Timothy

Timothy
1. An Ammonite officer with the Syrian army who opposed Judas Maccabaeus (164 BCE) and was killed (1 Macc. 5: 6–8).

2. A devoted younger assistant to Paul mentioned in the epistles of Paul and in Acts. He was much involved with the Thessalonian mission and when Paul was alone in Athens he sent Timothy to Thessalonica to give that Church support in a time of persecution (1 Thess. 3: 1–5); on rejoining Paul, now at Corinth, he was able to bring reassuring news. Next, from Ephesus, Timothy was dispatched to bring some order to the Corinthian Church (1 Cor. 16: 10–11). There was also a plan for Timothy to go to Philippi (Phil. 2: 19–24). According to the Acts, Timothy was the son of a Jewish mother and Gentile father, and evidently his mother (Eunice, according to 2 Tim. 1: 5) was not able to prevail in the household at Lystra to bring up Timothy as a Jew (Acts 16: 3). So Paul circumcised Timothy, probably in order to make him as much a Jewish Christian as he and Silas were, thereby smoothing relations with adherents of synagogues. With pure Gentiles (such as Titus, Gal. 2: 3) it was a matter of principle for Paul that they should not submit to the requirements of the Jewish Law.