Either as a cause or as an ettect of this condition false teaching has vogue in the churches.
(a) In form it was a ' knowledge which is falsely so called' (1 Ti 6'-°), concerned with 'fables and endless genealogies' (1 Ti 1*), 'profane and old wives' fables' (1 Ti4', 2Ti4''), 'foolish inquiries and genealogies,' 'profane babblings and oppositions' (1 Ti 6-", 2 Ti 2'"), 'Jewish fables, and command- ments of men ' (Tit 1"). It gave rise to ' question- ings and disputes' (1 Ti 6^ 2 Ti 2'^), 'strifes, and fightings about the law ' (Tit 3'), and it was eating into the life of the churches like a cancer (2 Ti 2").
{b) Those who propagated this error seem to have done so by an abuse of the liberty of prophesying, and also by a house-to-house propaganda, which carried away many women. The teachers, who were evidently of Jewish origin, talked much about the Law, but acted in a manner that was contrary to its spirit, turning that which was pure to impure purposes (1 Ti 1'-'°, Tit 1'*). They clung for self- enrichment to forms of piety (1 Ti 6^ 2 Ti 3^, Tit 1"), some of them perhaps practising magic (2 Ti 3'^) ; but they were inditterent to Christian virtue, being of corrupt minds, consciously insincere, full of lust, reprobate and unholy men (1 Ti 4^- - 6*, 2 Ti 31-8 43^ 'Pit I'^-'f). As might be expected, they revolted against authority, as did Jannes and Jambres, the opponents, according to the Midrash, of the Divine prophet Moses (2 Ti 3», Tit l'» ; cf. also 2 Ti 2'", with quotation from Nu 16'' referring to the rebellion of Korah).
(c) It is held by some that there were varieties in the form of error, the teachers of 2 Ti 2'* being thought to ditter from the supposed magicians of 3«"-'5, and those of 1 Ti 1'" 6-', who missed the
TIMOTHY AND TITUS, EPISTLKS TIMOTHY AjS'L) TITUS, EPISTLES 587
goal of faith, from the false teachers of the Law (1 Ti 1'). Hut, while there are not siillicient data to arrive at a eouliilont opinion, it is probable tliat the liill'erences niijiht be oxplaineil as bcniig I'onmion elements in a Ilellenislii'-.li'wish tyjie of thoii^jht which pervaded tlie Christian ehurches of Asia Minor and Crete like an atmosphere. Tlion^'h the descri]itions are vagvie, certain features stand out connecting this error with tendencies which pre- vailed during the latter half of the 1st century.
It is freciuently assumed that it was a type of Gnosticism — in particular, such a phase as the Ophite sect — and the words ifnO^iTcis T>is ^tf i'5ui;'i''moii 7>'u(reus, /uCOoi, 7ei'ea\o7/ai might easily describe their speculations, which were accompanied, as lu>re, by emphasis on knowledge and on the jiractice of asceticism. It is not improbable, however, that 1 Ti 6-°--' is a later addition. W. Bousset holds that ' " Gnosis " first appears in a technical sense in 1 Tim. vi. 20.' But the developed characteristics of Gnosticism, as he describes it, are not found in the false teaching condemned in the Pastorals — ' a mystic revelation and a deeply-veiled wisdom . . . the ultimate object is individual salvation, the assurance of a fortunate destiny for the soul after death. . . . The Gnostic religion is full of sacraments. . . . Sacred formulas, names, and symbols are of the highest importance among the Gnostic sects,' ... in order that the soul maj- find ' its way unhindered [by demons] to the heavenly home.' The basis of the Gnostic world-philosoplij' is a dualism and a theory of emanations, including a belief in the Demiurge, who created and rules over this lower world, together with a hostile attitude towards the Jewish religion, which was represented in the later Christian Gnosticism. ' In Gnosticism salvation always lies at the root of all existence and all history, ... is always a myth, . . . not an historical event' (££;•" xii. 15'2iTF. ).* In these Epistles we have no trace of any funda- mental philosophical contrast between the Creator God, who is the God of the Law in the OT, and the God and Father of Jesus Christ. As regards the ' mystery ' element, there are far fewer indications of the sacramental spirit than in the Epistles of Paul written to Corinth, where the ' Gnostic ' tendencies were perhaps less strong than in Ephesus. There is, it is true, a reference to ' magicians,' but the Jewish world was only too submissive to their spells.
A primary fact is that this teaching was more or less of Jewish origin, which is to say that it was not 'Gnostic, 'though the Judaism of Asia Minor bad been much influenced by the pagan world, and had even yielded to some of the tendencies which were more powerfully expressed in Gnosticism, such as star worship and ' mjstery ' ideas. Ascetic prac- tices found favour even with such a good Jew as Philo, who held to the doctrine of the immortality of the soul. It is quite intelligible, therefore, that teacliers who inciilcated a false asceticism, for- bidding marriage and enjoining abstinence from foods (1 Ti 2" 4^ 5'<-=», tit 1" 2-'), who also dis- counted historical facts and taught that there was no resurrection (2 Ti 2'*), were Jews of the 1st century or had come under their influence. Indeed, Colossians presents similar teaching on the part of those who extended the old Jewish pre- scriptions as to cU'an and unclean, and probably enjoined abstinence from marriage (cf. Col 2'*"^ with Tit l"-"*). Even in the Roman Church there were those who pra(^tised asceticism, which may have been supported by speculative theories (llo 14 ; Wendland, op. cit., p. 2'M). The spiritualization of the resurrection also was, according to Ilippolytus, found among the Nicolaitans of Ilev 2"- '°.