All this and more Timothy knew, for in II Tim. 3: 10, 11 the Apostle says: "But

thou hast fully known (or followed) my doctrine, manner of life . . . . . what persecutions

I endured", but the Apostle did not stay there; he adds, "But out of them all the Lord

delivered me". Following this we have the appeal:

which is closely parallel with the exhortation of II Tim. 2: 2, "The things that thou hast

heard of me".

When dealing with the first chapter of this epistle, we paid attention to the "good

deposit" entrusted to Paul and which was to constitute a "pattern" for Timothy. While

the Apostle insists in II Timothy, Ephesians and Colossians that to himself, and to

himself alone, had been entrusted this sacred deposit of truth, and that he had been given

the wondrous privilege of enlightening all as to what is the dispensation of the mystery

(Eph. 3: 7-9), yet on the other hand he was ever careful to emphasize that what he had

to make known was given to him by revelation (Eph. 3: 2, 3). Consequently in

II Tim. 2: 2 and 3: 14 he chooses to use the word para, "beside", where we have the

preposition "of" in the phrases "heard of me", "knowing of whom thou hast learned

them". While the doctrine came from Paul, inasmuch as he had been entrusted with its

proclamation, it did not originate with him but came "from above".

In II Tim. 1: 13 he uses the same preposition, para, "Hold fast the pattern of sound

words, which thou hast heard of me". To avoid ambiguity it would be better to have

translated para by the word "from", so that the idea of origin should not be read into it,

thus, "Heard from me", "From whom thou hast learned".

It will be observed that the Apostle would safeguard the message that Timothy was to

pass on to others, for he says: "the things that thou hast heard of me among many

witnesses."  When instructing Timothy in matters of church discipline, the Apostle

applied the Mosaic law, "Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or

three witnesses" (I Tim. 5: 19). When expounding the great doctrine of justification by

faith, he is careful to bring forward the law and the prophets as "witnesses"

(Rom. 3: 21). So, too, Timothy's good profession was not something secret or private;

it had been made "before many witnesses" (I Tim. 6: 12).

While Timothy was strictly enjoined to pass on the same truth that he had heard of

Paul, it was not something that could not be verified, and the Apostle safeguarded any

tendency to make this insistence appear too personal by bringing in the attestations of

many witnesses. In the earlier epistles he challenges his hearers to bear witness that what

he continued to preach was what they had heard from him at the beginning (I Cor. 15: 1,

2, 11; Gal. 1: 8).

In Timothy's day there was, of course, no such thing as a New Testament; the epistles

had been written and were beginning to be circulated, but the witnesses would have to be