74 stanley e. porter
in the new testament.22 these two sources, while not firmly attesting
to Paul’s re-arrest and death in rome, do suggest his release from a first
roman imprisonment.
if this evidence is to be believed, and there is at least some reason to
think so, this does not solve the problem of the writing of the Pastoral
epistles, because the Pastorals purport to represent Paul moving east of
rome, not west. fee says that this is plausible, however, because, if the
prison epistles were written from a roman imprisonment (e.g., Philippi-
ans, Colossians, and Philemon), Paul expected to be released (Phil 1:18–19,
24–26; 2:24) and to make another trip to asia (Phlm 22).23 if this is correct,
while this may help us to believe that Paul could have traveled to the east,
it does not necessarily help us to reconstruct how the Pastoral epistles
fit within this framework, apart from 2 timothy being written during his
second and final roman imprisonment. nevertheless, despite the lack of
firm evidence, there have been a number of attempts to reconstruct Paul’s
intermediate travels.
there have been various ways in which this position has been rep-
resented. a standard position, promoted by a reasonably large number,
follows the kind of proposal made by lightfoot, who includes both the
trip west to spain and travels in the east as represented by the Pasto-
ral epistles themselves. according to this proposal, in a period of roughly
four years between his release and re-arrest, possibly in Corinth, Paul first
went eastward to macedonia, including Philippi (Phil 2:24), then asia and
Phrygia, then Colossae (Phlm 22), before heading west. he, then, possibly
founded the church in Crete, first visited on his voyage to rome, then
went to spain, possibly gaul (2 tim 4:10) and dalmatia (2 tim 4:10), before
again turning eastward. he then revisited asia and Phrygia (2 tim 1:15–18),
including ephesus (1 tim 1:3), and left timothy in ephesus presiding over
the church there. Paul then went to macedonia (1 tim 1:3), including
Philippi, and possibly revisited achaia, and then wrote 1 timothy. Paul
then either went to Crete for the first time or revisited it and left titus
there presiding over the church (titus 1:5) and returned to asia, where he
wrote the letter to titus. Paul then visited miletus (2 tim 4:20), proceeded
to troas (2 tim 4:13), and ended up in Corinth (2 tim 4:20), intending to
go to nicopolis to spend the winter (titus 3:12), when he was arrested
22 see Kümmel, Introduction, 377.
23 gordon d. fee, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus (new international Biblical Commentary;
Peabody, ma: hendrickson, 1988), 4.