2 Timothy 2:2

‘And the things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit you to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.’

And in the course of this he is to train Bible teachers for the future. Paul has given Timothy solid training in the traditions of the Gospel, and he has testified to him of his own experience of seeing the resurrected Christ, and of what the Lord had said and done. Furthermore, Timothy had also heard it in front of ‘many witnesses’, many of whom, if not all, would have been eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus. The church laid great stress on the unique Apostolic witness - John 15:27; Acts 1:8; Acts 1:22; Acts 2:32; Acts 3:15; Acts 5:32; Acts 10:39; Acts 10:41; Acts 13:31; 1 Peter 5:1, for they had testified of both Jesus’ life and resurrection as eyewitnesses and would have confirmed what Paul had been saying (compare 1 Corinthians 15:3-10). Later Paul was specifically incorporated among these ‘witnesses’ by the risen Jesus Himself (Acts 26:10). Thus at the time when Acts was written, possibly not long before Luke was called on to attend on Paul in his prison (2 Timothy 4:11), the term ‘witnesses’ held this special meaning (it was, of course, occasionally used otherwise, but not of witnesses to the Lord Jesus). To be a witness in this sense was no small thing. It is apparent from this how careful the early church were to preserve the true tradition, and to ensure that it was based on eyewitness testimony. Paul is thus not talking here just about his own teaching. He is speaking of the teaching of the whole Apostolate, as backed up by those who along with them had literally been disciples of Jesus, and had been witnesses to His life, death and resurrection.

We should note that there would really have been no point in the mention of ‘many witnesses’ here had Paul not felt that it greatly added to the authority of what he, as an Apostle, was saying, and for such ‘witnesses’ to provide such an addition to his authority it required men who would be seen as in some way ‘Apostolic’ and knowledgeable and certainly independent of his own teaching. Witnesses whom he had himself taught would hardly have been seen as greatly adding weight to his words. We should note in this regard that Paul had had great respect for the fact that, in accordance with the teaching of Jesus, the Apostles were, through the Holy Spirit of truth (John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:13), to be seen as the final source of doctrine, for he had deliberately gone up to Jerusalem in order to confirm that what he taught agreed with them (Galatians 2:2). And he had probably taken Timothy with him. This last fact of presenting what he believed and taught before the Apostles also condemns the suggestion that the early church were not interested in statements of faith, for a statement of faith was certainly present at that meeting, and it confirms that they (or certainly Paul), had suitably formulated their doctrines. It would be pedantic to suggest otherwise.

So Timothy is to seek out ‘faithful men’, men of unfeigned faith (2 Timothy 1:5), and hand over the true tradition to them, so that they too may in their turn pass it on to others without alteration, as being the teaching of the Apostles. Here was provision for the continuation of the church and its solid Apostolic teaching until the Lord comes. Note that it is not a question of them being ‘bishops’, but of being men of faith and trustworthy. The Apostolic tradition was to be passed on by passing on the ‘whole truth’ (which has now become the New Testament), through men of faith. It was not something that could be subsequently altered and expanded on, it was to be passed on complete as it was. This was in fact how the early church saw it for in the end the canon of Scripture was finalised on the basis of what they at least thought were Apostolic writings