Acts 16:1-3 concerns ‘Timothy’, while Gal 2:3-5 concerns ‘Titus’. Do these

passages look suspiciously like accounts concerning the same person, or are

they better understood as involving two different people? Do the two passages

illuminate each other, or are they irreconcilable? It is certainly interesting to note

that the two passages have some elements in common. Both involve the

circumcision question. Both involve someone who was uncircumcised when Paul

went to Jerusalem, so there is no chronological conflict. Both incidents seem

connected with Galatia in some way. Both involve a common theme of 'knowing':

the Jews all 'knew' that Timothy's father had been a Greek, and the false brothers

were spying. Both passages mention the Greek status of someone. Both

passages involve a person with a similar sounding name. Are these common

factors coincidental, or is there a better explanation? Some commentators have

remarked on the common elements and have concluded that Acts 16:1-3 is a

garbled account of the incident of Gal 2:3-5, in which Luke transferred the story

from Titus to Timothy for some reason.(1) This section attempts to confirm that

Titus was Timothy.

(1) K. Lake and H. J. Cadbury, The Beginnings of Christianity, Part I. Vol. IV.

(London: Macmillan and co., 1933), p. 184 n. 3. See also W.O. Walker, Jr, ‘The

Timothy-Titus Problem Reconsidered’, The Expository Times 92 (1980-81), pp.

231-5.

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