Paul wrote Timothy The authenticity of Pauline authorship was accepted by Church orthodoxy as early as c. AD 180, as evidenced by the surviving testimony of Irenaeus and the author of the Muratorian fragment. 140ad. Irenaeus was the personal disciple of Polycarp the convert of the apostle John and he would have firsthand knowledge of those epistles and their writers. He wrote a five volume encyclopedia my friend about early first and second century Christianity. Possible allusions are found in t