Supposition About Timothy

By Clifford O. Marteney

[Page 141]

     Was Timothy the minister or the bishop at Ephesus? Speaking of forgeries, the Catholic Encyclopedia says, "Substituting of false documents and tampering with genuine ones was quite a trade in the Middle Ages." (Vol. VI, page 136. Quoted in Catholicism Against Itself, by O. C. Lambert. Page 51).

     There is some question as to whether the word "Rome" in 2 Timothy 1:17 may not be one of these forgeries, originally being "Caesarea." This would answer some of the unanswered questions about the book. However to have 2 Timothy written at a much later date is necessary to both the bishop and pulpit systems.

     But Paul left Timothy at Ephesus (1 Timothy 1:3). When? When he (Paul) went into Macedonia. When did Paul go to Macedonia from Ephesus (Acts 20:1)? Neither the pulpit or bishop systems can accept this time. For then Timothy would have finished his work and joined Paul some four or five months later (Acts 20:4). You cannot very well prove a permanent position with that. Therefore, another time must be "supposed" for there is no other scripture to stand on.

     Scriptural evidence is that 1 Timothy was written shortly after Paul went to Macedonia (Acts 20:1), giving Timothy the qualifications for elders and deacons (1 Timothy 3). Paul being driven from Ephesus before completing his work there. (See Acts 19, last part). No elders are mentioned at Ephesus at the time of Paul's leaving, but there were elders when he returned in the spring. The evidence is that Timothy had been given the same work at Ephesus as Titus had been given at Crete (Titus 1:5). Titus was also given the same qualifications.

     Paul seemed anxious to meet these elders, possibly because he had not talked with them as elders, although he knew them. He called them to Miletus (Acts 20:17). He told them they would see his face no more (verse 25), he told them to feed the church (verse 28), and warned of those who would draw away disciples after them, not sparing the flock (verses 29,30).

     It is supposed that Paul was released from prison in Rome after Acts 28, and that he went back to Troas, leaving his cloak and books there at that time. It is then supposed that he went to Ephesus, the very place the Spirit had inspired him to tell they would "see his face no more" (Acts 20:22, 25). It is then supposed that at this time Paul left for Macedonia (1 Timothy 1:3) leaving Timothy at Ephesus. It is supposed that Paul was again sent to Rome, and wrote 2 Timothy during that imprisonment. It is supposed from 2 Timothy 4:7, 8, that Paul was then old and close to death.

     But there is no explanation why he would ask Timothy to bring his cloak and books some 900 miles from Ephesus, if he was so close to death, with travel conditions as they then were. It is supposed that Timothy was "the preacher" or "the bishop" at Ephesus, during a number of intervening years.

[Page 142]

     It is supposed that Timothy was at Ephesus at the time of this writing, although there is no proof of it. The proof is to the contrary, for if he had been either "the minister" or "the bishop" he would have received the letter directly from Tychicus. And Paul would not have needed to tell him he had sent Tychicus to Ephesus (2 Timothy 4:12).

     Thus by this "multiple supposition" the pulpit system makes Timothy the full time preacher at Ephesus, and the Catholic system makes him the Bishop. In fact the Catholic system thought it all up. The pulpit system just borrowed it. There is a rule in geometry that when two things are equal to another thing, those two things are equal to each other.

     (Editor's Note: Clifford O. Marteney lives at 609 Jordan, Liberal, Kansas 67901. For the opposing chronological viewpoint the reader may see The Life and Epistles of Saint Paul, by Coneybears and Howson).