Timothy's Travels

as related to Paul's Journeys

1st Journey

45 Timothy converted by Paul at Lystra? (See 1 Co 4:17;

1 Ti 1:2, 18) Ac 14:6-23

2nd Journey

50/51 At Lystra, Paul is joined by Timothy Ac 16:1-4

51/52 Timothy remains at Berea when Paul is sent to Athens Ac 17:13-15

51/52 Timothy rejoins Paul at Corinth. Cf. 1 Thessalonians 3:6, this epistle apparently written from Corinth. Ac 18:5

3rd Journey

54/55 From Ephesus, Paul sent Timothy to Macedonia Ac 19:22

57 Paul writes 1 Corinthians while at Ephesus (1 Co 15:8, 19; cf. Ac 18:18-19), and mentions having sent Timothy to Corinth (1 Co 4:17, 16:10-11), who presumably planned to proceed there from Macedonia

57 When Paul wrote 2 Corinthians while in Macedonia (2 Co 8:1-5), Timothy was once again with him, as evidenced by 2 Co 1:1 Ac 20:1

58 Timothy accompanied Paul to Corinth, as is indicated in Paul's

letter to the Romans (16:21), which he wrote from Corinth (Ro 15:25-26; 16:23, cf. 1 Cor 1:14) Ac 20:2-3

58 Timothy proceeded (perhaps in advance of Paul, Ac 20:5) to Troas, and was with Paul there Ac 20:4-5

Paul's return to Jerusalem

58 ?????

Paul's imprisonment at Jerusalem and Caesarea

58-60 ?????

Paul's imprisonment at Rome

62/63 Timothy's presence with Paul in Rome is indicated Ac 28 by Colossians 1:1, Philemon 1:1, and Philippians 1:1 or later

Main points to be covered in 1 Timothy 1

1) to what "going into Macedonia" does 1:3 refer? BRIEF! (see Alford, vol 3, prolegomena [87-97])

u Can't be Acts 16:10-12

L Didn't go from Ephesus

L Timothy apparently went with Paul

L Timothy too young to have been left with charge of 1 Tim 1:3ff - (Timothy's "youth" (4:12) at least a dozen years later)

u Can't be Acts 18:19-21

L Left Ephesus, but for Caesarea, not Macedonia

u Can't be Acts 20:1

L Left Ephesus for Macedonia, but Timothy had gone ahead; he wasn't left behind (Ac 19:21-22, 20:3-4).

L Could Timothy have gone to Macedonia per Ac 19:22, returned toEphesus, stayed there when Paul left (Ac 20:1), and then caught up with Paul in Macedonia or Achaia? No, because such a scenario would have Timothy arriving at Ephesus and then leaving the city between the writing of 1 & 2 Corinthians, a time too short for him to have aquitted himself of the charge given in 1 Tim 1-3.

u Must refer to an unrecorded departure from Ephesus to Macedonia, either within the period covered by Acts, or after.

2) gnosticism in 1 Timothy - and in general, its relationship to the law (Col 2)

gnosticism's elements - Jewish, Persian, Greek (?)

gnosticism's view of physical - material is inherently evil

gnosticism's God - not Jesus, didn't create physical realm, role of angels

gnosticism's conclusions, asceticism or license

gnosticism's elements -

" Alexandrian philosophy endeavored to unite Gr Philosophy and Heb religion. Philo, the great Jewish commentator of Alexandria, had tried to interpret the ancient Jewish Scriptures by the aid of the Gr philosophy, to expound the OT in terms of Plato's thought and to discover allegorical meanings where none were intended. In Philo's teaching there is a sharp line drawn between God and the material world: with him God cannot exert any action upon the world of matter, except through intermediate agency, the Jewish angels and the heathen demons. Philo has much to say in regard to the Logos. His utterances on this subject may be compared with what is said of the attributes of "Wisdom" in ch 8 of the Book of Prov, and also with the Logos or "Word" of the Gospel of John. with Philo, the Logos is the power of God, or the Divine reason endowed with energy, and embracing within itself all subordinate powers. The Logos is impersonal in its relations to God; and herein is one huge difference between Philo's conception and that in the gospel. Philo teaches that the Logos is the only firstborn of God, the chief of the angels, the viceroy of God, and representative of man.

"According to Philo the creation of the universe was a gradual molding out of matter; hence arises evil. He also teaches the preexistence of the soul, which is now imprisoned in the flesh. The wise man, therefore, will break the thraldom of the flesh, and will rise by a sort of ecstasy to the immediate vision of God. It will be seen how much of the teaching was assimilated by the various gnostic sects.

"The Zoroastrian or Pers system was based on the assumption that there existed two original and independent powers of good and evil, of light and darkness, Ormuzd (Ahura-Mazda), the wise Lord, and Ahriman (Angra-Mainyu), the wicked spirit. These powers were believed to be equal, and each supreme in his own domain. The earth, which was created by Ormuzd, became the battle field of the two powers. Ahriman led away the first man and woman from their allegiance to Ormuzd, and so all evils result to mankind.

"'In oriental (Pers) dualism,' says Professor Bousset, "it is within this material world that the good and the evil powers are at war, and this world beneath the stars is by no means conceived as entirely subject to evil. Gnosticism has combined the two, the Gr opposition between spirit and matter, and the sharp Zoroastrian dualism, which, where the Gr mind conceived of a higher and a lower world, saw instead tow hostile worlds standing in contrast to each other like light and darkness. And out of the combination of these two dualisms arose the teaching of Gnosticism with its thoroughgoing pessimism and its fundamental asceticism' ('Gnosticism,' in Enc Brit, 11th ed, XII, 154)." - ISBE II, 1241

I Tim 1:4 "fables, endless genealogies which minister questionnings"

-1 Tim 4:1-5 cf. Col. 2:16ff

-"profane and old wives' fables" 4:7, cf. 2 Tim 3:6, Irenaeus, Epiphanius, Jerome

- "fables" 2 Tim 4:4

-"bodily exercise" vs "godliness" 4:8 cf. Col 2:21-23

-"knowledge falsely so-called" 6:20

-"Jewish fables" Titus 1:14

- "foolish questionings, and geneaologies, and strifes, and fightings about the law; for they are vain" Tit 3:9

also, consider the words "godliness" and "profitable/unprofitable"

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ERROR

OTHER REFERENCES TO THIS ERROR

(references in bold are especially helpful in demonstrating the ascetic, gnostic aspect of the error)

Ireneaeus ("Contr. Haer.," lib. i) accomodates 1 Tim 1:4 "to the Valentians and their succession of aeons (Bythus, Nous, Logos, Anthropus, etc. - in all thirty, male and female"- Pulpit)

Tertullian "Advers Valentin.," cap iii and elsewhere

Grotius "Comment.," 1 Tim 1:4

3) law is not made for a righteous man (see sermon outline)

4) Paul's persecution of Christians, his ignorance, and the Lord's mercy

Also be prepared:

5) "prophecies which led the way to thee"

6) "Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered unto Satan"