Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 07:3 (Fall 2003)
Article: Hermeneutical and Exegetical Challenges in Interpreting the Pastoral Epistles
Author: Andreas J. Köstenberger

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SBJT 7:3 (Fall 2003) p. 4

Hermeneutical and Exegetical Challenges in
Interpreting the Pastoral Epistles

Andreas J. Köstenberger

Andreas J. Köstenberger is Professor of New Testament and Greek and Director of Ph.D. and Th.M. Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He is the editor of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society and the author of the forthcoming commentary on the Pastoral Epistles in the New Expositor’s Bible Commentary series.

In the last few years, several major commentaries and monographs on the Pastoral Epistles have been published.1 It seems appropriate to ask what light these recent works have shed on the study of this group of writings. Owing to space limitations we will limit our discussion to several of the major hermeneutical and exegetical challenges with which the modern interpreter is confronted in his or her study of the Pastoral Epistles.2

Hermeneutical Challenges

Authorship

The authorship of the Pastoral Epistles continues to be a major topic of scholarly debate. The authenticity of Paul’s correspondence with Timothy and Titus went largely unchallenged until the nineteenth century.3 Since then, an increasing number of scholars have claimed that the Pastorals are an instance of pseudonymous writing in which a later follower attributes his own work to his revered teacher in order to perpetrate that person’s teachings and influence.4 The issue is primarily a historical one. The following interrelated questions require adjudication:

1. Is pseudonymous letter-writing attested in the first century?
2. If so, was such a practice ethically unobjectionable and devoid of deceptive intent or not?5

3. Could pseudonymous letters have been acceptable to the early church?
4. If so, is pseudonymity more plausible than authenticity in the case of the Pastorals?6

I. H. Marshall has recently addressed these issues and come to the conclusion that “the way in which the thought [in the Pastorals] is expressed, both linguistically and theologically, poses great problems. .. which seems to make it unlikely that he [Paul] himself wrote in these terms to trusted colleagues.”7 For this reason Marshall rejects the Pauline authorship of the Pastorals. At the same time, however, Marshall finds the theory of pseudonymity wanting owing to the deceptive inten...

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