New Testament · Paul's Letters
Order in God's household, elders, deacons, sound doctrine, godliness with contentment.
A letter from an older man to a younger one left in charge of a difficult congregation in Ephesus, and one of the three called the Pastoral Epistles. Its concerns are organisational, what kind of people should lead, how widows should be cared for, what to do about teachers spinning myths and endless genealogies, and it contains the observation about the love of money being a root of all kinds of evil, which is more precise than the version usually quoted. It also contains the passage about women learning quietly, one of the most contested texts in the New Testament, and honesty requires saying that its meaning, scope, and occasion are disputed by careful readers who reach very different conclusions.
If you remember one thing
The most practical letter in the New Testament about running a church, written to someone young enough that Paul has to tell him not to let anyone look down on him.
“But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
1 Timothy 6:6
1 Timothy 2:11-15
On women teaching and holding authority. This passage sits at the center of a live disagreement among Christians about ministry, and both complementarian and egalitarian readers engage it seriously.
Named here rather than skipped. Where Christians read a passage differently, we say so instead of choosing for you.
Everyone here has a write-up, drawn from the same records that explain the names while you read the text.
A young believer from Lystra with a Greek father and a Jewish mother, who traveled with Paul and was left in charge at Ephesus. Two of Paul's letters are addressed to him, and the second is the last one we have.
A Pharisee trained under Gamaliel who persecuted the church until he was stopped on the road to Damascus. He then spent thirty years planting churches across the Roman world and writing the letters that make up roughly a third of the New Testament. He was a Roman citizen by birth, which is why he could appeal to Caesar.
A quiz for 1 Timothy is on the workbench. In the meantime, the games for the judges, the kings, and the prophets are open.
