Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 85:1 (Spring 2023)
Article: Reviews Of Books
Author: Anonymous

WTJ 85:1 (Spring 2023) p. 183

Reviews Of Books

Special Issue Reviews

Robert W. Yarbrough, The Letters to Timothy and Titus. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2018. Pp. 604. $57.99, cloth.

For many years now, the Pillar commentaries have stood out as a scholarly, yet evangelical series, tailored for both the academic and the pastor. Robert Yarbrough’s volume on the Pastoral Epistles of Paul is no exception. Yarbrough is an outstanding, if underappreciated, NT scholar. His thorough knowledge of the text, combined with his years of seminary teaching and pastoral service, qualify him in a unique way to write an in-depth commentary on these letters. The result is a volume that should be on the shelf of everyone who wants to understand the Pastoral Epistles and their implications for ministry. Yarbrough’s commentary offers readers all the intellectual rigor of George Knight’s excellent work on these epistles, with the benefit of a more expansive treatment of the text in English (with Greek words translated). These characteristics make this book easy for pastors to read and reference when working through Paul’s teaching to Timothy and Titus.

Space forbids anything like a thorough treatment of Yarbrough’s 600-page volume, so I will make some passing remarks on the introductory material and then focus on three areas of interest to those engaged in pastoral ministry. His introduction and exploration of the background of the Pastoral Epistles is informed, up to date, and well reasoned. Two of the highlights of this section are his treatment of Paul as a pastor (particularly the section on “Paul as working pastor”) and his assessment of the rich Trinitarian theology stamped on Paul’s final letters. He also provides a very good defense of Pauline authorship, a perennial issue in the history of interpretation of these letters. Overall, his introduction is one of the finest available, not only for its academic precision, but also its keen insights into often overlooked aspects of the text.

In good Presbyterian fashion, then, I will focus on three topics that affect pastoral ministry. First, I will examine Yarbrough’s treatment of Paul’s qualifications for church officers; second, his understanding of a handful of controversial texts; and, finally, how pastors might benefit from this commentary.

Qualifications of church officers. Anyone even somewhat connected to an evangelical church knows that controversy has raged around the interpretation of 1 Tim 3:1–13 for decades (centuries?) now. More to the point, the question of whether women can hold office in the church has plagued denominations and local churches for quite some time. Yarbrough handles this thorny issue with acum...