Read The Jewish Annotated New Testament Online
Authors: Amy-Jill Levine
6
Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be blasphemed.
2
Those who have believing masters must not be disrespectful to them on the ground that they are members of the church;
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rather they must serve them all the more, since those who benefit by their service are believers and beloved.
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Teach and urge these duties.
3
Whoever teaches otherwise and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that is in accordance with godliness,
4
is conceited, understanding nothing, and has a morbid craving for controversy and for disputes about words. From these come envy, dissension, slander, base suspicions,
5
and wrangling among those who are depraved in mind and bereft of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
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6
Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment;
7
for we brought nothing into the world, so that
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we can take nothing out of it;
8
but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
9
But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
10
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
11
But as for you, man of God, shun all this; pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.
12
Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made
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the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
13
In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you
14
to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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which he will bring about at the right time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
16
It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.
17
As for those who in the present age are rich, command them not to be haughty, or to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but rather on God who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.
18
They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous, and ready to share,
19
thus storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of the life that really is life.
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Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the profane chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge;
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by professing it some have missed the mark as regards the faith.
Grace be with you.
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THE SECOND LETTER OF PAUL TO TIMOTHY
Although 2 Timothy states that this is a letter composed by the apostle Paul (1.1) while imprisoned in Rome (1,8,16; 2.9) and awaiting execution (4.6), written to his closest disciple, Timothy, in Ephesus (2.17), most scholars now doubt Pauline authorship. Indications that Timothy is a “third generation” Christian (1.5) combined with an emphasis on “right teaching” (e.g., 2.2,15) lead to the conclusion that the letter is responding to post–Pauline conditions.
The Pastoral Epistles—2 Timothy, 1 Timothy, and Titus—were probably composed at the beginning of the second century, perhaps in Asia Minor (modern Turkey; see Introduction to 1 Timothy). They primarily address Christian doctrine and church leadership. Their attribution to Paul—a common practice in ancient writing in which “writings falsely ascribed,” or “pseudepigrapha,” are attributed to known authors—is intended to give them apostolic authority.
In this letter the writer urges Timothy to leave all and come to him in Rome (4.9). The New Testament elsewhere tells us that Paul met Timothy in Lystra in Asia Minor and then chose him as a travel companion (Acts 16.1–3). Other letters (2 Cor 1.1; Phil 1.1; 2 Thess 1.1; Philem 1) all mention Timothy as co-author of the letters. Paul presents him as his messenger to the budding Christian communities (e.g., 1 Cor 4.7). According to Acts 16.1–3, Timothy had a Jewish mother but a Greek father, and he was uncircumcised until Paul circumcised him (Acts 16.1–3). In the opening paragraph of the letter, Paul reminds Timothy of his pious (apparently Jewish) mother, Eunice, and grandmother Lois. He omits mention of Timothy’s Gentile father.
In ch 2 the author complains about persons who deny the relevance of the doctrine of resurrection (2.18), and in ch 3 he describes those with opposing opinions as evil men (3.3–5), who have won over the ears and hearts of sinful and lustful women (3.6–7). The question of resurrection may relate to various early Christian views about the nature of Jesus’ body. Paul’s statement in 1 Cor 15.50 that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” coupled with early docetic views, which maintained that Jesus only “seemed” (Gk
dokeō
, “to seem, appear”) to be human, suggested the divine Jesus never actually died and thus was not resurrected (see 1 Cor 15.12–20). This view motivated the church to emphasize the physical nature of Jesus’ resurrection. In Second Temple Jewish circles, however, the question of the belief in the resurrection was already being hotly debated. While the Pharisees and Essenes apparently endorsed it, the Sadducees flatly denied it, as becomes clear both from the writings of the historian Josephus (
J.W
. 2.163–65;
Ant
. 18.14,16,18), the New Testament (Acts 23.6–8) and even from rabbinic texts (
Avot de R. Natan (A
) A 5; b 10). By the time 2 Timothy was composed, the Sadducees and their school had ceased to exist, and Jews held opinions similar to those of the Christians on this issue. Another problem discussed in the letter is that of women as being influenced by new Christian doctrine. That new doctrine and the place of women were real concerns in Christian circles is confirmed by the various Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (e.g.,
Acts of Paul and Thecla, Acts of Thomas
,
Acts of John
), dated to about the time of this letter in the late first century or early second century CE, which usually view women’s celibacy positively. The issue of women being influenced by various sects is also documented in Jewish sources from the Second Temple period. Thus Josephus reports that women were strongly influenced by the Pharisees (
Ant
. 17.41–43) and rabbinic sources seem to confirm this assertion (
b. Nidd
. 5.2).
It is difficult to discern how Jewish, or how informed about anything Jewish, the author of 2 Timothy was. Jewishness is not an issue in the letter. In 3.15 the author refers to Timothy’s acquaintance with scripture, although to what scripture the author refers remains unclear. In 2.8 we read that Jesus was a descendant of David: “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel.” This probably implies, however, that the author’s knowledge of Jesus’ illustrious descent derives from his knowledge of Paul’s views (Rom 1.3) and not necessarily from the Tanakh or its Greek translation, the Septuagint.
The best location to test whether the author of 2 Timothy is acquainted with the Tanakh is in 3.8. Here the author compares the persons who, in his view, are leading his community astray with false doctrines, to Moses’ two opponents—Pharaoh’s magicians (see annotations). Yet the author is certainly referring not to what we would recognize as the biblical account but rather to an apocryphal retelling of the story of Moses. In the Tanakh, the multiple Egyptian magicians are nameless (Ex 7.11–12), but a long apocryphal tradition focuses on two named magicians, Jannes and Jambres, and details their exploits. Fragments of a Greek composition named
Jannes and Jambres
have surfaced on two Egyptian papyri, but it is hard to decide whether this composition was written by Christians (inspired by this verse in 2 Timothy) or whether this is an old Jewish apocryphal text. The Qumran Damascus Document, where the magicians Moses bested are Johana and his brother (5.18–19), supports the claim that 2 Timothy is referring to a Jewish tradition. Jannes, the protagonist of the apocryphal papyrus, is viewed as Jambres’s brother, and his name can be explained as a Greek rendering of the Qumranic Johana. Another possibility, however, is to view Jannes and Jambres as belonging to an Exodus countertradition, as related by the Egyptians. Fragments of this very negative, anti-Jewish tradition have been preserved in many sources, such as Hecataeus of Abdera (preserved in Diod. Sic., 40.3), Manetho (as e.g., in Josephus,
Ag. Ap
. 1.237–51) and Apion (preserved in Josephus,
Ag. Ap
. 2.16–17, 20–21). The invention of Jannes and Jambres as part of this tradition can be found in the mention of Jannes (and another Egyptian magician named Lotapes) in the writing of Pliny the Elder, who is not elsewhere familiar with biblical traditions (
Nat
. 30.11). It is evident from Tacitus (
Hist
. 5 3.1) that a counter-Egyptian Exodus tradition was in vogue in Rome at that time. Thus, 2 Timothy’s knowledge of the Moses tradition in this form does not help place this epistle: the tradition is derived either from a non-Jewish, most likely anti-Jewish tradition (as represented by Pliny) or from the writings of a Jewish group removed from mainstream Judaism (as represented by the writings from the CD) or even from a Jewish apocryphal composition so marginal that it has been preserved only in fragments, and by Christians (the papyri—if indeed these were not actually composed by Christians, inspired by the reference in 2 Timothy). Obviously this reference does not show an acquaintance with Jewish scripture as such.
Tal Ilan
1
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
2
To Timothy, my beloved child:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
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I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.
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Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.
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I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.
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For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands;
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for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline.
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Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God,
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who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,
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but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
11
For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher,
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12
and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.
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13
Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
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Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.