The Books of the New Testament

of gnosis falsely so called," refers to a work by Marcion called the "Oppositions" (Antitheses), in which he tried to demonstrate that the Old Testament was antagonistic to the New.

Answer.--The heresies here rebuked are not so definitely described that we can determine their precise character. This fact is in favour of the idea that the heresies belong to the 1st century rather than to the 2nd. Stress has been laid upon statements which seem to imply Gnostic heresy, and heresy of a "Docetic" character, i.e. teaching a denial of the reality of our Lord's human nature. But there is certainly nothing which suggests that the error here rebuked was as developed as the heresy rebuked by St. Ignatius, or even that denounced by St. John. It is most unlikely that the word "oppositions" can refer to a book bearing that title. The passage 1 Tim. vi. 20 does not suggest this. And if Marcion is really quoted in 1 Tim., how could Polycarp have quoted 1 Tim., as he does, before Marcion's book was written? Something of a Gnostic tendency is betokened by the scorn of material life and the human body shown in 1 Tim. iv. 3, 8 and 2 Tim. ii. 18. But the error is mainly Jewish. The false {198} teachers professed to be "teachers of the Law" (1 Tim. i. 7), which was exactly the title claimed by the Jewish rabbis (see Luke v. 17). The general character of their teaching was "vain talking" (1 Tim. i. 6; cf. Tit. i. 10; iii. 9). It consists of "profane babblings" (1 Tim. vi. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 16). It is further characterized as "foolish questionings, and genealogies, and strifes, and fightings about the law . . . unprofitable and vain" (Tit. iii. 9). It is summed up in the phrases "old wives' fables" (1 Tim. iv. 7), "Jewish fables" (Tit. i. 14). All this shows that the error was not a definite Gnostic heresy with a fundamentally false view of God. It was something intrinsically ridiculous. Therefore the "endless genealogies" (1 Tim. i. 4) can hardly be Gnostic genealogies of the semi-divine beings who took part in the creation. They are Jewish tales about the heroes of the Old Testament. The error is, in fact, primitive, and does not belong to the 2nd century.

3. Church organization.--It is said that these Epistles lay down the rules for an organization of the Church which is later than the apostolic age, and resembles the Episcopal system, such as we find it in the 2nd century. Titus and Timothy act as delegates of the apostle, and as the highest officials of the ministry, and they appoint presbyters and deacons. We thus find a threefold ministry which derives its sacred authority through the apostolate. The apostle lays his hands upon his delegate (2 Tim. i. 6), and this delegate lays his hands upon others (1 Tim. v. 22).