Second Letter to Timothy

In the New Testament, the Second Epistle of Paul to Timothy, usually referred to simply as Second Timothy and often written 2 Timothy, is one of the three Pastoral Epistles traditionally attributed to Saint Paul. The three epistles are called "pastoral" because they relate to the conduct of church leaders, thought of as pastors (literally shepherds). It is traditionally considered to be the last epistle he wrote before his death. It is addressed to Timothy, a fellow missionary.

The Epistle advocates endurance as the main quality for a preacher of the gospel. As a good soldier for Jesus Christ, he is to be pure, noble, and ready to take his share of suffering. In Paul's farewell, he describes himself as at the end of his career and awaiting the crown of righteousness.

Although the Pastorals are written under Paul's name, they are different from his other epistles, and since the 1700s scholars have increasingly seen them as the work of an unknown student of Paul's doctrine. They are speculated to have been written between 90 and 140. They do not address Paul's common themes, such as the believers' unity with Christ, and they reflect a church hierarchy that is more organized and defined than the church was in Paul's time. Scholars refer to the anonymous author as "the Pastor".

Albert Barnes demonstrates that Paul the Apostle wrote this letter in AD 61 or 65:

There has been much diversity of sentiment on the question when this Epistle was written. That it was written at Rome, and when the apostle was imprisoned there, is the unanimous opinion of all who have written on the Epistle, and indeed is apparent on the face of it; see 2 Timothy 1:8, 2 Timothy 1:16; 2 Timothy 4:6. But whether it was written during his first imprisonment there, or during a second imprisonment, is a question, on which critics even now are by no means agreed. If the supposition of a second imprisonment at Rome, during which this Epistle was written, is correct, then it was written probably not far from the year AD 65. Lardner, however, who supposes it was written during the first imprisonment, places its date in May, AD 61; Hug, also, in the same year.

Some modern critical scholars argue that 2 Timothy was not written by Paul but by an anonymous follower, after Paul's death in the first century AD.

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