The First and Second Letters to Timothy: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (Anchor Yale Bible)
Pages
512
Publisher
Doubleday
Published
2001
ISBN-13
9780385484220
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.
Reviews
Review of Biblical Literature (RBL) (Philip H Towner)
March 23, 2002
March 23, 2002
When Luke Timothy Johnson inherited the task of writing the Anchor Bible volume (35A) on 1 and 2 Timothy, it was inevitable that the interpretation of the Pastoral Epistles begun by Jerome Quinn (The Letter to Titus: A New Translation with notes and Commentary and an Introduction to Titus, I and II Timothy, the Pastoral Epistles[AB 35; New York: Doubleday, 1990]) would take a rather different direction. Professor Johnson's impatience with modern scholarship's treatment of these New Testament documents is well known (e.g., The Writings of the New Testament: An Interpretation [2d ed.; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1999]; Letters to Paul's Delegates: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus [Valley Forge, Pa.: Trinity Press International, 1996]), and this volume, The First and Second Letters to Timothy, represents his most eloquent and effective expression of an alternative to the critical view. It is also one of the most significant works on these letters to emerge in some time, and the issues Johnson raises cannot be skirted. In keeping with the series format, this volume includes a fresh translation of 1 and 2 Timothy (3-10), a full and up-to-date bibliography (103-31), and concluding indexes to Scripture references, ancient sources and authors of the secondary literature. The author himself sets out in seven points the unique features of the commentary that justify its publication (xi-xii). Rather than rehearse them, I will extract from them the three or four elements that most typify the perspective that he adopts.
[Full Review]