Timothy

Honouring God, a young disciple who was Paul’s companion in many of his journeyings. His mother, Eunice, and his grandmother, Lois, are mentioned as eminent for their piety (2 Tim. 1:5). We know nothing of his father but that he was a Greek (Acts 16:1). He is first brought into notice at the time of Paul’s second visit to Lystra (16:2), where he probably resided, and where it seems he was converted during Paul’s first visit to that place (1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 3:11). The apostle having formed a high opinion of his “own son in the faith,” arranged that he should become his companion (Acts 16:3), and took and circumcised him, so that he might conciliate the Jews. He was designated to the office of an evangelist (1 Tim. 4:14), and went with Paul in his journey through Phrygia, Galatia, and Mysia; also to Troas and Philippi and Berea (Acts 17:14). Thence he followed Paul to Athens, and was sent by him with Silas on a mission to Thessalonica (17:15; 1 Thess. 3:2). We next find him at Corinth (1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1) with Paul. He passes now out of sight for a few years, and is again noticed as with the apostle at Ephesus (Acts 19:22), whence he is sent on a mission into Macedonia. He accompanied Paul afterwards into Asia (20:4), where he was with him for some time. When the apostle was a prisoner at Rome, Timothy joined him (Phil. 1:1), where it appears he also suffered imprisonment (Heb. 13:23). During the apostle’s second imprisonment he wrote to Timothy, asking him to rejoin him as soon as possible, and to bring with him certain things which he had left at Troas, his cloak and parchments (2 Tim. 4:13). According to tradition, after the apostle’s death he settled in Ephesus as his sphere of labour, and there found a martyr’s grave.

The disciple thus named was the son of one of those mixed marriages which, though condemned by stricter Jewish opinion were yet not uncommon in the later periods of Jewish history. The father’s name is unknown; he was a Greek, i.e. a Gentile, by descent. (Acts 16:1,3) The absence of any personal allusion to the father in the Acts or Epistles suggests the inference that he must have died or disappeared during his son’s infancy. The care of the boy thus devolved upon his mother Eunice and her mother Lois. (2 Timothy 1:5) Under their training his education was emphatically Jewish. “From a child” he learned to “know the Holy Scriptures” daily. The language of the Acts leaves it uncertain whether Lystra or Derbe was the residence of the devout family. The arrival of Paul and Barnabas in Lycaonia, A.D. 44, (Acts 14:6) brought the message of glad tidings to Timothy and his mother, and they received it with “unfeigned faith.” (2 Timothy 1:5) During the interval of seven years between the apostle’s first and second journeys the boy grew up to manhood. Those who had the deepest insight into character, and spoke with a prophetic utterance, pointed to him, (1 Timothy 1:18; 4:14) as others had pointed before to Paul and Barnabas, (Acts 13:2) as specially fit for the missionary work in which the apostle was engaged. Personal feeling led St. Paul to the same conclusion, (Acts 16:3) and he was solemnly set apart to do the work and possibly to bear the title of evangelist. (1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6; 4:5) A great obstacle, however, presented itself. Timothy, though reckoned as one of the seed of Abraham, had been allowed to grow up to the age of manhood without the sign of circumcision. With a special view to the feelings of the Jews making no sacrifice of principle, the apostle…

TIM'OTHY (honoring God), an evangelist and pupil of St. Paul. he was a Lycaonian, a native of either Derbe or Lystra. His father was a Greek and a heathen; his mother, Eunice, was a Jewess, and a woman of distinguished piety, as was also his grandmother, Lois, 2 Tim 1:5, and by them he was early educated in the holy scriptures of the O.T. 2 Tim 3:15. Paul found him in one of the cities above named, and, being informed of his good standing among the Christians there, selected him as an assistant in his labors, and, to avoid the cavils of the Jews, performed on him the rite of circumcision. 1 Cor 9:20. He afterward became the companion of Paul, and that he was the object of the extraordinary affection and solicitude of that apostle his letters plainly show. He was left in charge of the church at Ephesus, and that, probably', when he was quite young, thirty-four or thirty-five. 1 Tim 4:12. The post-apostolic tradition makes him bishop of Ephesus. In that case he would be the "angel" of that church addressed in Rev 2:1-7, or his predecessor. Epistles of Paul to. These, with that to Titus, are commonly spoken of as the Pastoral Epistles because they are predominantly given up to directions about church work. The First is supposed to have been written about the year 64, and contains special instructions respecting the qualifications and the duties of sundry ecclesiastical officers and other persons, and the most affectionate and pungent exhortations to faithfulness. The Second Epistle was written a year or two later and while Paul was in constant expectation of martyrdom, 2 Tim 4:6-8, and may be regarded as the dying counsel of the venerable apostolic father to his son in the Lord. It contains a variety of injunctions as to the duties of Christians under trials and…

TIM'OTHY (honoring God), an evangelist and pupil of St. Paul. he was a Lycaonian, a native of either Derbe or Lystra. His father was a Greek and a heathen; his mother, Eunice, was a Jewess, and a woman of distinguished piety, as was also his grandmother, Lois, 2 Tim 1:5, and by them he was early educated in the holy scriptures of the O.T. 2 Tim 3:15. Paul found him in one of the cities above named, and, being informed of his good standing among the Christians there, selected him as an assistant in his labors, and, to avoid the cavils of the Jews, performed on him the rite of circumcision. 1 Cor 9:20. He afterward became the companion of Paul, and that he was the object of the extraordinary affection and solicitude of that apostle his letters plainly show. He was left in charge of the church at Ephesus, and that, probably', when he was quite young, thirty-four or thirty-five. 1 Tim 4:12. The post-apostolic tradition makes him bishop of Ephesus. In that case he would be the "angel" of that church addressed in Rev 2:1-7, or his predecessor. Epistles of Paul to. These, with that to Titus, are commonly spoken of as the Pastoral Epistles because they are predominantly given up to directions about church work. The First is supposed to have been written about the year 64, and contains special instructions respecting the qualifications and the duties of sundry ecclesiastical officers and other persons, and the most affectionate and pungent exhortations to faithfulness. The Second Epistle was written a year or two later and while Paul was in constant expectation of martyrdom, 2 Tim 4:6-8, and may be regarded as the dying counsel of the venerable apostolic father to his son in the Lord. It contains a variety of injunctions as to the duties of Christians under trials and…