NCCS | New Covenant Commentary Series
The New Covenant Commentary Series (NCCS) is designed for ministers and students who require a commentary that interacts with the text and context of each New Testament book and pays specific attention to the impact of the text upon the faith and praxis of contemporary faith communities.
The NCCS has a number of distinguishing features. First, the contributors come from a diverse array of backgrounds in regards to their Christian denominations and countries of origin. Unlike many commentary series that tout themselves as international the NCCS can truly boast of a genuinely international cast of contributors with authors drawn from every continent of the world (except Antarctica) including countries such as the United States, Puerto Rico, Australia, the United Kingdom, Kenya, India, Singapore, and Korea. We intend the NCCS to engage in the task of biblical interpretation and theological reflection from the perspective of the global church. Second, the volumes in this series are not verse-by-verse commentaries, but they focus on larger units of text in order to explicate and interpret the story in the text as opposed to some often atomistic approaches. Third, a further aim of these volumes is to provide an occasion for authors to reflect on how the New Testament impacts the life, faith, ministry, and witness of the New Covenant Community today. This occurs periodically under the heading of “Fusing the Horizons and Forming the Community.” Here authors provide windows into community formation (how the text shapes the mission and character of the believing community) and ministerial formation (how the text shapes the ministry of Christian leaders).
It is our hope that these volumes will represent serious engagements with the New Testament writings, done in the context of faith, in service of the church, and for the glorification of God.
| Series Editors:Michael F. Bird (Crossway College, Queensland, Australia)Craig Keener (Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY, USA) | Titles in this series:Romans Craig KeenerEphesians Lynn CohickColossians and Philemon Michael F. BirdRevelation Gordon FeeJohn Jey Kanagaraj1 Timothy Aída Besançon Spencer |
| Forthcoming titles:Philippians Linda BellevilleActs Youngmo Cho and Hyung Dae Park1 Peter Eric Greaux2 Peter and Jude Andrew Mbuvi Mark Kim Huat TanHebrews Cynthia Westfall | 1–2 Thessalonians Nijay Gupta1–3 John Sam NgewaLuke Diane ChenMatthew Scot McKnight2 Corinthians David deSilva James Pablo JimenezGalatians Jarvis Williams1 Corinthians B. J. Oropeza |
2 Timothy and Titus
A New Covenant Commentary
Aída Besançon Spencer
2 TIMOTHY and titus
A New Covenant Commentary
New Covenant Commentary Series
Copyright © 2014 Aída Besançon Spencer. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Cascade Books
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
Eugene, OR 97401
www.wipfandstock.com
isbn 13: 978-1-62564-253-0
Cataloging-in-Publication data:
Spencer, Aída Besançon
2 Timothy and Titus : a new covenant commentary / Aída Besançon Spencer.
xiv + 170 p. ; 23 cm. —Includes bibliographical references and index(es).
New Covenant Commentary Series
isbn 13: 978-1-62564-253-0
eisbn 13: 978-1-63087-193-2
1. Bible. Titus—Commentaries. 2. Bible. Timothy, 2nd—Commentaries. I. Title. II. Series.
BS2745 S69 2014
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
Paul and His Coworkers at His Last Battle at Rome
by William David Spencer and Aída Besançon Spencer,
Every army is like a single soldier.
Some of its bodily parts are functioning well.
Some are malfunctioning and harming the rest of the body.
Some are assigned to maintenance to keep the body militant functioning.
And the post-commander, like the brain, is multi-tasking—
accomplishing several goals at once.
So was the army of Christ, as commanded by the Field Marshall Paul at Rome.
This campaign was Paul’s final battle.
At his side was his medic Luke and the platoon at Rome: Eubulus, Pudens, Linus, Claudia, and the brothers and sisters—courageous and valiant each.
As any army or anybody, Paul’s command had its problems and its strengths:
Demas, the deserter, the body’s wandering eye, following after another general;
Alexander, a virus, doing great damage to the entire system;
Trophimus in the infirmary;
absent were Crescens and Titus;
off on a mission was Tychicus to secure the reinforcement—Timothy;
while maintaining other fronts were Erastus in Corinth and Prisca, Aquila, Onesiphorus and his supply depot in Ephesus.
This was Paul’s army of Christ, wounded, as was his own body,
as together they fought the good fight.
(February 3, 2013)
Abbreviations
Secondary References
ANTC Abingdon New Testament Commentaries
BA La Biblia de las Américas
BBR Bulletin for Biblical Research
BDAG Bauer, Walter, et al. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
CE Halsey, William D., and Bernard Johnston, eds. Collier’s Encyclopedia. 24 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1987.
CEB Common English Bible
CEV Contemporary English Version
DHH Dios habla hoy
ESV English Standard Version
CGTSC Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges
GW God’s Word Translation
HNTC Harper’s New Testament Commentary
ICC International Critical Commentary
IDB Buttrick, George Arthur, et. al. The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. 5 vols. Nashville: Abingdon, 1962.
JB Jerusalem Bible
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
KJV King James Version
LCL Loeb Classical Library
LEC Library of Early Christianity
LSJ Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. Rev. Henry Stuart Jones. 9th ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1968.
LXX Septuagint
MM Moulton, James Hope, and George Milligan. The Vocabulary of the Greek Testament. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1930.
NASB