Cheryl Schatz

Mark,
I had a big long answer to some of your points and then I accidentally typed over it and lost it. I will just summarize this point:

Timothy should most definitely be described as the ‘pastor’ of the Ephesian Church when Paul wrote this letter. Any attempt to say otherwise is really just ignorance of the facts.

Timothy travelled with Paul from one place to another and together with Paul he wrote letters to the Philippian church and to the Colossians. If you do a word search on Timothy you will find that he ministered to Paul and then Paul sent him out to the churches to find out how they were doing. He would then go back to Paul to minister to him again. Timothy was not “the” pastor at Ephesus. He was an apostolic representative of Paul’s who spent his time ministering to Paul, overseeing the condition of the churches and reporting back to Paul, writing letters with Paul to the churches and at least once in Ephesus he stayed behind after Paul left to clean up some of the remaining problems. He did not remain on as the pastor of Ephesus, but moved on as Paul had need for him.

Paul’s letter to Timothy was personal and he call Timothy “his child in the faith” and not the “pastor of Ephesus”.

1 Tim 1:2 To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Note the ONLY false teachers we know of are Hymenaius and Alexander, both men.

Not true. The ONLY false teachers that are named are the deliberate deceivers. The misled and deceived are not named so we do not know what gender they are were. And you have forgotten one of the most famous false teachers who was a woman.

Rev 2:20 ‘But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

Paul follows the pattern of the Holy Spirit to name the deceivers and leave the deceived false teachers unnamed.