Posted by Ray Kidder on 6/16/2009, 7:35 pm, in reply to "RCC View"
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Jim,
The following is a Wikipedia web page on I Timothy:
First Epistle to Timothy - Wikipedia
This is from near the beginning of the web page:
"Authorship
The author of 1 Timothy has been traditionally identified as the Apostle Paul. He is named as the author of the letter in the text (1:1). In modern times, scholars have become divided over the issue of authenticity, with many suggesting that 1 Timothy, along with 2 Timothy and Titus, are not original to Paul, but rather an unknown Christian writing some time in the late-first-to-mid-second century.[2] Despite the challenge to Pauline authorship, the traditional view is still held by many New Testament scholars."
It is true that some serious scholars have doubts about St. Paul being the author of this epistle. Further down the web page it also says the following:
"The defence of Pauline authorship
Scholars who hold to the minority position of Pauline authenticity of the epistle include Wallace,[15] Knight[8], Fee[16], Witherington III[17], Johnson[18], Stott[9] and Towner[19]. Wallace, for example, writes that, "although the evidence against the authenticity of the pastorals is as strong as any evidence against the authenticity of any NT book (save 2 Peter), it still cannot overthrow the traditional view"[15]
In addition, a number of computer studies, though they must be treated with caution[20], have indicated that the seven universally-accepted Pauline letters and 1-2 Timothy have a closer "affinity" than is often assumed. Thus:
Alivar has shown that the 'Timothy's' have greater 'affinity' to Romans, Ephesians and Colosians than do Romans,Ephesians and Colosians to other Pauline epistles eg 1 Corinthians or Galatians[21].
Smith[22] corrected Morton, and showed that on his criteria 'the most likely interpretation is that St. Paul wrote all the Epistles'.
Barr [23] writes 'In view of the distinctive patterns found in these corpora it cannot be held, ... that the Pastorals are pseudonymous writings ...'."
As I recall about the Roman Catholic Church web page that I referenced in a post on 13 June, this web page gives much scholarly reasoning for their belief that St. Paul was the author of this epistle. They also discussed the merits and plauability of the arguments against Pauline authorship.
I therfore think your claim that "No serious scholar thinks Paul wrote either epistle to Timothy." is not true.
Ray Kidder
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