The three pastoral letters or epistles are books of the canonical New Testament: the First Epistle to Timothy (1 Timothy) the Second Epistle to Timothy (2 Timothy) and the Epistle to Titus. They are letters from Paul the Apostle to Timothy and to Titus. They are generally discussed as a group (sometimes with the addition of the Epistle to Philemon) and are given the title pastoral because they are addressed to individuals with pastoral oversight of churches and discuss issues of Christian living, doctrine and leadership. While the title is not technically quite correct in that the Epistles do not deal with pastoral duties in the sense of the cure of souls, yet it is popularly appropriate as denoting the essentially practical nature of the subject matter as distinguished from the other Epistles attributed to Paul. The term "pastorals" was popularised in 1703 by D. N. Berdot and in 1726 by Paul Anton.

Dates

If it is true that Paul was released from prison (after the close of the book of Acts, possibly AD 59-61), then is there any early tradition of his post-prison activities (i.e. preaching in Spain, cf. Romans 15:24,28)? There are the pastoral Letters (cf. 2 Timothy 4:10) and 1 Clement 5. These suggest that Paul preached in the east and west (i.e. Spain) and was killed under "the prefects" (i.e. Tigellinus and Sabinus, who functioned in the last year of Nero's reign, A.D. 68). The Muratorian Fragment gives a list of canonical books from Rome about AD 180-200. Eusebius' Historical Ecclesiastical History 2:22:1-8, states that Paul was released from Roman imprisonment
It seems that 1 Timothy and Titus were written close together before Paul's re-arrest. 2 Timothy is Paul's last writing and good-bye while in prison.
Suggested dates therefore
 
1 Timothy – 62-63 AD
Titus – 62-63 AD
2 Timothy – 65-67 AD
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