Paul’s Letters To Timothy And Titus: A Literature Review (2009–2015) -- By: Charles J. Bumgardner

Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 07:2 (Winter 2016)
Article: Paul’s Letters To Timothy And Titus: A Literature Review (2009–2015)
Author: Charles J. Bumgardner


Paul’s Letters To Timothy And Titus:
A Literature Review (2009–2015)

Charles J. Bumgardner

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Introduction

The late I. Howard Marshall provided an extremely helpful service with his incisive overviews of recent scholarship on the Letters to Timothy and Titus (LTT).1 These bibliographic essays are essential reading for students of the LTT, providing judicious summaries of trends and research in the letters,2 with the latest of these state-of-research essays focusing on works from 1999–2008. The present treatment—more a literature update than a state-of-research essay—will cover English-language works on the LTT published from 2009–2015.3 I will discuss scholarly commentaries, highlight a number of important works on the LTT, and provide a bibliography.

Interpreting the LTT has always had its challenges, and particular texts in the letters have provoked contention when intimately connected with ongoing ecclesial issues.4 Roughly a decade ago, at a meeting of the Colloquium Oecumenicum Paulinum tasked with discussing 1 Timothy, Karl Donfried noted that “as one today looks at the literature dealing with the so-called ‘pastoral epistles’ one finds a state of utter disarray.”5 My own bibliographic

research has convinced me that the situation has not noticeably improved, and the sheer diversity of approaches to the LTT is reflected in the work which here follows.

Commentaries

Several pre-modern commentaries on the LTT have been newly published in English translation, including those by Ambrosiaster (Bray), Aquinas (1–2 Timothy only; Baer), Jerome (Titus only; Scheck), and Theodore of Mopsuestia (Greer). Excerpts from numerous patristic commentators on the letters may be found in Twomey and especially Gorday.6 As well, from the early modern period, a new edition of Calvin’s sermons on 1 Timothy has been produced by Van Neste and Denker.

A spate of scholarly English-language commentaries on the LTT appeared around the turn of the millennium, with many major series obtaining a volume (or two) on the letters in a span of less than a decade.7 This outpouring is reflected in the lack of any heavyweight technical English-language commentaries on the LTT in this essay’s timeframe. A n...

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