70 stanley e. porter
some now unknown pseudepigrapher whose intentions and procedures
are now completely obscured and beyond recovery.14
the view that the Pastoral epistles are pseudepigraphal began with
the difficulty of fitting them within the Pauline chronology, especially
1 timothy. however, skepticism soon spread to all of the letters, with some
believing that they were composites of other letters or simply later, even
much later, forgeries. as noted above, these have been taken as assured
results of scholarship in some quarters.
it is, nevertheless, the case that it appears that some of this attempt to
dismiss the Pastoral epistles on the basis of chronology may be predicated
upon a misunderstanding of the greek text of the Pastorals and other dif-
ficulties in reading the letters in relation to themselves and the book of
acts. for example, udo schnelle, who to a noteworthy extent represents
typical german scholarship on the issue of the authorship of the Pastorals,
states categorically that the “historical situation presupposed in the Pasto-
ral epistles cannot be harmonized either with the data of acts or with that
of the authentic Pauline letters.”15 What does he mean by this?
according to i tim. 1.3 timothy is residing in ephesus, while Paul, having
left from there, journeys toward macedonia.... the apostle is thus pictured
as free to do what he will; there are no indications of imprisonment in the
letter. according to acts 19.22 it was not Paul who traveled to macedonia
while timothy remained in ephesus, but the opposite: timothy is sent
ahead to macedonia while the apostle remained in ephesus.16
the fact is that 1 tim 1:3 does not say that Paul has left ephesus, nor is he
necessarily depicted as free to do what he wishes. 1 timothy 1:3 does not
require anything more than that Timothy be (or remain) in ephesus, while
Paul either heads toward or anticipates heading toward macedonia. the
idea of having a fixed purpose of going to macedonia does not strike me
as a person who is necessarily footloose and fancy-free. further, schnelle
does not consider any other placement of 1 timothy in relation to the book
of acts (on which see below). schnelle’s arguments regarding 2 timothy
are clearly tendentious, rather than substantive. he finds it difficult that
Paul, who is a prisoner and “near death” (2 tim 4:6, 8), would ask for his
14 see hagner, Introduction, 615; helmut Koester, Introduction to the New Testament
(2 vols.; Philadelphia: fortress; Berlin: de gruyter, 1982), 2:297.
15 udo schnelle, The History and Theology of the New Testament Writings (trans.
m. eugene Boring; minneapolis: fortress, 1998), 328–29. the examples that follow are
from 329.
16 schnelle, History, 329.