A Commentary in Simple English on 1 Timothy

NOTES

[0.1] There is good reason to believe that Timothy was not in Ephesus but somewhere further north, so that he would not know what was happening at Miletus. Further ,Paul would then be sure that Timothy would travel to Rome via Troas, not via Corinth.

[1.1] (1:6) Calvin Commentary ‘.... it often happens and it is indeed most natural, that excellence of gifts produces carelessness and sloth, and that is the way in which Satan labours continually to extinguish all that is of God in us‘.

[1.2] (1:7) Both Calvin and R C H Lenski stress the importance of these words.

[1.3] (1:12) 'Chained in Christ' by Craig Wansink (Sheffield Academic Press, 1996) is full of valuable information, especially on ancient attitudes to prison. There are some limits to the usefulness of this book however.

Money could buy many things in prison. Wansink refers to a case where a prisoner bribed the executioner to sharpen his axe before cutting his head off.

Gundry rightly makes the point that Paul may have been imprisoned not simply because he preached the gospel but because when he preached the gospel, public disorder followed. This is repeatedly the case in Acts. Antioch is an interesting case where the publication of the gospel is not followed by disorder. Paul saw this as unjustified violence against himself. But the Roman authorities may eventually have felt it right to deal with Paul as the cause of repeated outbreaks of disorder.

[2.1] (2:4) Oddly enough, we now know that Roman army officers on 'Hadrian's Wall' about or soon after AD 100 were busy buying and selling grain and hides. The letters, written on wooden tablets, say little about training or military matters!

[2.2] (2:26) Lenski discusses these words in detail and argues that the trap is the devil’s, but that it is God who takes captive to do his will. Gundry sets out some of the alternatives. So does Dr Gill without expressing any preference. Some writers take 'to do his will' to mean 'to do the devil's will.' But there is a good case for understanding it to mean 'to do God's will.' F W Farrer made sense of the passage!

[4.1] (4:6) R C H Lenski ad loq.

[4.2] (4:7) Oscar Broneer in Bible Archaeology Reader 2 p 420. is useful. Lenski stresses that winning is not the issue. An athlete had to achieve a certain standard in advance in order to compete. If he did not attain the standard, he could not compete.

[4.3] (4:14) My own guess is that Alexander led 'the Jews from Asia' in Acts 21:27 - 29. Such a reference to the past would be like Chapter 3:11.

[4.4] (4:16) Lenski takes the view that at least three or four of the eleven Roman synagogues became Christian because of Paul's earlier ministry in Romans 28. They would still be seen as Jewish and would not be victims of Nero's persecution. If he is right about the effect of Paul's ministry I would have thought that the unbelieving Jews would have taken Nero's persecution as an opportunity to attack the Christian synagogues.

[4.5] (4:19) Although the same tools and skill would be used in making saddlery and sails and rigging for ships. Priscilla and Aquila would have found a good market for tents with visitors to the Isthmian Games at Corinth and also at Ephesus and this may account for some of their movements. Another guess was that Paul's father was also a tentmaker in Tarsus and that he had helped the Roman armies in the wars in Cilicia.

[4.6] (4:21) Excavations at Fishbourne show that there was a Roman military establishment there. It is not quite conclusive that this was before the construction of the noted villa. Yet the Romans might well have used Chichester Harbour to reach a base at Fishbourne, and the Roman roads between Chichester, London and Colchester would then represent the first stage of the occupation.

We cannot be at all sure about some of what follows. Yet if it is true, we have the only real link between the New Testament and England.

a) Claudius was the Roman Emperor or Caesar from AD 41 to AD 54.

b) In AD 43, the Romans came to England and made it part of their Empire.

c) The British 'king' Cogidubnus was a friend of the Romans. He was 'king' of an area in what is now West Sussex. Tacitus in 'The Agricola' says that he continued for the rest of the century.

d) A stone, which can be seen displayed in North Street, Chichester came from a Roman temple. This was built about AD 52. The names of the king 'Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus' and 'Pudens' are cut into the stone.

e) In AD 66 a Roman poet called Martial came to live in Rome. He was there until about AD 100. He wrote two poems about Pudens and Claudia Rufina. She was a noble British lady. Pudens married her. He wrote the two poems about 20 years apart.

Now it is likely that Cogidubnus would call a daughter 'Claudia' in honour of Claudius. It is also likely that Claudia would be taken to Rome to live. The Romans did this to the children of 'kings' in their Empire. The children would learn the Roman customs and way of life. The king knew that if he did not do what the Romans wanted his child would be killed. When the king died, the Romans could often make use of his child, who was trained in Roman ways.

Perhaps the Pudens who served in England went back to Rome and heard Paul preach. Perhaps Claudia came from England and was the same Claudia that Paul knew. Perhaps they married and had children and were still in Rome about AD 85.

If there is a link between England and the New Testament, this is it. It would be good to think that among Paul's last friends in Rome were this lady from England and the young army officer she would marry. We shall never know. The name 'Pudens' also crops up in a later inscription in the museum at Chesters on Hadrians Wall.