PASTORAL LETTERS. - Common appellation for the Pauline I and II Timothy (v.) and Titus (v.), - in the 17th century also called pontificiae (C. Magalianus) - justified by their destination to pastors of Churches and by their content (cf. Muratorian Fragment, in Enchiridion Biblicum, Rome 1927, no. 4; Tertullian, Adv. Marc., V, 21: PL 2, 556).
In them the community appears only by reflection, since the writer addresses himself directly to the leaders in order to instruct them on the duties of their office: choice of ministers, example of holy life, defense of sound doctrine. The community will, however, have to know the content of these letters from the voice of those through whom Paul exercises his superior authority as Apostle (I Tim. 2:1 ff.; 4:12; 6:3 ff., 21; Tit. 2:1 ff.; 3:15; II Tim. 4:22).
Language and style also contribute to distinguishing the l. p. both from the group of Romans, I and II Corinthians, Galatians, and from the epistles of the captivity, to which last, however, they are closer in time and in the circumstances of composition, as well as in the defense of Christianity against the first attacks of false gnosis. In the l. p. it is difficult to discover a plan: the teachings, the exhortations, the polemical touches follow one another, often, without an evident connection. With Philemon they are the most familiar among the letters of St. Paul, the farthest from the literary character of the "epistle" genre.
Bibliography2 works
Teodorico da Castel S. Pietro