Q: I have a friend that used to be a Christian and after reading the book Cristology, is now believing that Christ was purely human born from Mary and Joseph and doesn't believe the books of Timothy were written by Paul because they were written 165 years after Jesus. He said the books were written by someone else to form the church. My question is what do you know of the validity of the books of Timothy and where might I point him in regards to the validity of the books of Timothy?

A: The material that your friend is presenting is a bit dated (19th century). We know that 1 Timothy was composed sometime before 64 AD and it is possible that it is even quite possible that it was written shortly after the events of Acts 28.

The early church fathers (the immediate church leaders following the apostles) such as Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Irenaues, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria all accepted the letters to Timothy as one of Paul's (see Eusebius Ecclesiastical History and Early Christian Writings). Additional evidence that it was written by Paul would include: (1) the letter names Paul as its author. (2) the author's statements about his life are consistent with what is know about him. (3) The offices of elder in deacon were functioning (see Phil 1:1). (4) there is evidence that a variety of heresies, including an early form, if not the precursor to a more developed Gnosticism was already in practice in the latter half of the first century, and (5) it makes complete sense, logically, that Paul would want the churches that he had visited and planted to know "how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15).

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