Christology, greCo-roman religious Piety, and
the Pseudonymity of the Pastoral letters
linda l. Belleville
Grand Rapids Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, MI, USA
it is a common scholarly perception that the Christology of the Pastorals
consists of detached, traditional fragments that do not contribute to the
theology or argumentation of the letters. instead, they serve to give apos-
tolic authenticity to third generation issues of church polity and social
adaptation. the influence of german scholarship has led interpreters
to view the Pastorals as either bourgeois documents concerned with a
middle-class ethic of social respectability1 or as organizational manuals to
guide post-apostolic church leadership.2 yet such construals overlook the
soteriological concern of the Pastorals and Christology’s intimate connec-
tion to that concern. this has especially been the case regarding Christo-
logical titles and the Christological formulations of 1 tim 1:15; 2:5; and 3:16.
Christological statements have been commonly viewed as traditional frag-
ments that have no integral theological role to play.3 Consequently, schol-
arship has focused on matters of source and form and thereby neglected
comparative analysis with imperial epiphany language and greco-roman
redemptive religious piety that readily points to a first generation Sitz im
Leben. this study will reevaluate the role of Christology in the Pastorals
and explore the light that comparative analysis sheds on issues of the
authenticity and the Sitz im Leben of these letters.
1 see for instance Jurgen roloff, Der erste Brief an Timotheus (eKK 15; Zurich: Ben-
ziger, 1988); lorenz oberlinner, Die Pastoralbriefe: Kommentar zum ersten Timotheusbrief
(htKnt Xi/2; freiburg: herder, 1994); norbert Brox, Die Pastoralbriefe (rnt 7; regensburg:
Pustet, 1969); V. hasler, Die Briefe an Timotheus und Titus (Pastoralbriefe) (ZBnt; Zurich:
theologischer Verlag, 1978); helmut merkel, Die Pastoralbriefe (ntd 9/1; göttingen: Van-
denhoeck & ruprecht, 1991).
2 see, for example, J. h. houlden, Pastoral Epistles. I and II Timothy, Titus (tPi new
testament Commentaries; london: sCm, 1989), 64–65; robert Karris, The Pastoral Epistles
(Wilmington, de: glazier, 1979), 64.
3 eduard schweizer, Church Order in the New Testament (london: sCm, 1961), 18 is rep-
resentative.