Timothy (correspondent of Isidore of Pelusium)

Timothy is known only as a correspondent of Isidore of Pelusium, the ascetic and prolific letter-writer active in the Pelusium milieu of the eastern Nile Delta in the early-to-mid 5th century. He is repeatedly addressed as "Reader" (lector), the minor clerical office of reading Scripture aloud in church, and Isidore writes to him chiefly as a junior figure receiving scriptural instruction and pastoral correction: explanations of the three days of Christ's burial, the "eye for an eye" law against the Manichaeans, the muteness of Zechariah, the Levitical offering of turtledoves and pigeons, and counsel against quarreling with the ignorant or giving offense. (One letter in the cluster is addressed to a "Timothy, vir clarissimus," of senatorial rank concerning a dispute over the schemer Chairemon, which may belong to a different correspondent of the same name.) Beyond these letters of spiritual direction Timothy is otherwise unattested.