Obey the Pastoral Epistles? Why? Why Not?
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“Women, keep quiet!” “Wives, obey your husbands!” “Slaves, obey your masters!” These and other commands have been cited as biblical mandates. Verses cited often come from later New Testament writings, especially the pastoral epistles.
For example, verses in these writings are used to support the exclusion of women from church leadership:
Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent. (Timothy 2:11–12, NRSV)
The pastoral epistles also echo injunctions often quoted from other later New Testament writings like Ephesians 5:22. Passages in these writings called “household codes” include instructions to wives to be subservient to their husbands. For example, the letter to Titus assumes such instructions when older women are urged to
encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind, being submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited. (Titus 2:4–5, NRSV)
In the nineteenth century, supporters of slavery also turned to verses in the pastoral epistles and the household codes in defense of their stance. For example:
Tell slaves to be submissive to their masters and to give satisfaction in every respect; they are not to answer back, not to pilfer, but to show complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the doctrine of God our Saviour. (Titus 2:9–10, NRSV) Or “Tell enslaved people to be submissive to those who enslave them…”
We may well ask, “Should these writings be given such authority?” This is, of course, a question for members of communities who recognize the New Testament as scripture. Given the use of these writings in public discourse, others may ask this question from other viewpoints, too.
What Are the Pastoral Epistles?
Three New Testament writings are referred to as the Pastoral Epistles: 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. All three are in the form of letters from Paul offering advice to a younger leader. Critical scholars recognize these as “pseudonymous” letters. They were written in Paul’s name at least a generation after he lived. See “Which Letters Did Paul Write?” While they appear as letters to an individual, scholars recognize that early Christ communities are the intended audience. The pastorals focus a great deal of attention on how members of the communities should conduct themselves.
Who Wrote the Pastoral Epistles? Where and When?
Most critical scholars view the three letters as authored by the same writer although some make arguments for separate authorship of each writing. The pastorals probably date from the early second century CE. They may have been written in Asia Minor.
Why Were the Pastoral Epistles Written?
Instructions in the pastorals indicate that not everyone in the Christ groups agrees about how to conduct themselves. The author repeatedly warns against deviant teachings. Concern about women’s conduct is especially evident. The pastorals address divergent interpretations of the Christ message in the early second-century communities.
Scholars today interpret the pastorals based on differing views of how the early Christ groups developed. These views can be broadly grouped into two perspectives. One view is through the eyes of the author of the pastorals. The other assesses the author of the pastorals externally and considers his human motivations.
~ Reading the Pastorals against the “Unruly”
Many interpreters adopt the perspective of the author of the pastorals. They assume that a group of community members, mostly women, are disrupting community life. Scholars have worked to discern who these disruptive elements might be and have found clues to associate them with various groups later identified with heresies. These interpreters seek the identity of groups they assume are disruptive and problematic.
Accepting the view of the author of the pastorals, these scholars see the early Christ groups struggling to maintain order. They assume that the pattern of order expressed in the pastorals was established in the earliest years. As they see it, community leadership had been continually working from the beginning to control those who disrupted that order. They interpret the pastoral epistles as another effort to maintain order.
~ Reading the Pastorals as Establishing Control
Other critical scholars do not identify with the author of the pastorals. Instead of seeing through his eyes, they look at him as an author with his own motivations attempting to establish a form of order that earlier Christ followers had resisted. Many scholars have studied the variety of perspectives among the early Christ followers. A great deal of evidence indicates that many members of the early Jesus movement experimented with community and family forms that today might be called counter-cultural. For example, many communities recognized women and enslaved people in leadership roles. Women also resisted being controlled by refusing to fulfill the expectation that they would marry.
Scholars who see the earliest communities this way see the author of the pastorals as representing an effort by a group of male leadership to establish a hierarchical organizational form in the communities. In the process, they validated their own leadership. These scholars read the pastorals with a more favorable consideration of the community members the pastorals disparage as disruptive. They interpret the pastorals not as an effort to maintain an established order that most of the community had agreed on but as an effort to install a new pattern of power relationships that would put people like the author in charge.
Such interpreters still value the pastoral epistles and the beautiful and encouraging words found there. They simply view the author as a human being. He was a leader seeking to resolve some issues emerging in the early Christ communities. Yet he brought his own views and motivations to the situation. Like some other later New Testament writers, he introduced versions of a household code in an attempt to establish community order according to what he saw as proper.
What Are the Household Codes?
The household codes mentioned are passages that echo instructions to the elite men who were heads of households in the Greco-Roman era. They appear in the ethical writings of philosophers like Aristotle and others. The household codes instructed elite men about how to manage the members of their households.
The codes presented proper behavior in three standard pairs of relationships: husband and wife, master (enslaver) and slave (enslaved person), and parent (father) and child. Several New Testament writers use this form to provide instructions on household relationships in the Christ communities. These household codes appear in writings from later generations, not in the earliest texts. None appear, for example, in Paul’s own letters.
Must Christians Obey the Pastoral Epistles?
For people who do not recognize New Testament writings as scripture, this is not even a question, of course. Those who do, however, need not see obedience to these writings as part of viewing them as their scriptures. As is the case for many other biblical verses selected for use as commands, verses from the pastoral epistles need to be understood in context.
Consider, for example, that most people today view slavery as immoral. Most of us would not endorse the commands to enslaved people to be obedient to the people who have enslaved them. We understand that the ethics of the ancient household codes do not apply in the case of slavery. Just as we evaluate the ethics of slavery, we can evaluate the ethical implications of other commands in these passages.
The pastoral epistles and other later writings in the New Testament are rich sources of information about how the early Christ groups struggled with differing views as the communities developed. Learning from them does not require obedience to verses selected from these texts.
Additional Resources:
Eastman, David L. “Pastoral Epistles.” Bible Odyssey (www.bibleodyssey.org), 2023.
Huizenga, Annette B. 1-2 Timothy, Titus. Wisdom Commentary 53. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2016.
McGrath, James F. “What 1 Timothy Says About Women.” Early Christian Texts: The Bible and Beyond, 12 November 2020.
Osiek, Carolyn. “Household Codes.” Bible Odyssey (www.bibleodyssey.org), 2023.
Standhartinger, Angela. “Reading the Household Codes Critically.” Bible Odyssey (www.bibleodyssey.org), 2023.
