The First and Second Letters to Timothy
Pages
512
Publisher
Yale University Press
Published
1/1/2001
ISBN-13
9780300139884
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.
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.
Collections
This book appears in the following featured collections.
- Favorite Advanced NT Commentaries by Jeremy Pierce (parableman)
- D. A. Carson's Commentary "Best Buys" by D. A. Carson
- Ultimate Commentary Collection: NT Technical by John Glynn
- The Pastor’s Bookshelf by Scot McKnight
- New Testament Commentaries & Monographs by Princeton Theological Seminary
- Nijay Gupta's Top NT Commentaries by Nijay K. Gupta
- Recommended New Testament Commentaries for Evangelical Pastors by Thomas R. Schreiner
- Commentaries by Roman Catholic Scholars by Best Commentaries
Reviews
DavidH
August 10, 2026
August 10, 2026
Johnson offers one of the most original modern treatments of 1 and 2 Timothy. He challenges the conventional tendency to treat the Pastorals as a single pseudonymous corpus and instead gives sustained attention to each letter’s literary form, occasion, relationship to the wider Pauline correspondence, and the distinctive relationship between Paul and his delegate. His use of Greco-Roman moral philosophy is especially illuminating in 2 Timothy, where themes of character, virtue, imitation, moral exemplarity, and the teacher’s embodied life become central to the interpretation. Johnson also reopens the authorship question in a serious way rather than simply accepting the critical consensus. The commentary is limited by its omission of Titus, and some of Johnson’s contemporary hermeneutical conclusions—particularly his judgment that Paul’s reasoning in 1 Timothy 2 is defective and not normative for the church today—move beyond historical exegesis and will not persuade many readers. Nevertheless, this is a remarkably stimulating and independent commentary whose questions and arguments materially enrich almost any serious study of the letters to Timothy.
Nijay K. Gupta
October 11, 2019
October 11, 2019
In this technical study of 1-2 Timothy (Titus is not included in his volume), Johnson offers one of the most extensive arguments in favor of Pauline authorship of these texts. The commentary itself presents Johnson’s thoughtful exegetical discussion of the text, which is historical-critical in general, but also attentive to important theological questions.
[Full Review]
G Ware
March 6, 2015
March 6, 2015
Johnson has enough clout to buck against norm. In this one he takes a few less popular positions. Nevertheless, it is an impeccable piece of scholarship.
Phillip J. Long
July 3, 2012
July 3, 2012
Johnson is one of the more prolific New Testament scholars, and his Anchor Bible volume on the letters to Timothy is one of the best of the series. He spends about fifty pages on the authorship of the Pastorals, fairly describing and assessing the “conventional approach.” He offers five problems which this consensus view rarely discusses, and finally settles on the view that these letters are genuinely Pauline. He knows that authenticity cannot be demonstrated, but he sees these letters are representing Paul’s own thinking even if they are written through a delegate of some kind. As with all the Anchor commentaries, the body of the commentary includes a fresh translation followed by phrase-by-phrase notes, all Greek is transliterated. After the notes, Johnson provides a comment section which deals with the overall themes of the section, usually including the special contribution of the section to a kind of “pastoral epistles theology.” Johnson does not include Titus in this volume. The Anchor Bible series has a separate volume for Titus, Jerome D. Quinn, The Letter to Titus (AB; New Your: Doubleday, 1990). Quinn, who died before finishing this commentary, includes an introduction on all three pastoral letters. (Ben Witherington calls Quinn’s commentary the “only real standout” commentary on Titus. He may be right, since there are precious few commentaries on Titus alone!)
[Full Review]
