1 - Attitudes to the world/ethics

Summary

The following study investigates the social setting of the Pastoral Epistles. On the one hand, it considers the influence of the structures of Greco-Roman society on the life of the church; on the other hand, it focuses on the community's relations with the outside world. The social tensions related to a strong desire to evangelize are studied. The implications of the ethos of love-patriarchalism for the community's dealings with the outside world are considered. The attitudes to women and wealth visible in the text are investigated in order to clarify the significance of this ethos for community life.

Studying contacts with the Greco-Roman world: problems of methodology

It is somewhat ironic that commentators consistently point to influences from Greco-Roman society evident in the Pastorals but only rarely speak of the implications of such influences for the life of the community behind these writings. Parallels are drawn with current philosophical thought. However, because connections are made on a purely literary level, almost nothing is revealed about their significance for understanding the situation underlying the Pastorals. Furthermore, among scholars believing 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus to be deutero-Pauline, there is a tendency to describe external influences as penetrating the Pauline world as quickly as a quotation from a contemporary philosopher might be mechanically inserted into a given text. This is not to suggest that influences from the Greco-Roman world are not more prevalent in the Pastoral Epistles than in other Pauline writings.