The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 30

since we have, in the greeting of the First Epistle to the Corinthians," Paul, called to be M apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother," where certainly such close partnership cannot bci assumed, Nevertheless, the conjunctioll or the three names, with no words interposed to mark distinction in·office, may be fairly alleged a.s looking in that direction, if other evidence can be adduced favouring thl't view. And such, I venbre to think, there is. St. Paul, in his third journey, writing to the Corinthians with reference qertainly to t.hat same second journey with which we are now concerned, expresses himself thus: "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached -among you by us, by me and Silvanus a.nd Timotbeus, was not yea and nay" (2 Cor. i. 19). This manner of speaking raises Timotheus from any such position of a mere "attendant (&,r11pl-r11s)," whether upon Paul himself or upon Paul and Silas in conjunction, as Mark hac;I. ,)l,eld with relation to Paul and Barnabas in the first journey, and 11ssig.ns to him an :inc;l.q- pendent .footing, more or less co-ordinate, by the side of the pther two pri,acher~ of the Son of God-a footing at-least so far independent and co-ordinate thl!,t,th~ portraiture which he had given of the Lord Jesus Christ could be referred to as additional to and corroborative of that given by Paul and by Silv!!,nus, . .• . . • • May it not, then, be the case that when, in the passage more immediately u.11der consideration (1 Th-. ii. 6), he says, "We might. as Christ's apostJes: have t~k,~ a position burdensome to you," he refers to ibe ",Paul and Silvan11s·and ';I'imotheus" from whom the Epistle professes to come, a.s being all three apostie~ of Christ? An affirmative answer to this query is favoured by the referenpes to 'rimo~heus whi<;h we meet with in the Epistle to the Philippians. . In ii.22 St-,Paul says of him,(<,Ye kno,w the proving of him [i.e. what, when put to the proof, he. :was. found t,o be], that 11,s a son to his father [q.d. like father, like child] he with me.served· (llii/6,\e1111•).f9r the furtherance of the gospel ; " served, that js, • the L_ord J~sus;. for. that the -~rson whom Timotheus is described as doing service to :was Christ.anll net th.e Alp_os,tle Paul, is noi only evinced by the very form of the expression, 11~11 l,u.ol i~ou,\•1111•, but also by the superscription of the Epistle, " Paul and Timotheus, servants (lioii,\01)- -of Christ Jeans to all the saints," etc.1 The Epistle to the Philippians, jt is. true,_dat11s .ll!!Veral years later than even. the third journey, and perhaps se.ven 9r eight years later ~han the Epistles to the Thessalonians ; but the " proving " of :w)lich th.e Philippjaps, were cognizant ma.y be probably conceived as commencing. froID. the time :when TiJllotbeus accompanied St. Paul on his first coming into Macedonia. with Silas, tho11gh <;ontinµing through that time also of the third journey when, as. we kp.ow, .St. ,Paul, being, ;at Ephesus, despatched him on a mission to Corinth, visiting the Church,e~ 9C }d.ac:e4~n.i~ on the way (1 Cor. xvi. 10; Acts :x:i.x. 22). The paseage s.hows t)la~ Jr9II\ ,the_.: !1011:\- mencement of this period St. Paul regarded Timothy, not as a personal att\;!nda.nt waiti,ng upon hi01self, but as a fellew-bondservant .with hims~lf, of. Obrist, :working, as he told the Corinthians (1 Cor. _xvi. 10), the work of the ;Lord, that is, t~_e,:work on which the Lord was employing him, even as he himself di\!. As Panl 1!i,imself, so also Timotheus, owned a sacred commission which St, l'aul felt himself b9u11d, tp rec9g11ize and revere. , . In the Acts no account is given, either of any Divine ,call sµmmoning 'l'imotheus to a ministerial function, or of any other circumstances attending his appointment to s1,1ch an office. All that St. Luke states .is thii,t Paul, in thi/1 eecopd jQurney of bis, fo1,1nd 1 ~ • Aov,\o, Xpurroii is palpably not a predicate of mere discipleship; as in 1 Oor. vii. 22: Eph. ori. 6. The phraee here, e.s it almost always appears. to do, designates au official character (comp. Rom..i.1; eh. i.10; Col. iv. 12; 2 Tim. ii. 24; Titua.i. 1; Jae. 1.1; 2 Pet. i. l ; Judo 1).  DISSERTATION I. ,1m