Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Jude & 1 Timothy


Jude’s fourth “text” section in this epistle [Jude 14] is not an allusion to ancient biblical narrative…but rather a direct quotation from 1 En 1:9. Jude cites the full text in this and the next verse.

G. Green, Jude & 2 Peter (Baker 2008), 101.

It is not possible to know how Paul came by the saying [1 Tim 5:18]. The exact correspondence with the Lukan saying [Lk 10:7] has of course suggested to some that the “Paul” of this letter wrote at a time late enough to have had access to Luke’s Gospel in some form or other…But if a written source is required by the exact verbal correspondence, surely it is sufficient to posit by this time various written collections of the sayings of Jesus had begun to circulate, and that Paul had access to the version that Luke eventually consulted.

P. Towner, The Letters of Timothy and Titus (Eerdmans 2006), 366-67.

Both Green and Towner reflect common scholarly explanations. However, it’s odd that scholars routinely attribute Jude 14 to 1 Enoch whereas they routinely attribute 1 Tim 5:18 to a free-floating tradition which Luke and 1 Timothy coincidentally appropriate. In one case, literary dependence is assumed, while in the other case, literary independence is assumed.

But it’s not obvious to me on what basis they distinguish one from the other. If one is a free-floating tradition, why not the other? If one is a direct quote, why not the other?

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