The Berean Expositor
Volume 15 - Page 150 of 160
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The First Epistle to Timothy.
#2.
(Continued from Volume XIV, page 80).
pp. 14, 15
There are one or two objections to the later date suggested for I Timothy which it
will be wise to face.
1.
Timothy's Youth.
"Let no man despise thy youth" (I Tim. 4: 12).
We do not know the age of Timothy when he first joined the apostle, but somewhere
about 17 or 18 years of age is generally considered approximate. The date of Acts 16:
must be somewhere about A.D.50. If we therefore place I Timothy at A.D.64,
Timothy would be about 32 years of age. Judging by modern standards we should not
look upon Timothy as a youth, but judging according to the standard of Aulus Gellius,
lib. 10: c.28, where he cites Servius Tullius, Paul was well within bounds. The Roman's
divisions of man's age were as follows:--
CHILDHOOD . . . . .
1 year to 17 years.
YOUTH . . . . .
17 years to 46 years.
OLD AGE . . . . .
46 years to end of life.
Not only, therefore, was Timothy still a youth, but Paul could say of himself, "such an
one as Paul the aged".
Further, when one considers the great responsibility of the high and difficult office to
which Timothy had been called, involving the ordination of bishops and deacons, and the
many duties that a growing church and a fast growing apostasy bring with them, a man of
32 years would, even to-day, be considered very young for the post. No serious objection
to the later date of I Timothy can be found here.
2. Paul's statement in Acts 20: 25.
Paul said to the elders at Ephesus:--
"I know that ye all . . . . . shall see my face no more."
It is objected, that if I Timothy had been written after this statement Paul could not
have expressed the hope of revisiting Ephesus. We know upon other occasions the
apostle had to revise his plans. He hoped to visit Spain, but we are not certain that he
ever did so. II Cor. 1: 15-24 shows his attitude in these things. He would rather be found
changing his plans than running counter to the will of the Lord. We believe however that
the apostle had no intention of revisiting Ephesus. He had devoted a long time to the
church at Ephesus, and in writing to the saints at Colosse he speaks of those whose face