Pauline Biography and the Letter to Titus: A Response to Jens Herzer

ABSTRACT This response critically analyzes Jens Herzer’s interpretation of the Pastorals’ “personal notes” (i.e., the references to personal circumstances, coworkers, and travel plans), which play a significant role in his essay in the present journal as well as in a number of his other recent publications. The response focuses on Herzer’s proposal that the references to travel plans and place names in the letter to Titus indicate that this missive was composed during Paul’s final journey to Rome (cf. Acts 27–28). I argue that a number of key exegetical decisions on which this hypothesis is based are debatable and that there are other, at least equally plausible, ways to explain the place names and travel plans mentioned in Titus. One possibility, which to the best of my knowledge has not been previously considered, is that the references to Crete (Titus 1:5) and Nicopolis (Titus 3:12) serve to address two “gaps” in the story of early Pauline Christianity: (1) the curious absence of any reference to Titus outside Galatians and 2 Corinthians, and (2) the lack of information about Paul’s mission in Illyricum, which is mentioned only in passing in Rom 15:19.