Ignatius, Polycarp, and the Pauline Authorship of 1 and 2 Timothy

Page from Codex H (015) at 1 Tim 2.2-6 (6th Century)

I recently read an older article in the academic journal Vigiliae Christianae that argues for Polycarp's belief that 1 and 2 Timothy were written by Paul. 

Kenneth Berding, "Polycarp of Smyrna's View of the Authorship of 1 and 2 Timothy," Vigiliae Christianae 53.4 (Nov., 1999): 349-360.

Here is the conclusion of the article as a summary.

"This paper has sought to demonstrate that there is a marked tendency in Polycarp's letter to the Philippians to cluster Pauline citations and allusions in the three passages in which he mentions the name of Paul. This indicates that Polycarp (consciously or unconsciously) considered the references to be Pauline. In addition, the first cluster contains a phrase from 1 Tim 6:10 followed by one from 1 Tim 6:7. The second cluster contains a phrase from 2 Tim 4:10. The most plausible conclusion which can be drawn is that Polycarp considered these also to be Pauline. If Harrison (and much of modern scholarship) is correct in linking Titus to 1 and 2 Timothy, Polycarp has become the earliest external witness to the belief in the early church that Paul was the author of the Pastoral Epistles." (pg 360).

I find the collective evidence presented as pretty persuasive. In support of this early attestation, it appears that Ignatius of Antioch, in his letter to the Ephesian church, may have had 1 and 2 Timothy in view when he made a passing reference to Paul.

"You are the highway of those who are being killed for God's sake; you are fellow initiates of Paul, who as sanctified, who was approved, who was deservedly blessed─may I be found in his footsteps when I reach God!─who in every letter remembers you in Christ Jesus." (Ign. Eph. 12.2)

Which letters may Ignatius be referring to here? Obviously, it is likely he is referring to the New Testament writing, Ephesians. However, this is only one letter, why does he mention "every letter" (πάση επιστολη), which seems to be referring to every letter in the Pauline corpus? Most commentators of Ignatius see this reference as hyperbole. Paul mentions the Ephesian Christians in only four of his letters, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and first and second Timothy (pg 163-164).

Perhaps another solution is that Ignatius is referring to letters that were written to the Ephesian Church directly. This would include of course Ephesians, but also 1 and 2 Timothy as well for Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus to minister and instruct the Christians in the city (1 Tim 1:3). Thus it might be that once Timothy received the letter, he read it out to the Church there. If this is what Ignatius is referring to (granted this is speculative) then Ignatius is attributing Pauline authorship to the letters of 1 and 2 Timothy.

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Holmes, Michael W., ed. The Apostolic Fathers: Greek texts and English translations. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999.

Exposing Textual Corruption at SBL

I just received word that my paper proposal was accepted for the 2017 SBL Annual Meeting in Boston. For those who might be interested, it will be presented in the program unit; "Book History and Biblical Literatures." The title and abstract of the paper are,

Exposing Textual Corruption: Community as a Stabilizing Aspect in the Circulation of the New Testament writings during the Greco-Roman Era.

Abstract:

Very few manuscripts of the New Testament writings date to within the first three centuries of the Christian era. Because of this, William L. Petersen determined that, “Our critical editions do not present us with the text that was current in 150, 120 or 100—much less in 80 CE.” In contrast, Michel W. Holmes wrote that the New Testament text is “characterized by macro-level stability and micro-level fluidity.” Both of these scholars used a similar method, applying our knowledge of scribal transmission from later periods backward into the first century. Yet, each of their results were at opposite ends of the spectrum. Despite the disparity of these conclusions, there is another avenue that remains to be analyzed that governed the transmission of texts in the period under investigation; the publication and circulation conventions of the Roman imperial age.

This paper will set out the evidence for ancient publication through community transmission. It will consider examples from Cicero, Martial, Quintilian, Pliny the younger, and Galen. These authors reveal that, although they were familiar with and used commercial book dealers on occasion, they preferred to use social networks to circulate their writings. These same communities that copied and distributed an author’s compositions inadvertently created an environment in which significant alterations and plagiarizing of these same writings became known. Martial described this well when he wrote that “a well-known book cannot change its master” (Epig. 1.66). Through these networks Quintilian knew that some of his lectures had been crudely transcribed and were circulating amongst his followers (Inst. Or. Pref. 7-8). Pliny gives an example when he warned Octavius that draft versions of his poems had begun to circulate without Octavius’s consent (Ep. 2.10). Through the communities that circulated his writings, Galen learned that his original marginal note was mistakenly copied into the main body of text (In Hipp. epid. comm. III, 1.36).

Within the New Testament writings as a whole, this paper will examine Col 4:16, 1 Tim 4:13, and Rev 1:3, and in the Apostolic Fathers at, Poly. Phil. 13.2, 1 Clem. 47.1, Mart. Poly. 22.2, and Herm. Vis. 2.4. These examples portray early Christian publication practices as functioning primarily through social networks. As a result, any significant alterations to the New Testament writings were exposed in the wider community of the first and second centuries. This is evident in 2 Thess 2:1-2, where the author knew of falsely attributed letters. And in 2 Peter 3:16, where the author is aware that Paul’s epistles are being corrupted. In the second century, the textual alterations of Marcion and the Theodotians became widely known (Tertullian, Praescr. 38; Eusebius, Hist.eccl. 5.28).

The conclusion will be that because the New Testament writings were transmitted and circulated primarily through social contacts during the Greco-Roman era, this naturally produced a condition in which the plagiarizing and alteration of these books would have been exposed within these same community circles. This would have resulted in a moderately stable textual transmission during the first and second centuries.

Papias, "The Living Voice," and a WW2 Veteran

I have recently befriended a 92 year old World War Two veteran of the Army's  First Infantry Division. Because he entered the service early in the war, he saw action for over two years in some of the most fierce and pivotal battles of the European theater. I have become enthralled with the stories of his childhood during the depression era, and of course, with his combat experience in the war.

D-Day June 6th 1944

Each time that I have sat down to talk with him I quickly loose track of time, and it is not uncommon for us to talk for three hours non-stop. I came away exhausted after one of our discussions because I had apparently been sitting on the edge of my seat, tense with anticipation, as he recalled his landing on Omaha beach on that fateful June day of 1944.

I could not help but wonder if this was the same feeling that Christians of the late first century had while they sat around the aged apostle John as he recounted his experiences with Jesus and the apostles. Irenaeus wrote that John lived a very long life;

"...the Church in Ephesus, founded by Paul, and having John remaining among them permanently until the times of Trajan, is a true witness of the tradition of the apostles." (Adv. Haer. 3.4; ANF1)

Polycarp of Smyrna (died ca. 155CE) is said to have recounted stories that he had heard as a young man from the elderly apostle John. Stories that Polycarp told when he was himself an old man (Adv. Haer.  3.4 and Iren. Frag. II; ANF1).
The most famous account of listening to the elderly John comes from Papias, who wrote in his Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord;

"I will not hesitate to set down for you, along with my interpretations, everything I carefully remembered, guaranteeing their truth. . . . And if by chance someone who had been a follower of the elders should come my way, I inquired about the words of the elders—what Andrew or Peter said, or Philip, or Thomas or James, or John or Matthew or any other of the Lord’s disciples, and whatever Aristion and the elder John, the Lord’s disciples were saying. For I did not think the information from books would profit me as much as information from a living and abiding voice. (Eusebius, Hist. eccl. 3.39.3-4)"[1]

Now that I have spent some time with this World War Two veteran, I understand better why Papias would write that he preferred a "living and abiding voice" over what he could read in written accounts. It is not that Papias refused to read books at all, but that he enjoyed sitting on the edge of his seat as the elderly John and the other aged apostles and followers of Jesus and the apostles recounted their stories and experiences. I cannot wait until the next time I can put down William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich in order to sit next to this World War Two veteran and listen to his experiences first hand.

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[1] Michael W. Holmes, ed., The Apostolic Fathers: Greek texts and English Translations (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999), 565.