Bruce J. Malina\'s Timothy, Paul\'s

¶ … Bruce J. Malina's Timothy, Paul's Closest Associate

In the book Timothy: Paul's Closest Associate, author Bruce J. Molina examines Timothy's role in what he calls the "Pauline network," meaning his life as it existed in relation to Paul and the other apostles in their social circle. Molina uses a number of sociological concepts in order to form a picture not only of Timothy and Paul themselves, but of the larger web of interconnected relationships and ideologies that bound them together. Although the book functions in some ways as a biography, its treatment of Timothy is more sociological, so that the individual character of Timothy is not as important as his function within the larger Pauline social network. In this way, the book is able to examine how Timothy and Paul's relationship affected the subsequent theological considerations of Christians at the time, as the book implicitly argues that the structure of Paul's social network was as important for the development of Christianity as the content of that network.

Molina begins by describing Timothy's character as he is portrayed in the Bible, but he focuses on the cultural and sociological traits Timothy exhibits, calling him a "collectivist" person because of his dedication to his own in-group and the elevation of that in-group over the individual needs or desires of any one person within it. So although Timothy excluded a large portion of the population from his considerations, at times treating those outside of his group (like non-Israelites) with hostility, he elevated the well-being and community of his chosen companions above all else.

After briefly describing the character of Timothy, Molina moves on to identify Timothy's place in the socio-genealogical history of Jesus and his followers. Molina seeks to locate Timothy's conversion and subsequent missionary work in a generational sequence, with those apostles present with Jesus during his life and subsequent resurrection constituting the first generation, later converts such as Paul making up the second generation, and the third generation including those groups which congealed after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD (Molina 31,32, & 41). With each generation, Molina identifies a shift in theological focus, so that the lines between generations are not strictly defined by degrees of separation / nodes of transfer between converts. Because of this, Molina locates Timothy in the second generation of Jesus groups, even though a strictly numerically sequential analysis going from (first generation) apostles to Paul to Timothy would suggest a spot in the third generation. Thus, while the demarcation between first and second generation depends largely on whether or not the person experienced Jesus in his lifetime, subsequent generations are demarcated by their distinct changes in theological focus.

In Molina's view, the first generation of Jesus groups was focused on what they saw as the imminent institution of a post-Jesus Jewish theocracy, with Jesus fulfilling the prophesized role of Messiah. Rather than disheartening Jesus' followers, the failure of this theocracy to arise under Roman rule encouraged the second generation to spread their beliefs outside of the relatively limited geographical area canvassed by the first generation. Instead of giving up, the second generation simply saw the lack of an emergent theocracy as an opportunity for more time to spread the word, and a distinct ideological break formed between the first and second generations. Molina notes that the most basic result of this intergenerational conflict was that "the second generation had little interest in retaining what was of significance to the first, while the first generation found objectionable much of what the second did" (Molina 33). As with almost all conflicts between young and old, the major disagreement was their conception of the past, and specifically, the prominence of Israel as a political entity and the temple. The first generation held on to the historical and sociological memories of the Israelites' history, with a special focus on what they saw as the revitalization of Israelite theocracy that had to come from Jesus' fulfilling the role of Messiah. When that revitalization did not occur, the second generation decided not to concern itself with strictly geographical and political ramifications, instead choosing to spread the story of Jesus as it pertained to individual lives and communities regardless of proximity to Jerusalem and its history. The third generation in some ways constituted a reconciliation of the two previous generations, as they incorporated the more individualized, "domestic" aspects of the religion alongside a remembering of the first generation's direct experience of the life of Jesus.

Aside from the three main generations of Jesus' groups which formed in the aftermath of his death, Molina identifies Paul himself as the progenitor of a distinct line of descent, with Timothy and his family constituting the first generation of the Pauline line. Like the larger first generation of Jesus' followers, the first Pauline generation was focused on the establishment of an imminent theocracy, and after the second generation abandoned this view in lieu of a consideration of Jesus and Paul's teachings as they could be applied ahistorically and apolitically, the third Pauline generation returned the lives of Jesus and Paul to a prominence not accorded them by the second generation. According to Molina, the "second Pauline generation was contemporary with the third generation of Jesus groups that produced the gospels" (Molina 42).

After locating Paul and Timothy in genealogy of Christian teachings, Molina is able to continue on in order to actually describe the work done by Paul and Timothy in their travels together. After detailing the circumstances of Paul's conversion, Molina describes seven steps taken by Paul and Timothy each time they set up a new church in areas previously unvisited or untaught by followers of Jesus. The most important of these is the last, "terminate relationship," because it demonstrates the key difference between the groups set up by Paul and Timothy and the previous Christian communities established by first generation followers (Molina 61). At each point in their travels, for Paul and Timothy, the end goal in setting up any new community is guiding it so self-sufficiency that the missionaries may continue on without having to maintain theological control over the new community. This goal informs Paul's choice of Timothy as an assistant, because Molina argues that Paul chose his assistants and Timothy specifically, to serve as a communication agent between Paul and the various churches, so that the establishment, encouragement, and ultimate abandonment of new communities could proceed at a relatively brisk pace (Molina 62). Molina argues that Paul chose his assistants from opinion leaders in their respective communities, so that his message could be introduced with minimal resistance based on any notions in-group/out-group hostilities. Because Paul was ministering to groups of Israelites in predominantly non-Israelite communities, it was especially important for him to have assistants with connection and sway within these groups, because their previous isolation within their larger community would have fomented a general suspicion, even towards other Israelites.

Timothy, who was in many ways first among Paul's assistants, was sent to various churches in order to stabilize and encourage them in the uncertain interim between Paul's initial introduction and the ultimate severance of the founder/follower relationship (Molina 79). For Paul, sending Timothy had the added benefit of being able to chastise members of the church without ostracizing them, because Timothy, due both to his age and his role as cowriter, was able to embody the theological authority (within the Pauline communities) of Paul without encouraging the almost restricting reverence later converts undoubtedly had for the older man.

Molina concludes by summarizing the details about Timothy revealed by his sociological analysis of Timothy and Paul's social network. In short, Timothy is revealed to be among the first generation Pauline Christians (concurrent with the second generation of Jesus groups in general), believing in an imminent theocracy to be established by the return of Jesus, but because of his status as a "Greek," he was able to move freely among majority non-Israelite regions (Molina 94). His cultural background allowed him to move between disparate communities, assisting in the conception and maintenance of churches in Thessalonica, Philippi, and Corinth, and his role as Paul's cowriter and messenger ensured him an important role in the spread of Christianity. In fact, Molina goes so far as to suggest that "it seems doubtful whether Paul's successes in his change-agent tasks would have been realized without the able assistance of Timothy" (Molina 94).

While Molina's assessment of Timothy sheds light on his place within the larger generational shifts following Jesus' death, the book suffers from Molina's style and vocabulary. In order to show a set of distinct roles, procedures, and nodal points concerning the development of the Pauline churches, Molina ends up relying on terms that seem wholly out of place when discussing Paul and Timothy's missionary work. Particularly, when discussing their collaboration, Molina repeatedly refers to Paul and Timothy as "coworkers." Although in some respects this accurately describes one facet of their relationship, it is unnecessarily reductive, and ends up obscuring some of the relevant cultural and sociological details regarding Timothy's role in the spread of Christianity.

Paradoxically, while the entirety of Molina's book argues that a sociological, network-centric analysis of the New Testament is necessary to understand the spread of Jesus groups in the first century AD, Molina does not pay much attention to the sociological and cultural details which organized interpersonal relationships in the first century AD. Aside from broad conceptions of in-group/out-group relations as they apply to Jews centered around Jerusalem and those "Greek" Jews of which Paul and Timothy are likely part, Molina does not examine the contextual realities that would have informed and constrained Paul and Timothy's relationship. In other words, Paul and Timothy's travels throughout the Mediterranean were likely organized by a far more complex set of interpersonal standards than those organizing the interactions between coworkers on an extended business trip. Thessalonica is not Toledo, and the institution of churches practicing an offshoot, apocalyptic Judaism seems a far cry from regional sales calls. It seems that Molina discusses Paul and Timothy's working relationship in relatively "modern" terms as way of making the oftentimes obscure functioning of early Christianity more accessible, but in doing so, he glosses over details that seem intrinsic to an understanding of the spread of Pauline Christianity.