Customer Reviews

Pastoral Epistles (International Critical Commentary)

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I. Howard Marshall has labored to produce a wonderful commentary worthy of inclusion in any pastor and theologian's library. Following suit with the other members of the ICC family, Marshall goes about his exegetical task of taking the Greek and bringing forth meaning in a practical and academic manner. The healthy bibliography allows the student, pastor, and theologian equal access to the mountain of works applicable to a particular passage.

Though Marshall denies Pauline authorship, his arguments, as aforementioned by a fellow reviewer, are not convincing (though exhaustive of the issues confronting authorship.) A rather remarkable approach, Marshall places Titus at the front of the commentary in a bold step to bring to the face a usually neglected book. The commentary is better for this practice.

Having used Knight, Mounce, Quinn and Wacker, Debellious and Counzelmann, and several other competent commentaries in a exegesis course on the Pastoral Epistles, Marhsall's commentary was a steadfast primary resource in my studies. Though the pastor not educated in languages will not be able to follow this commentary easily, the educated clergy will find it invaluable in their pursuits of exegesis and exposition from the PE. Marshall has given us a staple for NT scholarship.

The pastorals have been often overlooked. Finally a superb technical commentary from an evangelical. Some will quibble with major and minor points (though clearly evangelical, he denies Pauline authorship for starters), there is so much that is illuminating in these pages. A real window into early christianity!

This is hands down a brilliant commentary. I must begin by saying that I disagree with Marshall's rejection of Paul's authorship of the Pastorals. Despite that, he does an absolutely tremendous job and goes to a level of depth that is riveting, not boring. His treatment of the tough "women" passages in 1 Timothy 2 is brilliant. Those on all sides of that issue will have something to cheer about yet something to scratch their heads about and feel the need to rethink their positions. His exegesis gives such a fresh back-to-the-original-setting approach that our later encrusted, culturally-based views on such passages seem rather simplistic by comparison.

The number of in-depth, serious scholarly treatments of the Pastorals is dizzying: Towner's NIC, Johnson's new AB, Quinn & Wacker's ECC, Mounce's WBC, Collin's NTC, Knight's NIGTC and Marshall's ICC (not to mention the forthcoming Pillar and Baker Exegetical volumes). Few NT books can boast such a line-up of high quality commentaries. Marshall's ICC certainly holds it's own in this group, and may well be the best. I've used all of these but Knight and Towner. By the way, Towner was virtually Marshall's co-author on this ICC despite their differing opinions on authorship. I highly recommend this book.

This is a tremendously thorough exegesis of the Pastoral Epistles. Marshall goes deep, deep, deep into the Greek text, often basing his exegetical decisions on connecting words and key phrases in the immediate context.

The introduction makes clear that these epistles are documents intended for leaders who supervise clusters of churches in a given region. Marshall also has a nearly 40 page discussion on the authorship of the Pastoral Epistles. He doesn't believe Paul wrote these letters because of the differences in language and style from Paul's earlier letters. He notes the reference to traditions and the use of maxims and enthymemes that Paul doesn't use elsewhere. He thinks that either Timothy or Titus or another companion of Paul lovingly assembled these letters, using authentic Pauline excerpts. He believes that this was done because Paul had recently passed from the scene and that people needed to be reminded to stay true to Pauline theology.

There's just one little problem with all of this. Each of the pastoral epistles are explicitly attributed to Paul. If I am going to take a scholar's advice to discount the clear teaching of the Bible, I'm going need some compelling reasons. No, I'm going to need some OVERWHELMINGLY compelling reasons. The appeal to stylistic differences is not convincing for the following reasons: 1. The stylistic differences are not drastic. Can't we allow for the possibility that the apostle Paul has a more expansive vocabulary than we often give him credit for? Can't we allow for the possibility that Paul has picked up a few new choice phrases through the years? I recently used the word "vacuous" in a book review. As far as I can remember, I've never used that word before. Does this mean I couldn't have written the review?

2. The theology of 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus is consistent with Pauline theology, and Paul's kind words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1 are similar to what he wrote in Philippians 1 and Romans 1. The use of the word "traditions" parallels 1 Corinthians 15:1-2, and the statement about being poured out like a drink offering (2 Timothy 4:6-8) recalls the language of Philippians 2:17-18.

I could go on, but to make a long story short, I think Marshall has made an unfortunate concession to liberal and moderate scholarship with regard to authorship issues.

Having said that, Marshall's handling of the text is impressive. In 2 Timothy 1:6, he believes that the gift that is fanned into flame is the gift of the Holy Spirit. The deposit in 2 Timothy 1:14 is the gospel message, or possibly the Pauline gospel in particular. The metaphors in 2:4-5 are designed to show that servants of Christ exhibit single minded devotion to Christ.

The mention of specific individuals in the PE (Alexander, Demas, Onesiphorus, Tychicus, Trophimus, Linus) are authentic memoirs from the life of Paul, and the request for books and parchments is likewise authentic.

2 Timothy 3:16 refers to how the scripture teaches, rebukes, corrects and trains Timothy so that he can do good works, according to Marshall.

Following BAGD, Marshall thinks that "correctly handling the word of truth" in 2 Timothy 2:15 means "to guide the word of truth along a straight path without being turned aside to wordy debates." This is supported by the larger context (2:23-24), though "guiding" sounds awkward.

Marshall's exegesis of 1 Timothy and Titus are also reliable, representing the solid work we have come to expect from this great New Testament scholar.

Authorship issues aside, the well trained pastor should benefit greatly from this commentary.