the problem of the pastoral epistles 169
tive literary character has been demonstrated by many others in more
recent and advanced studies.72 While debate about the interpretation of
the linguistic peculiarities of the PE is expected to continue,73 the basis
for doing so will have to be explicated differently.
What this survey does want to question is whether the work of Har-
rison can still be used by scholars to support the (semi-)pseudonymous
authorship of the PE. For if both its statistical argument and its proposed
theory of authorship have been shown to be fallacious, why would one
still rely on it?
72 Important contributions include L. R. Donelson, Pseudepigraphy and Ethical Argu-
ment in the Pastoral Epistles (HUT 22; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1986); B. Fiore, The Func-
tion of Personal Example in the Socratic and Pastoral Epistles (AnBib 105; Rome: Biblical
Institute, 1986); W. Schenk, “Die Briefe an Timotheus I und II und an Titus (Pastoralbriefe)
in der neueren Forschung (1945–1985),” in ANRW II.25.4 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1987),
3404–438; G. Ledger, “An Exploration of Differences in the Pauline Epistles using Multi-
variate Statistical Analysis,” LLC 10 (1995): 85–97; D. L. Mealand, “The Extent of the Pau-
line Corpus: A Multivariate Approach,” JSNT 59 (1995): 61–92; S. E. Porter, “The Functional
Distribution of Koine Greek in First-Century Palestine,” in S. E. Porter (ed.), Diglossia and
Other Topics in New Testament Linguistics (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 2000), 53–72;
Barr, Scalometry, 127–32; and Baum, “Semantic Variation,” 271–92. But see Kenny, Stylo-
metric Study, 80–100.
73 See, for instance, the divergent interpretations offered by J. Murphy-O’Connor,
“2 Timothy Contrasted with 1 Timothy and Titus,” RB 98 (1991): 403–18; Mounce, Pastoral
Epistles, lxxxiii–cxxix; G. Häfner, “Das Corpus Pastorale als literarisches Konstrukt,” TQ 187
(2007): 258–73; Baum, “Semantic Variation,” 271–92; and M. Engelmann, Unzertrennliche
Drillinge? Motivsemantische Untersuchungen zum literarischen Verhältnis der Pastoralbriefe
(BZNW 192; Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2012).