1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Timothy

TIMOTHY or Timotheus, in the Bible (Acts xvi. 1, xvii. 14, &c), a Lycaonian, the son of a Gentile father and a Jewish mother, Eunice (2 Tim. i. 5), was born at Lystra, and was already a member of the Christian Church there at the time of Paul's second visit. He took the place formerly occupied by John Mark in Paul's company, and in deference to Jewish feeling was circumcised. He accompanied the apostle on many of his journeys, and was employed by him on important missions (1 Thess. iii. 2; 1 Cor. iv. 17, xvi. 10). Paul speaks of him as his “son,” and this (see Phil. ii. 22) refers to loyal service rather than to spiritual parentage. He was especially interested in the Macedonian churches, which he helped to found. His name is associated with that of Paul in the opening salutations of both epistles to the Thessalonians, the second epistle to the Corinthians, and those to the Philippians and Colossians. He was, therefore, with Paul at Rome. At a later date he is mentioned in Heb. xiii. 23 as having undergone imprisonment, but as having been released. On the basis of the epistles of Paul to Timothy, Timothy is traditionally represented as bishop of Ephesus, and tradition also tells that he suffered under Domitian. His martyrdom is celebrated on the 24th of January in the Latin Church, on the 22nd in the Greek.

The apocryphal Acta Timothei (Greek and Latin) have been edited by Usener (Bonn, 1877); cf. Lipsius, Apokr. Aposlelgeschichten (1884), ii. 2.