Paul and Timothy: developing a leader by Graham Roberts A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Theology Melbourne College of Divinity Melbourne November 2008 Statement of Originality The material contain in this thesis is my own work and contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any other university or institution. To the best of my knowledge, this thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text. ii CONTENTS Abstract vi Abbreviations vii Timothy, Paul and leadership Thesis approach 2 Leadership described 2 Leadership in the New Testament 5 Terms used for leadership 6 Timothy learner and future leader 9 Timothy as travel companion 11 A collective enterprise 12 In the cities and the towns 13 On the road 20 An itinerant school? 23 Summary 25 Timothy in Paul’s eyes 27 Brother 28 Fellow-worker 34 Servant of Jesus Christ 38 Son 40 Summary 43 Timothy as co-author 45 Literacy and letter-writing 46 The secretary 48 The community around Paul 51 Co-senders and/or co-authors 53 Timothy as co-sender 55 1 Thessalonians 56 2 Corinthians 58 Philippians 61 Philemon 63 Common themes 64 Timothy as co-author? 65 Timothy as writer? 67 Summary 70 iii Timothy as Paul’s delegate 71 Apostolic presence 72 Envoy or delegate? 73 Dispatched to Thessalonica 78 Challenges at Corinth 83 Potentially to Philippi? 91 Summary 93 Timothy as Paul’s heir 96 A background of faith 97 A special relationship 100 A ‘young’ man 103 Character and health 106 Equipped and endorsed 110 Prophecies about Timothy 111 The laying on of hands 112 Timothy’s gift 118 Summary 119 Timothy and leadership 123 Modelling leadership: Howard Gardner 123 Direct and/or indirect leadership 125 Ordinary, innovative, or visionary leadership 126 Domain or diverse leadership 128 Evaluating Timothy as a leader 129 Developed in leadership 131 Conclusion 132 Appendix 1. Leadership terms 135 Appendix 2: A working chronology 137 a. In the ‘undisputed’ Pauline correspondence 139 The Epistle to the Galatians 141 The other undisputed letters 142 b. Taking into account the Acts of the Apostles 144 i. Paul’s second journey 145 1. Philippi 147 2. Thessalonica 148 3. Corinth 150 ii. Paul’s third journey 153 c. A time frame 157 d. Summary 158 iv Appendix 3: The Pastorals – authorship and purpose 160 a. Authentic fragments 161 b. Statistical approaches 163 c. Written for the church 165 d. Summary 167 Bibliography 168 v Abbreviations Abbreviations used throughout this paper are consistent with The SBL Handbook of Style, Hendrickson Publishers Inc.: Peabody, Massachusetts, 1999. All Scripture Quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version, Zondervan: Grands Rapids, 1989. vi ABSTRACT The story of the church reveals that the apostles and Paul provided the first generation of leadership. Where did the second generation come from? The relationship between Paul and Timothy exemplifies the passing on of the baton to the second generation. Selected by Paul, Timothy shared in ministry over many years, and had the opportunity to learn the teachings of the faith and share in the responsibilities of ministry and leadership. Their relationship offers an example of the development of a leader in the early church as seen from the differing perspectives of Paul, Acts and the Pastoral letters. By exploring these perspectives on their shared ministry: the way the relationship was expressed by Paul, the activities that Timothy engaged in, and how the early church understood the relationship; the nature and growth of Timothy’s leadership is evaluated and described in terms of some current models of leadership. vii Chapter 1: Timothy, Paul, and Leadership “If the world is to hear the church’s voice today, leaders are needed who are authoritative, spiritual and sacrificial.” 1 Where do authoritative, spiritual and sacrificial leaders come from? The church continues to grapple with the challenge of finding leaders in each generation. In the business sphere much has been written about leadership. The church can learn from successful and ethical practice in other fields, but the experience of God’s people through the ages must not be ignored. The Scriptures provide insight into successive generations of leaders amongst God’s people through the ages. Jesus selected leaders (Mk 3:13–19; Mt 10:2–4; Lk 6:12–16), Matthias was selected by lot to take Judas’ place (Acts 1:15–26), and seven “full of the Spirit and wisdom” (Acts 6:3) were chosen by the fledgling community to take local and specific ministry roles. Luke’s story of the early church makes clear that God ‘recruited’ Paul (Acts 9:1-19). Where did the next generation of leaders come from? This thesis will explore the relationship between Paul and Timothy as an example of the developing of leadership in the church, particularly in the transition between the first and second generation of followers of Jesus. 1 J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership , (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), 18. Thesis Approach The material for this exploration is all found in the New Testament. The letters of Paul are the primary source of information, and offer insight into the relationship between Paul and Timothy, while the Acts of the Apostles provides a later record of their activities. Within the Pauline corpus are two Pastoral Epistles addressed to Timothy. While the authorship of these epistles is disputed, they add to our understanding of the relationship, or at least how it was perceived in the early church. 2 By examining these documents from an historical and narrative perspective we will explore the activities that Paul and Timothy shared, how Paul viewed Timothy, and seek to discover how Timothy may have been encouraged and developed in leadership. We will then endeavour to analyse the impact of Paul as a leader, and trainer of future leaders. A brief contemporary analysis of leadership will be used to consider Paul’s leadership and that of his acolyte. This will help to outline critical issues and evaluate the impact of both Paul and Timothy as leaders in the early church, and particularly in the Pauline communities. Leadership described Robert Banks and Bernice Ledbetter highlight four broad approaches in defining leadership — those that begin with the person (where personality and/or style are significant), those that focus on position or status (and ignore informal leadership), those that involve influence on others, and finally those that revolve around the 2 See Appendix 3 for a discussion of the authorship of the Pastorals. “observable results leadership achieves”. 3 The latter approaches may offer a helpful line of enquiry in our context, because our limited statistical evidence is best explored by a functional approach. A functional description of leadership can go too far, however. John Maxwell offers the definition: “Leadership is influence” 4 but this is extremely broad. The substantive ‘lead’ is defined as “the action of . leading, direction, guidance”, “direction given by going in front”. 5 ‘Leading’ includes “[t]o cause to go along with oneself”, and “ [t]o accompany and show the way to; to conduct, guide, esp . to direct or guide by going on in advance; to cause to follow in one’s path.” 6 Here we have the important additional aspect of direction in leadership. It is more than just a matter of influence, since others are caused to go along with the leader and move in the intended direction. Alastair Mant also notes the corporate and universal nature of leadership, and concludes that “[l]eadership, as a phenomenon, is thus defined by followership.” 7 This pushes us towards an evaluation of both Paul and Timothy on the basis of their followers, a task that can only be undertaken in terms of their textual legacy, otherwise it would require more historical and statistical information than is available. A functional definition of leadership thus requires the additional qualifications of 3 Robert Banks and Bernice M Ledbetter, Reviewing Leadership: a Christian evaluation of current approaches , (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2004), 16. 4 John C. Maxwell, Developing the leader within you , (Milton Keynes: Word Publishing, 1993), 15. See also Banks and Ledbetter, Reviewing Leadership, 16. 5 J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner, The Oxford English Dictionary Vol VIII (Oxford Clarendon Press, Oxford, Second Edition 1989), 744 a. 6 Simpson and Werner, The Oxford English Dictionary, Vol VIII, 745 b,c. 7 Alastair Mant, Intelligent Leadership , (Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 1997), 22. direction and communal significance. Howard Gardner’s definition helps in this regard: A leader is an individual (or, rarely, a set of individuals) who significantly affects the thoughts, feelings, and/or behaviors of a significant number of individuals. 8 Adopting Gardner’s definition enables the exploration of the success of a leader by evaluating their impact on others. All of us have some effect on others but Gardner views leaders as having a significant impact on a significant number of people. No absolute numbers are offered to allow us to differentiate easily between leaders or non-leaders. ‘Significant’ is a relative term. In a group of ten, three may be significant! Leaders operate within particular groups or environments, and their effectiveness can only be assessed in terms of their sphere of operation. Banks and Ledbetter also add the element of direction and change, noting that “leadership involves a person, group or organization who shows the way in an area of life . and in doing so both influences and empowers enough people to bring about change in that area.” 9 They also distinguish between leadership and godly leadership, the latter being exercised when “direction and method are in line with God’s purposes, character, and ways of operating.” 10 The assumption of this paper is that both Paul and Timothy exercised godly leadership, in the sense that their example has been affirmed by the inclusion of their textual legacy in our New Testament canon.