What the book is
1 Timothy is one of the three Pastoral Letters, with 2 Timothy and Titus, written to Paul’s co-workers about leading churches. Paul has left Timothy in Ephesus to stop certain people teaching a different doctrine, and he writes to tell him how people “ought to live in God’s household” (3:15). He gives instructions on prayer and on worship, on the qualities required of overseers and deacons, on caring for widows, on elders, slaves and the rich, and he urges Timothy himself to keep the faith and set an example. At its heart is a saying the early church already knew by heart:
Here is a saying you can rely on, which deserves to be fully accepted: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I am the worst of them. But I was shown mercy for this very reason: so that in me, the worst of all, Christ Jesus could show how completely patient He is, as an example for those who would come to believe in Him and receive eternal life.
Who wrote it, and when
The letter is from Paul (1:1), and the church accepted it as his from the second century. Many scholars today think instead that the Pastoral Letters were written after Paul’s death by a follower writing in his name, around AD 80–100, pointing to their vocabulary and style, the more developed church order they describe, and how hard it is to fit them into the story of Paul’s life told in Acts. Others hold that Paul wrote them, perhaps through a secretary, late in his life, after a release from his first imprisonment in Rome, in the mid-60s.
How the book is laid out
- False teachers and the gospel (1): the right use of the law, and Paul’s own story of mercy.
- Prayer and worship (2): prayer for all people, one God and one mediator, and men and women in the assembly.
- Leaders of the church (3): overseers and deacons, and “the mystery of our faith”.
- Timothy’s ministry (4): against false asceticism, and “Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young”.
- Groups in the church (5:1–6:2): older and younger people, widows, elders and slaves.
- Final charges (6:3–21): godliness with contentment, the love of money, and “Compete well in the good contest of the faith”, the “good fight of faith” of older Bibles.
How Open Word Bible translates 1 Timothy
Women in the assembly (2:11–15). These verses are among the most debated in the New Testament. “I do not allow a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man.” The word translated “exercise authority” is rare and is found nowhere else in the New Testament; it may mean simply to exercise authority, or to domineer, or to seize authority on one’s own. Whether “a woman” means women in general or wives, and what it means to be “saved through childbearing” (2:15), are just as uncertain. The draft translates the Greek as it stands, marks each decision uncertain, and the footnotes set out the readings.
The husband of one wife (3:2). The phrase may mean faithful to one wife, married only once, not a polygamist, or not divorced and remarried. The draft reads it as faithfulness and footnotes the other readings.
Women deacons? (3:11). In the middle of the instructions for deacons, Paul turns to “women”: either women who serve as deacons, or the wives of deacons. The decision is marked uncertain and footnoted.
The mystery of our faith (3:16). “He was revealed in a human body, vindicated by the Spirit ... taken up in glory.” Many later manuscripts read “God was revealed in flesh”, the wording of the King James Version; the oldest read “who”, and the draft follows them, with the other readings in a footnote.
The love of money (6:10). “The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”: the Greek says “a root”, not “the root”, and “all kinds of evil”, not “all evil”, and the footnote gives the familiar older wording.
1:10. The list of those the law is for includes a word the draft translates “men who have sexual relations with males”, the same rare word as in 1 Corinthians 6:9; the decision is marked uncertain and the footnote gives the other readings.