1 Timothy 1 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Around AD 62 to 64, after Paul's first Roman imprisonment and shortly before Nero's persecution of Christians
Location
Written to Ephesus, a wealthy port city on the west coast of what is now Turkey and a center of the cult of the goddess Artemis, with Paul himself writing from Macedonia in northern Greece
Audience
Timothy, Paul's young colleague left in charge of the Ephesian church, with the letter meant to be read to the congregation as his backing
Situation
Paul opens by charging Timothy to stop certain teachers in Ephesus who are spinning speculation out of genealogies and misusing the law of Moses. He sets against that his own account of being shown mercy as a former persecutor, and names two men he has handed over to Satan.
Key Background
Ancient letters of this type served as a written commission that a delegate could produce to prove he acted with the sender's authority, which is why Paul states his credentials in the first line of a letter to a close friend. Endless genealogies point to a fashion for elaborating Old Testament family lines into secret lore, a practice attested in Jewish writings of the period and prized as a mark of insider knowledge. Handing someone over to Satan means exclusion from the assembly back into the world outside it, a corrective measure aimed at bringing the person to his senses rather than a final sentence.
From Paul, an of Jesus The — appointed by the authority of God our and Jesus The the we're on —
To Timothy, my in the we share: and to you from God the Father and Jesus The One, our leader.
Just as I urged you when I left for Macedonia — stay in and tell certain people to stop a
Tell them to stop obsessing over and Those things only fuel speculation — they don't advance which works through
The whole point of what I'm telling you is — the kind that flows from a a and
Some people have from these things and gotten lost in
They want to be in the but they don't even understand what they're saying or the things they're so confident about.
Now, we know the is good — if someone uses it the it was
We also know that the law wasn't designed for people who are already — it's for those who break the rules and for the ungodly and those who the for those who would kill their own father or mother, for murderers,
for the for who other for for liars, for those who break their word under oath — and for anything else that goes against the
that lines up with the about the of God — the one and only God who deserves all honor — which he to me.
I'm grateful to Jesus The One, our who gave me the strength for this. He considered me and put me into —
even though I used to persecute his people, and act with But I received because I did it out of ignorance and of
But the of our leader beyond anything I could have imagined, along with the trust and love that come through being connected to Jesus The One.
Here's a you can Jesus The One came into the world to those who have — and I worse than anyone.
But that's exactly why I received mercy — so that Jesus The One could use me, the as a demonstration of his I'm an example for everyone who would later put their trust in him and receive
Now to the who all of — the you who be destroyed, the only God — all honor and glory forever and ever.
Timothy, my child — here's the I'm giving you, in line with the you earlier: use them as fuel to the
holding on to trust and a clear conscience. Some people have these and their trust has been
and are two of them — I've them to the so they'll learn not to