“Epictetus on How a Youth can be an Effective Teacher” is a great illustration of some of the essential concerns in the PE. And it is with these excursuses that I would like to begin the next part of my review. For those students who have never been exposed to other ancient documents outside of the Bible, the excursuses are well placed and contain engaging and stimulating insights into the thought world of the writer and the audience. On the other hand, the student is given enough information to search the materials and interact with the secondary scholarship to draw their own conclusions. To see the material marshalled, a point argued, and conclusions drawn will provide many students with a model they need to interact with the New Testament as a collection of historical documents. For students, to whom this commentary series is aimed, this is an enormous aid in their development as scholars. But one is not left guessing what Chris thinks as so often happens in commentaries he uses the material to draw conclusions. One has the sense that more could be said but in keeping with the format of the commentary only the upmost essential pieces of information are presented. He is assiduous in marshalling his material so that it is directly relevant to the verses he is discussing, but at the same time, one senses the depth and expanse of resources that have been drawn upon to illustrate his point. Chris Hutson is able to bring his extensive knowledge of the ancient world to enlighten the text of this letter collection. Judge, the scholar begins by having a reasonable grasp of the social, cultural, and literary world of the writer and his or her audience. Malherbe’s approach was a socio-historical one. It seems that he owes the clarity of vision that he has about these letters to his former teacher, Abraham Malherbe. And this is because the commentator has a good grasp of these documents as ancient literature. This is the best commentary on the Pastoral Epistles I have ever read.

This commentary is a part of the Paideia series, which “is aimed squarely at students- including MA students…who have theological interests in the biblical text.” It is therefore accessible to an interested lay reader. My task was to comment on the theme of education in the commentary. Mike Bird’s review is now his Euangelion blog: Review of Pastoral Epistles Commentary by Christopher Hutson. Christopher Hoklotubbe, author of Civilized Piety: The Rhetoric of Pietas in the Pastoral Epistles and the Roman Empire (Waco: Baylor University Press, 2017). The first review is by me, Lyn Kidson, followed by T. These reviews were given at the 2020 SBL conference in the Disputed Paulines sessions Thursday 3 rd December. Hutson, First and Second Timothy and Titus.

The God Complex by Chris Titus