Timothy, the Spiritual Son of the Apostle Paul, in the Year 98

Timothy was born at Lystra in Lycaonia. His father was a Greek, but his mother and his grandmother, though of Jewish descent, were Christian believers, the one named Eunice, the other Lois; and they taught him the holy Scriptures from his youth. Acts 16, verse 1; Second Timothy 1, verse 5.

The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of Timothy; therefore Paul took him as his companion in the ministry of the holy Gospel among the Gentiles. Acts 16, verses 2 and 3.

Paul loved him with a godly love, and called him his dearly beloved son in the Lord. Second Timothy 1, verse 2. He afterwards appointed him bishop or teacher of the church, and entrusted to him the flock of Jesus his Savior, with the charge to feed and govern it uprightly; and to that end he wrote two special epistles to him.

"O Timothy," he writes, "keep that which is committed to your trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called" (First Timothy 6, verse 20).

Further: "This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on you . . . . Through faith and a good conscience" (chapter 1, verse 18).

In another place: "You, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit them to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also" (Second Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2).

In this ministry Timothy conducted himself as an upright evangelical preacher, until it pleased God to let him finish his course, not by a common death, but by martyrdom; so that with his spiritual father Paul, who had steadfastly gone before him, and above all with his Lord Christ Jesus, who had gone through the conflict many years earlier, he might enjoy the unfading crown of honor in the life of bliss. So it happened afterwards, according to history, that having been bishop at Ephesus for fifteen years, he was stoned to death there by the heathen, whose idolatry he had rebuked. This is said to have taken place in the reign of Domitian, or about the year 98, though some have placed it in the time of Nero. Joh. Gysii Hist. Mart., folio 14, column 4; also Bybelsch Nambock, letter T, on the name Timothy, folio 925, column. [n125-1]