The First and Second Letters to Timothy

The Anchor Yale Bible Commentaries

by Luke Timothy Johnson

The letters of Paul to Timothy, one of his favorite delegates, often make for difficult reading in today's world. They contain much that make modern readers uncomfortable, and much that is controversial, including pronouncements on the place of women in the Church and on homosexuality, as well as polemics against the so-called "false teachers." They have also been of a source of questions within the scholarly community, where the prevailing opinion since the nineteenth century is that someone else wrote the letters and signed Paul's name in order to give them greater authority.

Using the best of modern and ancient scholarship, Luke Timothy Johnson provides clear, accessible commentary that will help lay readers navigate the letters and better understand their place within the context Paul's teachings. Johnson's conclusion that they were indeed written by Paul himself ensures that this volume, like the other Anchor Bible Commentaries, will attract the attention of theologians and other scholars.

Genres: New Testament

512 pages, Hardcover

First published March 20, 2001

About the author

Luke Timothy Johnson is an American New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity. He is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at Candler School of Theology and a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University.

Johnson's research interests encompass the Jewish and Greco-Roman contexts of early Christianity (particularly moral discourse), Luke-Acts, the Pastoral Epistles, and the Epistle of James.

Reviews

[John Waldrip · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first exposure to Luke Timothy Johnson and I found his commentary useful. He includes insightful devotional observations as well as including evidence of thoroughness when handling the Greek text. This would be a good book to include in a pastor's library.

[Ephrem Arcement · Rating 5 out of 5]

Johnson not only demonstrates his exegetical acumen here but also utilizes his contrarian perspective convincingly. This is a great gift to NT studies and should cause many to reevaluate premature(?) assumptions about this canonical text.

[Thomas McCloskey]

Exceptional.

[Brian Collins]

Johnson is a critical scholar who is unconvinced of the arguments against Pauline authorship of the letters to Timothy and Titus. His critique of the reigning critical view and his arguments for Pauline authorship are careful and insightful. His critical proclivities emerge however in his comments about the role of women in the church.