from Macedonia (1%),
references to
hesian Church again ; (see von Hofmann ad
Timothy (say at ssing on his way north of Sabatier’s Ap. Paul, Paul appears to have travelled on om Macedonia to Corinth, and to have written to Titus (in Crete) about the time of his arrival there, when he was expecting to spend the next winter in the port of Nicopolis opposite to Italy (Tit 313); shortly after this he was arrested a prisoner to Rome.
ome quite distinct
and carried as On this construction, the details of time and place given in the Pastorals fit together and belong to a consistent whole, Previously to the journey from Miletus to Corinth itus had made a tour in Crete, the latter remaining behind to organize the Cretan Churches (Tit 1°). to join him at Nico
just traced, Paul and
Paul had wished Titus olis, purposing to send a sub- ad landed at Crete in returning from Spain ; certainly the voyage of Ac 27 gave no opportunity for evangelizing the
demanding con- is heart years ago on evangelizing Spain (Ro 15%); in the words of Clement, written a generation later, we have good evidence that this wish was realized: ‘Paul having been a herald both in the east and in the west, received the high glory of his faith. When he had taught righteousness to the whole world, and had come to the limit of the west, and borne witness before the rulers, he so departed from the world and went to the holy place’ (1 Ep. 5). limit of the west,’ in a Roman writer, can hardly The Muratorian Fragment, repre- senting the oldest Roman traditions, is explicit to the same effect, and is su Acta Apocrypha; and the Ὑπόμνημα of Symeon Metaphrastes, traced by Lipsius and others to a ves details of the Spanish [On the whole subject see the discussion of Spitta, Urchristenthum, Bd. i., Die zweimal. rom. Gefangenschaft d. Paulus). of Credner is borne out by subse that ‘there cannot be found durin centuries a trace of the assumption that Paul did not travel westwards beyond Rome, or that his life ended at the point where the Acts of the Apostles ut this controversy is not likely to be closed, unless further and decisive evidence should present itself.
The references of the PASTORAL EPISTLES be- long to Paul’s last journeyings in the East, ante- cedent to his renewed imprisonment and subse- quent to the (assumed) Spanish voyage. The three letters touch at various points and are closely con- secutive. He writes his last Ep. (2 Ti) from prison with winter in prospect, when the first stage of his
The letters to Timothy and Titus are writings of Paul’s old age. They bear a conservative stamp. ‘Guard the deposit ; hold fast the form of sound : this is their predominant note. doctrine and practical piety are the interests in St. Paul’s great creative days are over. His battles are fought, his course is run. The completing touches remain to be added, and his final seal set to the work and teaching of his life: such is the purpose these letters serve. instructions respecting church order given in 1 Ti are much fuller than anything of the kind in revious letters; but this was a time of rapid evelopment, and the Ephesian Church was now of twelve years’ standing. His directions to Titus at Crete are notably simpler. pieces of this nature that we have from Paul—letters of instruction to his assistants on church manage- show the administrative wisdom, the love of order, and the eye for practical detail, of the great church-founder and pastor. and Ephesians have prepared us for the emphasis which Paul now throws on all that belongs to the life of the Christian community. We pass from the thought of the ‘great house’ to that of its ‘vessels’ of service, their qualities and uses (2 Ti The Pastorals carry on the combat com- menced in those earlier Epp. against incipient Gnosticism, with its false intellectualism and uncertain morality, its jumble of philosophy and Jewish fables, its destructive influence upon church
which they centre.
pported by the oldest
2nd cent. source,
The judgment quent inquiry, g the first four
These are the only
PAUL THE APOSTLE
life. St. Paul’s last cares are directed to guard the gos 1 he had so amply set forth, and to fence the fold into which he had led such a multitude
of souls. If these documents do not come, in their integrity, from Paul’s own hand, they are written by a disciple who has interpreted his mind and caught his spirit and manner and applied his ideas to a new situation (see v. Soden’s Hinleitung zu Pastt. vii., in ‘Handcommentar z. NT,’ 01), with astonishing verisimilitude ; and the nearer to Paul it is found nec to place the Past. Epp. in personal connexion and derivation of thought, the more improbable—and the more superfluous— does the theory of personation become.
The words of 2 Ti 458 are exquisitely fitting as St. Paul’s dying testimony. ey are the final pronouncement of Christ’s faithful servant on his own career, crowned already in the witness of his conscience with the earnest of the crown awaiting him from the hand of his Lord. Paul died by be- heading—so the credible Roman tradition relates —at a spot 3 miles from Rome along the Ostian Way, anciently called Aque Salvie and now Tre Fontane. Near to the place of execution stands the splendid Basilica Pauli, first founded by the emperor Constantine in his honour. But the uni- versal Church is his monument.