pauline chronology 79
episode rather than after a year full of adventure. the idea of a one year
gap is not necessarily clear from the organization of the greek text. the
second issue is that there is very little time according to the scenario of
reicke, robinson, and Johnson for Paul to leave ephesus and then write
to timothy before timothy himself joins Paul—arguably not enough to
accomplish all of the things that timothy is required by the letter to do,
although it is also arguable that this period may have taken up to one year
and provided more than sufficient time.32 a third difficulty is that this
scenario places 1 timothy after the writing of 1 Corinthians and probably
before 2 Corinthians by both accounts. this is itself problematic because
of the differences between the Corinthian letters and 1 timothy. however,
as Johnson has pointed out, some topics covered in 1 timothy (and also
titus; see below), such as questions regarding “gnosis” (1 tim 6:20) and
disputes over marriage and asceticism (1 tim 4:3, 8), are already found in
1 Corinthians (8:1–3; 7:1), with other topics found in other Pauline letters,
hence placing them within the scope of the Pauline writings.33
Titus. as with 1 timothy, there are two proposals regarding the writing
of the letter to titus. Van Bruggen proposes that titus himself may have
been sent to Crete from ephesus, while Paul was there on his second visit
and before his departure on his trip to macedonia and Corinth (during
which 1 timothy was written; see above). Van Bruggen takes seriously the
idea that titus 1:5 does not necessarily indicate that Paul was with titus
in Crete, only that he had sent titus to perform certain duties and respon-
sibilities in Crete. With titus in Crete, Paul then writes the letter to titus
after he wrote 1 timothy but still on his one year trip to macedonia and
Corinth. By this time his situation was more settled (see titus 3:12), so that
he planned to spend the winter in nicopolis, before returning to ephesus,
with the acts account resuming in 19:21.34
the second proposal, by reicke and robinson, is that titus was writ-
ten after Paul had left ephesus and traveled to macedonia and greece
(acts 20:1–3), and after he had written to the romans, but before he had
made his way back through macedonia to asia minor and then on to
Jerusalem. Paul mentions a number of people who send greetings from
32 see lee martin mcdonald and stanley e. Porter, Early Christianity and Its Sacred
Literature (Peabody, ma: hendrickson, 2000), 370.
33 Johnson, Introduction, 384.
34 Van Bruggen, Die geschichtliche Einordnung, 35–40; cf. towner, Letters to Timothy
and Titus, 13–14.