Forgery and Counterforgery: The Use of Literary Deceit in Early Christian Polemics (54 page)

The contents, polemics, instructions, and exhortations of the letters are simply too similar to think they come from a different pen, unless one author is copying another for purposes of his own. Even if that were the case, it should be noted that the copier (which would it be?) would necessarily be a forger, claiming to be Paul. But there are grounds for thinking that in fact neither book was written by Paul, as we will see.

1 Timothy and 2 Timothy

The question of the relationship of 1 and 2 Timothy is somewhat more pressing, given the forceful case made by critics such as M. Prior and J. Murphy-O’Connor that 2 Timothy is unlike the other two pastoral epistles and so, possibly, orthonymous. The arguments used to establish the point, however, are wanting, for the reason mentioned above. It is quite simple to point out the many ways that 2 Timothy differs from the other two Pastoral letters; but if one wants to establish joint authorship, it is to be done not on the basis of differences but similarities. The verbatim parallels have to be explained, and these cannot be tossed off as either accidental or, probably as we will see, the result of one author borrowing from the work of another. Here again I do not plan a comprehensive survey, but will simply restrict myself to some of the outstanding examples drawn from the first two chapters of 2 Timothy.

The greetings to the addressees in 1 and 2 Timothy are virtually identical and are unlike anything in Paul, except the address to Titus. Someone is either borrowing or the same author produced both:

These two chapters share an abundance of unusual words and phrases.
occurs in 2 Tim. 1:1 and 1 Tim. 4:8; but never in Paul;
with the dative is found in 2 Tim. 1:3 and 1 Tim. 1:12 and nowhere else in the New Testament. The notion of laying on hands—
—is found in the rest of the New Testament only in Acts 8:18 and Heb. 6:2, otherwise only in reference to Timothy in 1 Tim. 4:14 and 2 Tim. 1:6; in both of these latter instances it refers to the

The non-Pauline phrase
of 2 Tim. 1:10 is matched by the
of 1 Tim. 6:14. It should be noted that the term
occurs only five times in the New Testament, once in 2 Thessalonians and all four other times in the Pastorals.
¹⁵
The striking self-description of Paul in 2 Tim. 1:11,
is paralleled in
in 1 Tim. 2:7 with the odd exception of the oath that “Paul” for some reason would feel impelled to swear to his close companion. The term
occurs in the NT otherwise just in 2 Pet. 2:5.