The Pastoral Epistles

REVIEWS that the poem must be set aside as ~ter in date and so its evidence as to the early worship of Yahweh in North Israel be disregarded, or that Dr. Meek must offer a more satisfactory reconciliation of its testimony with his theory. This is not beyond his powers. No criticism on particular points, however, can take anything away (rom the value of this rnost' scholarly piece of work. It is as valuable for the questions it raises as (or the solutions it offers. It ranges over all the recent developments in scholarship which bear in the least on the history and religion of the Hebrews. It attempts to supply answers to 3imost every moot ques~ion of that early history. The result is a book which can be ignored by no one who would keep abreast of the material with which it deals. THE PASTORAL EPISTLES' E. F. SCOTT It is one of the drawbacks of our universi ty sn t~m that men of distinguished gifts are sometimes withdrawn from scholarship, and are immersed for the most active part of their lives in administrative work. By a happy accident Sir Robert Falconer has been able to resume his earlier studies, and has now given us a book which makes us realize what he might have done if he had not been diverted into other fields. In one respect his experience as President has been of the highest value to him in his present task. The Pastoral Epistles, above all New Testament writings, are concerned 'with problems of oversight and organization, and no one is fully competent to write on them who has not himsei'f grappled with such problems. We can feel throughout this boo~ that it is the work of a practical statesman as well as of a scholar. The book consists of a full Introduction, a new translation, and a commentary on the more di,filcult passages. We could have wished that these expository notes had been more extended. Some of the most valuable of them will be appreciated only hy experts, who know what a jungle of perplexities the author is hewing away in a (ew incisive lines. In the Introduction, howeve;r, he discusses at much greater length some of the cardinal terms and ideas of the Epistle;s. More particularly he; examines, more fully than has cve;r been done before, the meaning of Euubeio ("godliness") which -TIle Pos/oral Epislles~ by Sir RobertFlllconer IPresjd~nt Em~ri[us of the University of Toronto), Oxford University Pr~u, 1937. 139 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY may be regarded as the key-word of all these Epistles. For the sake of this discussion alone the book will be indispensable to all future students. Hardly less important is the examination of the references to heretical tcaching. The section devoted to the "genealogies" is a little masterpiece of philological and historical research. On the vexed question of the authorship of the Epistles Sir Robert Falconer holds a mediating position. He believes that they are essentially Pauline, and that Paul was the actual writer of the second part of 2 Timothy. In face, however~ of the linguistic peculiarities (which he subjects to an acute and detailed analysis), he is compelled to admit that some disciple has,' for the most part, edited and elaborated the material supplied by Paul. He holds, on grounds that are npt altogether clear, that Titus lS the earliest of the three Epistles, and that I Timothy is the latest, combini,ng a little manual of church order with the directions laid down by Paul. Many will feel, with the present writer, that the case for even a modified Pauline authorship has not been suffi ciently made out. Sir Robert Falconer himself admits that the Epistles can be Pauline only if we assume a second imprisonment, and for such an assumption there is very doubtful ground. Paul's movements in the shadowy interval J;,etwccn two imprisonments arc re-constructed , with wonderful ingenuity, from the data of the Epistles; but the suggested scheme breaks down under scrutiny. Sir Robert Falconer has been much more anxious for his author's consistency than the author...