Evidence Against the Pastoral Epistles

It’s pretty obvious when you compare the content of the Pastoral Epistles to the gospels and Paul’s writings that there are major differences.

For example, in Matt 23: 8 & 10 Yahshua said call no one teacher for we are all brothers, or leader for he is our leader. In 1 Cor 14:26 all members took turns exercising their gifts of the spirit. But in 1 Timothy 3 authorities are put in place and all other members of the church silenced.

In 1 Tim 5:17 “the elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching”. But it says partiality is a sin in James 2:1 – 10, Yahshua said his disciples are all equal in Matt 23:8, and Paul said “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in the Messiah Yahshua” Gal 3:28.

In 1 Tim 1:8 it says “the law is good if one uses it lawfully”, but Yahshua came to fulfill the law and the prophets Matt 5:17. Paul taught it is righteousness through faith that saves us not the law in Romans 2:12 – 15, 3:27 – 31, 5:20 – 21, 7:7 – 12, 8:1 – 8, 9: 30 – 33, & 13:8.

Another major difference is that after Yahshua’s death, all his disciples were awaiting his ‘coming’ Matt 24:3, 27, 30, 39, 42, 48, 25:27, 26:64, 1 Cor 15:23, 1 The 2:19, 3:13, 4:15, 5:23, 2 Thes 2:1, 8, James 5: 7 – 8, 1 John 2:28, Rev 1:7, 3:11, 16:15, 22:7, 20.  But the Pastoral Epistles establish a new church without a mention of his ‘coming’ because they were clearly written by the RCC in the 2^nd century.

We must “test the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world” 1 John 4:1.

In the article on the Catholic Resources website, The Pastoral Epistles: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus by Felix Just, he says “The three Pastoral Letters, along with three other Deutero-Pauline epistles (Col, Eph, 2 Thess), are attributed to the apostle Paul, but were almost certainly not written by Paul himself. Rather, they are probably pseudepigraphic (i.e., written in Paul’s name by one or more of his followers after his death).”

In the article The Deutero-Pauline Letters, Felix Just defines pseudepigraphy as “false attribution of authorship” or “falsely attributing a writing to someone different from the actual author.”, and a pseudepigraphic work as “is composed as if it were written by a person from the past (the ‘attributed author’), while the actual author was someone else (usually anonymous)”, but says “These should not be called ‘false writings’; pseudepigraphy says nothing about the value of the work’s content, but merely about the attributed authorship.”

In the article The New Testament Canon, author Felix Just provides 4 criteria for canonicity, and in addition to ‘apostolic origin’, he includes ‘universal acceptance’, ‘liturgical use’, and ‘consistent message’, although the Pastoral Epistles violate this point.

The Roman Catholic Church believe the Pope is the Vicar of the Messiah, and declare their own writings as being from God, but they are clearly false shepherds.