Jerome declares that these adverse judgments were not critical in any true sense, but merely arbitrary: ‘cum haeretica auctoritate pronuntient et dicant, Illa epistola Pauli est, haec non est”. How- ever that may be, there is at least no trace in the writings of the Church controversialists of arguments of a critical nature; whereas in the dispute as to the authorship of Hebrews, Clement Al. and Origen were compelled to discuss the problem presented by its un- Pauline style. In any case, the fact that the rejection of the Pastorals by some heretics was noted amounts to a positive testimony in their favour by the contemporary Church.
From the time of Irenzeus, Clement Al. and Tertullian that is, practically from the time that N.T. books are quoted by their author’s names——until the year 1804, when Schmidt in his Intro- duction denied the genuineness of 1 Timothy, no one, Christian or non- Christian, doubted that the Pastoral Epistles were genuine letters of the Apostle Paul. They are included in all MSS., Versions and Lists of the Pauline Epistles without exception, and in the same order (1.ε., 1 Tim., 2 Tim., Tit.). An interesting exception as regards the order meets us in the Muratorian Fragment: ‘‘ Uerum ad Phile- monem unam, et ad Titum unam, et ad Timotheum duas pro affectu et dilectione; in honore tamen ecclesiae catholicae in ordinatione ecclesiasticae disciplinae sanctificatae sunt’. The composer of this catalogue here arranges the groups of four personal letters of St. Paul in rough chronological order. As 2 Tim. was obviously the last letter that St. Paul wrote, the two to Timothy are placed last, Titus being joined to them as evidently dealing with kindred topics.
It remains that the reader should have placed before him the traces, more or less distinct, of the Pastoral Epistles in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, and of the pre-Irenzeus period.
CLEMENT OF Rome. Ad Cor. 1. (A.D. 95.)
5. 1 (1 Tim. νι. 1). ὥστε τὸ .. . ὄνομα ὑμῶν μεγάλως βλασφη- μηθῆναι. ,
8 1( Tim. ν. 17). τιμὴν τὴν καθήκουσαν ἀπονέμοντες τοῖς. .. πρεσβυτέροις.
§1 (1 Tim. ii. 9, 11; Tit. ii. 4). γυναιξίν.. . στεργούσας καθηκόντως TOUS ἄνδρας ἑαυτῶν ἔν τε TO κανόνι τῆς ὑποταγῆς ὑπαρχούσας τὰ κατὰ τὸν οἶκον σεμνῶς οἰκουργεῖν ἐδιδάσκετε, πάνυ
σωφρονούσας.
1¢.g., Ireneus, Haer. Praef.; i. 16, 3; ii. 14, 7; ili. 3, 3; iii, 3, 4; iv. 16, 3. Clem. Al., Strom. i. p. 350. Tert., de Praescr. 6,25. Adv. Marcion. v. 21.