orty years. Paul found
Timothy in his second missionary journey, about A.D. 52. It is
not necessary to assume that he was then more than twenty years
old. At the time of Paul's martyrdom, then, about A.D. 67 or 68,
he may have been, for anything that appears to the contrary, a
young man in the ancient sense of the word.

36. The false teachers with whom the apostle deals in these epistles are
corrupt in _practice_ as well as in doctrine. 1 Tim. 1:6; 6:5; 2 Tim.
2:16, 17; 3:6, 8; Titus 1:15, 16. They were chiefly Jews (1 Tim. 1:7;
Titus 1:10, 14; 3:9); but not Jews who held to simple Phariseeism, like
the false teachers among the Galatians. They more nearly resembled those
who troubled the Colossians--Jews of a speculative turn of mind, who
sought to bring into Judaism the semi-oriental philosophy of that day.
They were not Gnostics; for Gnosticism was essentially anti-Judaistic,
separating the God of the Jews from the God of Christianity, and placing
the two in antagonism to each other. The speculations of these false
teachers took a direction which was in some respects akin to the
Gnosticism of the second century; but the allegation that they were
themselves Gnostics rests upon the misinterpretation of certain passages
in these epistles, or unwarrantable inferences from them.

37. The _genuineness_ of these epistles is sustained by the unanimous
testimony of the ancient church. Only in modern times has it been called
in question by certain writers, who rest their arguments wholly on
alleged internal evidence.

So far as their objections are founded on the assumed early date
of the pastoral epistles--before the close of Paul's
imprisonment at Rome recorded by Luke, on their peculiar tone
and diction, or on the supposed references in them to the
Gnosticism of the second century, they have already been
considered. But it is further alleged:

(1.) That they reveal a _hierarchical spirit_ foreign to the
character of the apostle Paul. The answer is that no trace of
such a spirit is discernible in them. The churches had from the
first their officers--bishops or elders and deacons; and the
apostle simply gives the necessary directions for the selection
of these, with a few brief hints respecting the line of conduct
to be observed towards them. 1 Tim. 5:1, 17, 19, 22.

(2.) That the _institution of widows_ (1 Tim. 5:9-16) belongs to
a later ag