The Image of Paul in the Pastorals

Abstract

I N recent years the issue of the authenticity of the Pastorals has resulted in a consensus opinion that the Pastorals were not written by Paul himself.In their present form, at least, the Pastorals are generally considered to be the work of an anonymous disciple of the apostle.Among Catholics, Norbert Brox was one of the first authors to opt for the pseudonymity of these letters and to use this judgment as the horizon for his exegesis of the letters.2The consideration that the Pastorals are post-apostolic opens the possibility that they contain a picture of the apostle.In fact, Conzelmann claims, with specific reference to 2 Tim, that a picture of the apostle Paul belongs to the tradition of the Pastorals.3To the extent that 2 Tim belongs to the farewell discourse genre, we would expect that it would offer a somewhat stereotyped picture of the apostle.Nonetheless it appears that each of the Pastorals contains something of the picture of the apostle.The incorporation of the so-called autobiogra phical references (1 Tim 1:3,20; 3: 14-15; 4: 13; 6 :2 3 ; 2 Tim 1:3-5, 8, 15-18; 4:9-17) as well as the greetings of all these epistles brings a life-like quality to that picture of the apostle.In short the Pastorals contain traces of an emerging Pauline hagiography whose essential traits can be analysed with respect to Paul as apostle, ecclesial authority, and model Christian.I.

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