ARTICLE
Timothy – Paul’s Agent in the Communities: The Figure of the Agent in Paul’s Letters in the Light of Greco-Roman Correspondence and Rabbinic Halachic Literature
Ľubomír MAJTÁN
volume 11, issue 1, 2019, pages 42-56
DOI: https://doi.org/10.64438/sbsDLTL3354
Published online: 2019-06-01
Published in print: 2019-06-30
Abstract: In the Authentic Pauline epistles, we find four instances where ‘sending’ or ‘intention to send’ Timothy to various communities is mentioned, using the same verb πέμπω (cf. 1 Thess 3:1-10; 1 Cor 4:14-17; 1 Cor 16:10-11; Phil 2:19-24). When Paul, for some reason, cannot visit personally the communities founded by him, he sends a letter or one of his collaborators to the believers. Timothy is sent to the Christian communities for resolving problems or questions. This paper shows similarity between Timothy as Paul’s agent (alter Paulus) in the corpus paulinum and the status of agent as it is described in the Greco-Roman diplomatic conventions and Rabbinic halachic literature (shaliach).