet of their own; in the epistle he avails himself of the same advantage. Yet there is a variation, which shows that the hint of inserting a quotation in the epistle was not, as it may be suspected, borrowed from seeing the like practice attributed to St. Paul in the history; and it is this, that in the epistle the author cited is called a prophet, one of themselves, even a prophet of their own." Whatever might be the reason for calling Epimenides a prophet; whether the names of poet and prophet were occasionally convertible; whether Epimenides in particular had obtained that title, as Grotius seems to have proved; or whether the appellation was given to him, in this instance, as having delivered a description of the Cretan character, which the future state of morals among them verified: whatever was the reason, (and any of these reasons will account for the variation, supposing St. Paul to have been the author,) one point is plain, namely, if the epistle had been forged, and the author had inserted a quotation in it merely from having seen an example of the same kind in a speech ascribed to St. Paul, he would so far have imitated his original, as to have introduced his quotation in the same manner; that is, he would have given to Epimenides the title which he saw there given to Aratus. The other side of the alternative is, that the history took the hint from the epistle. But that the author of the Acts of the Apostles had not the Epistle to Titus before him, at least that he did not use it as one of the documents or materials of his narrative, is rendered nearly certain by the observation that the name of Titus does not once occur in his book.

It is well known, and was remarked by St. Jerome, that the apophthegm in the fifteenth chapter of the Corinthians, "Evil communications corrupt good manners," is an iambic of Menander's:

Φθειρουσιν ἤθη χρῆσθ' ὁμιλίαι κακαί.

Here we have another unaffected instance of the same turn and habit of composition. Probably there are some hitherto unnoticed; and more, which the loss of the original authors renders impossible to be now ascertained.

No. II.*

same.

There exists a visible affinity between the Epistle to Titus and the first Epistle to Timothy. Both letters were addressed to persons left by the writer to preside in their respective churches during his absence. Both letters are principally occupied in describing the qualifications to be sought for, in those whom they should appoint to offices in the church; and the ingredients of this description are in both letters nearly the Timothy and Titus are likewise cautioned against the same prevailing corruptions, and in particular against the same misdirection of their cares and studies. This affinity obtains, not only in the subject of the letters, which, from the similarity of situation in the persons to whom they were addressed, might be expected to be somewhat alike, but extends, in a great variety of instances, to the phrases and expressions. The writer accosts his two friends with the same salutation, and passes on to the business of his letter by the same transition.

"Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia," etc. 1 Tim. i. 2, 3.

"To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. For this cause left I thee in Crete." Tit. i. 4, 5.

If Timothy was not to "give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions," (1 Tim. i. 4,) Titus also was to "avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions," (chap. iii. 9,) and was to "rebuke them sharply, not giving heed to Jewish fables," (chap. i. 13, 14.) If Timothy was to be a pattern, (rúños,) (1 Tim. iv. 12,) so was Titus, (chap. ii. 7.) If Timothy was to "let no man despise his youth," (1 Tim. iv. 12,) Titus also was to "let no man despise him." (chap. ii. 15.) This verbal consent is also observable in some very peculiar expressions, which have no relation to the particular character of Timothy or Titus.

The phrase," it is a faithful saying,” (Tròs ỏ λóyos,) made use of to preface some sentence upon which the writer lays a more than ordinary stress, occurs three times in the first Epistle to Timothy, once in the second, and once in the epistle before us, and in no other part of St. Paul's writings; and it is remarkable that these three epistles were probably

all written towards the conclusion of his life; and that they are the only epistles which were written after his first imprisonment at Rome.

The same observation belongs to another singularity of expression, and that is in the epithet "sound," (vyaívov,) as applied to words or doctrine. It is thus used, twice in the first Epistle to Timothy, twice in the second, and three times in the Epistle to Titus, beside two cognate expressions, ὑγιαίνοντας τῇ πίστει, and λόγον ὑγιῆ; and it is found, in the same sense, in no other part of the New Testament.

The phrase, "God our Saviour," stands in nearly the same predicament. It is repeated three times in the first Epistle to Timothy, as many in the Epistle to Titus, and in no other book of the New Testament occurs at all, except once in the Epistle of Jude.

Similar terms, intermixed indeed with others, are employed in the two epistles, in enumerating the qualifications required in those who should be advanced to stations of authority in the church.

"A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity,' 1 Tim. iii. 2-4.

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"If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot, or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate," Titus i. 6–8.

The most natural account which can be given of these resemblances, is to suppose that the two epistles were written nearly at the same time, and whilst the same ideas and phrases dwelt in the writer's mind. Let us inquire, therefore, whether the notes of time, extant in the two epistles, in any manner favour this supposition.

“ Δεῖ οὖν τὸν ἐπίσκοπον ἀνεπίληπτον εἶναι, μιᾶς γυναικὸς ἄνδρα, νηφάλιον, σώφρονα, κόσμιον, φιλόξενον, διδακτικόν, μὴ πάροινον, μὴ πλήκτην, μὴ ἀισχροκερδή ἀλλ ̓ ἐπιεικῇ, ἄμαχον, ἀφιλάργυρον· τοῦ ἰδίου οἴκου καλῶς προϊστάμενον, τέκνα ἔχοντα ἐν ὑποταγῇ μετὰ πάσης σεμνότητος.”

† “Ει τις ἐστὶν ἀνέγκλητος, μιας γυναικὸς ἀνὴρ, τέκνα ἔχων πιστὰ, μὴ ἐν κατη γορίᾳ ἀσωτίας, ἢ ἀνυπότακτα. Δεῖ γὰρ τὸν ἐπίσκοπον ἀνέγκλητον εἶναι, ὡς Θεον οικονόμον, μὴ ἀυθάδη, μὴ ὀργίλον, μὴ πάροινον, μὴ πλήκτην, μὴ ἀισχροκερδῆ· ἀλλὰ φιλόξενον, φιλάγαθον, σώφρονα, δίκαιον, ὅσιον, ἐγκρατῆ.”

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