An ornamental woodcut headpiece displays elaborate scrolled foliage and two central figures.

THE DISPOSITION OF THE FIRST

EPISTLE TO TI-

motheus.

TIMOTHY was a Lycaonian by birth, as they say, born to parents of different faiths. For in Acts 16, he is said to have been born of a Jewish mother but a Greek father. Hence, he was not circumcised even in his early infancy. Below, in chapter 1 of the 2nd Epistle, his maternal lineage is explained more extensively. For the Apostle names his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois there, women who were quite pious and Christian, by whom he was educated in the holy scriptures and the Christian religion from boyhood. For below, in chapter 3 of the 2nd Epistle, it is written that he knew the holy scriptures from childhood, and in chapter 1 of the same, that the faith of his grandmother and mother dwelt also in him. And so, although he was uncircumcised, he acknowledged Christ early, a profession that, now that he was an adult, could have freed him from circumcision, had the Apostle not circumcised him by a certain counsel of the Holy Spirit for a specific benefit to the church, which D. Luke expresses in Acts 16. Preceptors: Aside from his mother and grandmother, he had the Apostle Paul as a preceptor, whence he is called "son" in this Epistle and other places.