3:12-15 Concluding Business
Titus
INTRODUCTION
Authorship, Purpose, Commentaries. See introduction to 1 Timothy. Like 1 Timothy, this letter to Titus seems to function more as a letter authorizing Titus than as a personal letter only.
Situation. Paul left Titus behind in Crete to establish *church leadership in each city there (1:5). The description of the opposition (1:10-11, 14) sounds much like what Paul addressed at Ephesus in 1 Timothy, suggesting that the error addressed there is spreading rapidly among Christian congregations. Paul’s old opponents, those of the circumcision group he encountered in Galatia, apparently continue to follow on his heels to “correct” his converts (1:10, 14). Although they won over many of his early converts, their views eventually lost ground; but Paul did not live to see his views prevail (2 Tim 1:15).
1:1-4
Introduction
As in 1 Timothy, here Paul omits many features customary to his letters (such as thanksgiving and, less often, mention of prayer) and goes right to the point with his instructions.
1:1. Letters customarily opened with the name of the sender. It could be prestigious to be the slave in a high-status household, and the *Old Testament prophets were often called “servants of God.” Many Jewish people believed that they were chosen for salvation by virtue of their corporate participation in Israel; as usual, Paul applies the term to all believers in Jesus (possibly to help ideas mentioned in 1:10).
1:2-3. Jewish sources traditionally employed the phrase “*eternal life” to mean the “life of the world to come,” which (according to Jewish teaching) was to be inaugurated by the future *resurrection of the dead. That God could not lie, that he had spoken through the prophets from the beginning and that the future resurrection could be proved from the earliest parts of the Bible fit common Jewish teaching and could not be disputed by his opponents (1:10). (The *Stoics taught the immutability of divine decrees, but the Stoic form of the doctrine allowed God less freedom to interact with human will and prayers than most of Judaism did. By contrast, in Greek myths, deities readily deceived mortals, but such a view of divinity was rejected by most philosophers and ridiculed by Judaism.)
1:4. After naming the sender, letters named the recipient(s) and conveyed an expression of greeting. Philosophers and *rabbis spoke of their *disciples as their children; cf. 1 Timothy 1:2 and 2 Timothy 1:2.
1:5-9
Appointing Sound Elders
1:5. In the *Old Testament, cities were ruled and judged by their “elders,” those with the greatest wisdom and experience in the community. By the *New Testament period, prominent older men in *Diaspora *synagogues were called “elders.” Although their exact role may have varied from one place to another, often a group of elders provided leadership for a synagogue (in Judea, cf. 1QS 6.8-9 in the *Dead Sea Scrolls). Paul followed the convenient, conventional forms of synagogue leadership in his culture rather than instituting entirely foreign leadership structures. “In every city” meant that the different house churches in each city would each have their own leaders. Like much of old Greece, Crete had long been known for intercity rivalry.
1:6. The requirement for being “above reproach” (NASB) was vital for leaders in antiquity (see comment on 1 Tim 3:2). “Husband of one wife” probably meant “a faithful husband”; like the requirement about the children, this one suggests that he be a family man and a leader in his household (see further discussion at 1 Tim 3:2). These were necessary aspects of being respectable in antiquity and were qualities often examined with regard to suitability for public office. (The Old Testament also emphasized filial obedience under normal conditions; cf. Deut 21:20.) Because they are “elders,” and “dissipation” (NASB; the term can mean overindulgence but often means wasting money, often on selfish pleasures like drunkenness) was a vice stereotypically attributed to young men, not children, these elders are apparently held responsible for the behavior of their adult children (adulthood being reached in the mid-teens). In the Roman world, sons were to respect their fathers, who had legal authority to rule their sons as long as they lived.
1:7. “Stewards” were household managers, often slaves or freedmen, accountable to the master for how they handled his property; this term fits particularly well the image of leaders of household churches. The drunken worship of Dionysus was known on Crete, and the Christian leaders’ behavior must not be confused with it in any way (some people ignorantly confused Judaism with the cult of Dionysus, and Christians were generally viewed as part of Judaism). But avoiding drunkenness was also important for other reasons (Prov 20:1). Those “given to wine” (KJV, NASB) were also often recognized as abusive and given to fighting as well.
1:8. “Hospitality” included housing, feeding and treating graciously travelers needing a place to stay. (Christian travelers, like Jewish ones, would have normally carried letters of recommendation attesting that they could be trusted.)
1:9. Elders had to be trained to refute current false teachings before they were appointed; for the false teachings in view here, see comment on 1:10-16. The “word” in Judaism would be especially the *law, but Paul means the apostolic message (see comment on 2 Tim 4:2).
1:10-16
Evil Legalists
Although the opponents here are probably related to opponents Paul had faced elsewhere, they may have derived some of their appeal from local knowledge of Judaism and possibly a strong Jewish element within the church. Crete was ethically mixed, and a large Jewish colony was there.
1:10. “Empty talk” (NASB) characterized many pseudointellectuals in antiquity; see comment on 1 Timothy 1:6 and 2 Timothy 2:14. The Jewish community in Crete was sometimes exploited by charlatans (e.g., *Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 17.327).
1:11. “Upsetting whole families” (NASB) could mean that, by gaining entrance to families, these false teachers were disrupting entire households (cf. 2 Tim 3:6-7), or that they are “subverting” (KJV) households. Perhaps they are undermining the authority structures current in the culture (Tit 2:4-5, 9-10); less likely, they may oppose marriage or sex within marriage on *ascetic grounds (see comment on 1 Tim 4:1-3; 1 Cor 7:1-7). Neither error was characteristic of Palestinian or *Diaspora Judaism, although many *Essenes advocated celibacy.
On those who taught for “gain,” see comment on 1 Timothy 6:3-10; this accusation was commonly leveled against traveling teachers of morality, probably including Paul (1 Thess 2:5). A writer long before Paul charged that the Cretans were known to be more fond of gain and more dishonest than any other people.
1:12. Outsiders complained that Cretans lusted for wealth, leading to violence (Polybius 6.46.9) and were deceptive (8.19.5). (When convenient, Romans sometimes complained that Greeks more generally used falsehood; *Cicero, For Flaccus 4.9-10; 5.11-12; Pliny, Natural History 37.11.31.) The saying Paul quotes here has been attributed to several sources, the earliest being the sixth-century B.C. teacher Epimenides of Knossos in Crete. (The real source may more likely be Hesiod by way of the third-century B.C. Callimachus’s Hymn to Zeus. As was widely known, Crete claimed to possess both the birthplace and grave of Zeus; the latter claim drew outsiders’ scorn and charge of falsehood. But that the words were often attributed to a Cretan in Paul’s day is sufficient for him to make the point for Titus. Paul is clearly not citing his own view, because he would not consider a liar to be a true prophet. Greek logicians played with the claim by a Cretan that all Cretans were liars: if he had told the truth, he was lying; but if he was lying, then they reasoned that all Cretans told the truth—reasonable, except that this Cretan had not!)
By Paul’s time Epimenides was reputed to have been a traveling wonderworker, teacher and prophet; as usual in Greek thought, the line between poetic and prophetic inspiration could be thin. Although the saying seems to have become proverbial (one commentator declares that “to cretize” became slang for “to lie”), it is not impossible that Paul knew the works of Epimenides; it seems much more likely, however, that he knew only the attributed saying or at most an anthology containing sayings attributed to Epimenides (see comment on Acts 17:27-29).
Crete also had a bad reputation for arrogance, treachery and greed. “Gluttony” was associated with love of pleasure as opposed to love of knowledge; see comment on Philippians 3:19.
1:13. Ancient ethnographers attributed certain characteristics (both good and bad) to various peoples whose cultures emphasized those traits. (That Paul could cite these negative characteristics of Cretans in a letter that Cretan believers would hear suggests that he must have been on very good terms with them and that Cretans recognized these characteristics of their own culture; he is not offering here a model for crosscultural sensitivity in normal situations.)
1:14. Jewish “myths” would especially be haggadoth, stories amplifying or explaining biblical *narratives. *Pharisees and others who tried to expound and apply biblical *law for their own times were forced to surround it with case law, detailing how the *Old Testament rules addressed specific situations; Paul apparently dismisses such legal traditions here.
1:15. The Old Testament law considered some foods pure and other foods impure (cf. 1:14), but Paul applies the common figurative extension of purity language to moral and spiritual purity (see 1 Tim 4:3-5; cf. Rom 14:14).
1:16. In the Old Testament, “knowing God” was being in covenant relationship with him; on a personal level, this meant an intimate relationship of faithfulness to him. But the claim was false if not accompanied by just treatment of others and obedience to the Scriptures (Hos 8:2-3; Jer 22:16).
2:1-14
Sound Doctrine: Right Relationships
Because the Romans suspected minority religions, especially religions from the East with ecstatic elements to their worship, of subverting traditional family values, minority religions often followed the philosophers in exhorting adherents to follow “household codes.” These codes instructed male heads of households how to treat each member of the household, especially wives, children and slaves. Under the broad topic of “household management,” such codes also extended to treatment of parents, duties to the state (3:1) and duties to the gods. Because the *church met in homes and was viewed as a sort of extended family around the household of the *patron in whose home the believers met, the instructions naturally quickly extended to categories of relationships in the church.
Early Christian adaptation of Roman social relations was valuable for the church’s witness to society and for diminishing preventable opposition to the *gospel (2:5, 8, 10). Modern readers often recognize only the traditional values of their own culture, but one should recognize that Paul addresses instead the traditional Roman values of his day (including the household slavery of his day, which differed from many other societies’ models of slavery).
2:1. Because the false teachers were subverting households, the “sound” teaching (cf. 2:15) Paul supplies in this case applies especially to household relationships (2:2-14). Households were defined in terms of hierarchy and dependence (e.g., slaves to masters or *clients to patrons) rather than strictly in terms of blood relationship.
2:2. This description matches the expectation for venerable older men in Roman culture: dignified, serious, sober.
2:3. Older women were often objects of ridicule in comedies and were especially mocked for gossip and foolish talk (see comment on 1 Tim 4:7). Some caricatured older women as drunken and as sexually desiring younger men; many men resented drunkenness especially in women.
2:4. It had long been customary for older women, especially mothers, to instruct their daughters in the ways of life (even in ancient Israel, e.g., Jer 9:20); some philosophers wanting to advise women even wrote *pseudepigraphic letters purportedly from women, telling women how to behave. The Roman mother’s chief duty to her daughter seems to have been to help her acquire the appropriate education (especially to be a good mother) and to help her to please a good husband. “Young women” were almost always wives, because Jewish and Greco-Roman society generally frowned upon women’s singleness and men seem to have outnumbered women. Both Judaism and ancient moralists stressed that wives should love their husbands and nurture their children; many tomb inscriptions report these characteristics as a woman’s crowning virtue.
2:5. The term translated “sensible” (NASB) means “self-controlled” (NIV, NRSV, GNT) or disciplined, one of the central Greek virtues; when applied to women, it entailed “modesty,” which included virtuously avoiding any connotations of sexual infidelity. In the traditional Greek ideal (far more than in actual practice, especially by this period), women were also to be secluded in the privacy of their home, because they were supposed to be the visual property of their husbands alone. They ruled the domestic sphere to which they were limited but were expected to obey their husbands in everything (Paul’s “submissive” [NRSV] may be weaker than “obedient” [contrast KJV]). Women were also expected to be quiet, docile and socially retiring. To violate such social customs was to lend credence to the charge that Christianity was socially subversive, a charge that would provoke more persecution for the small but growing faith than most of them, both women and men, would have felt it worth.
2:6-8. The men also are to be self-disciplined, and Timothy was to provide a model for them, as a good teacher should. Paul uses the expression “good deeds” in a variety of ways (see 1:16; 2:14; 3:1, 8, 14; 1 Tim 2:10; 5:10; 6:18; 2 Tim 2:21; 3:17). On seeking to forestall false accusations, see the introduction to 2:1-14.
2:9-10. Although masters legally held absolute authority over household slaves (the sort of slaves addressed in this household context), in most cases household slaves held freedoms that field or mine slaves did not, and they had more adequate provision than most peasants. In the popular stereotype entertained by slaveholders, slaves were lazy, apt to argue with their masters and liable to steal when they could. The stereotype was sometimes true, especially where the work incentive was least, but Paul urges Christian slaves not to reinforce the stereotype. Minority religions were already viewed as subversive, and to counter this prejudice Christians had to work especially hard to avoid the normal causes of slander. For more on slavery in general, see the introduction to Philemon.
2:11. The believers were to live in a respectable way to counter false accusations (2:8-10) so that all would have access to the gospel according to which they lived. On prejudice against minority religions, see the introduction to 2:1-14. That God’s *grace had provided (though not automatically effected—cf., e.g., 1:10) salvation for all people ran counter to the Jewish emphasis on God’s special redemption of Israel and prevailing sentiments of cultural distinctions held by many people in antiquity (though Judaism allowed that some righteous *Gentiles would be saved, and philosophers and some mystery religions challenged conventional cultural boundaries).
2:12. Two ethical terms Paul employs here were among the four cardinal virtues of ancient Greek philosophers and moralists. A similar list occurs in Philo, a Jewish philosopher who wished to present Judaism favorably to the Greek society of Alexandria, to which he also felt he belonged.
Jewish sources frequently contrasted the present age, dominated by evil and suffering, with the *age to come, when God would rule unchallenged and reward his people. Although some oppressors through history have used such a doctrine to keep the oppressed subdued, it more appropriately found its first hearing among the oppressed themselves. Palestinian Jews felt discouraged by Roman repression and the lack of independence to practice their law fully; *Diaspora Jews and Christians found themselves a moral minority in a morass of paganism, subject to slanders and sporadic violence. Their hope for the future was rooted in their faith in God’s justice.
2:13. In Judaism, the ultimate revelation or “appearing” of God would signal the end of the present age and the beginning of the new one (cf. 2:12). Diaspora Judaism commonly called God “the great God” and saw him as a “*savior” (in Greek religion, the latter term often meant deliverer or benefactor). According to the most likely reading of the grammar here, Paul applies this divine title to Jesus; although some Jewish circles thought of semidivine beings (often particular exalted angels) or images (especially Wisdom), Judaism did not portray any other human figure as literally divine (or, from recent history, even figuratively divine, as *Philo did with Moses based on Ex 7:1).
2:14. In the *Old Testament God “redeemed” the people of Israel (i.e., freed them from slavery in Egypt) to make them “a special people” (Ex 19:5; Deut 4:20; 7:6; 14:2; cf. 1 Sam 12:22; 2 Sam 7:24; Ps 135:4); here Paul applies this language to the church.
Judaism strongly praised “zeal” for God. Although zeal was sometimes associated with Jewish revolutionaries (some of whom were or came to be called *Zealots) in this period, more often it simply meant uncompromising zeal for the *law or for God. (Although unlikely, it is possible that the Jewish colony in Crete was affected by the same revolutionary tensions building in Cyrene, which was on the North African coast far to the south but under the same Roman administration. These tensions erupted into violence in Cyrene about A.D. 72 [Josephus, Jewish War 7.437-50] and into a full revolt about four decades later. These revolutionary sentiments had been stirred by surviving revolutionaries from Palestine.)
2:15–3:8
The Purpose of a Lifestyle Witness
Paul here provides his reasoning for their lifestyle witness (2:5, 8, 10): God wants everyone to be saved, and he paid a great price to accomplish this salvation. Now the only way to counter the world’s negative conception of Christianity is to live irreproachably.
2:15. Paul encourages Titus to pass on the sound doctrine of 2:1-14.
3:1. Allegiance to the state and submission to its authorities were often part of the same sorts of exhortations as the household duties (see the introduction to 2:1-14). They were as important as, or possibly more important than, household duties in undermining slander about subversiveness, because the Romans hated nothing worse than cults they deemed seditious.
3:2. The epitome of right relationships was being kind toward everyone, including one’s enemies; this injunction is a fitting climax to Paul’s rules on relationships.
3:3-4. Philosophers sometimes exhorted people to imitate God’s character; Paul here uses God’s kindness toward sinners in saving them to argue why Christians should be kind to all people, even their enemies. Philosophers described the majority of people as “enslaved by passions and pleasure,” until they were freed from this bondage by the truth of philosophy; Paul agrees with their evaluation of the human plight but sees a different solution for it (3:5).
Paul’s term for God’s “love for humanity” here was used by pagan moralists especially for the sort of sympathy humans as humans should have for one another; for Paul, God in *Christ has sympathy for humanity. (Sometimes the term was also applied to the supreme God, but more often it was applied to the benevolence of the emperor.) Paul shows how the most valued genuine virtues of his culture reflected God’s own character.
3:5. The *Essenes and some other Jewish people associated the *Spirit with purification, especially based on Ezekiel 36:25-27, where God cleanses his people from their idolatry. Because *baptism was the decisive act of conversion in Palestinian Judaism, it figures as the natural image for conversion here (see comment on Jn 3:5).
3:6. For the Spirit being “poured out,” see Joel 2:28 (cited in Acts 2:17).
3:7-8. “Justified” meant “judged righteous” or “acquitted” before God’s court; according to the *Old Testament and Jewish teaching, one must condemn the guilty and acquit only the innocent. But in the Old Testament, God by his covenant love had also promised to vindicate his people and declare them in the right for their faithfulness to him; see comment on Romans 1:17. “Heirs” reflects the Old Testament image of inheriting the Promised Land, a picture naturally developed in early Judaism for entering the future *kingdom.
On “*eternal life,” see comment on 1:2-3; on “hope,” see also comment on 2:13. For Paul, as for Judaism, eternal life would be fulfilled at the *resurrection of the dead at the end of this age and beginning of the next. But for Paul the hope was already inaugurated by Christ’s resurrection.
3:9-11
Avoid Divisiveness and Divisive People
Part of maintaining a gentle, nonresistant life among members of the Christian community (3:1-2; cf. Gen 26:18-22) involved dissociating oneself from those who would violate one’s witness by their disobedience.
3:9. Genealogies and details about the *law (including arguments of Jewish legal scholars over spellings or vocalizations of Hebrew words) were minutiae that missed the genuinely critical issues in the spirit of the Old Testament (see comment on 1:10; 1 Tim 1:6; 2 Tim 2:14).
3:10-11. The noun related to the term translated “factious” (NASB) or “divisive” (NIV) came to designate different sects of philosophers, and *Josephus used it to designate different schools of thought within Judaism. But the adjective here is normally negative, as here (also Gal 5:20; cf. 1 Cor 11:19), for sectarian or divisive tendencies. Paul might refer to the false teachers or to their *disciples in the congregation (cf. Tit 3:9 with 1:10).
Jewish law required several private rebukes before bringing a person before the religious assembly for discipline; this procedure gave the offender ample opportunity to repent. One severe form of punishment against an unrepentant offender was exclusion from the religious community for a set time or until *repentance ensued. Because Paul uses this penalty only in the most extreme circumstances, the divisiveness in view here must be serious; the person has already excluded himself from the life of the community.
3:12-15
Concluding Business
3:12. Nicopolis was on the Greek side of the Adriatic coast, about two hundred miles east of Italy. Located near the coast and only about a century old, it was not a major city that would be likely to occur to a pseudepigrapher. It was in this city that the *Stoic philosopher *Epictetus, banished from Rome, settled three decades later, so it might have also invited philosophical debates (and hence opportunities for Christian witness) in Paul’s day. Apparently wishing to go on to Rome, Paul is going to leave Asia, cross Macedonia and wait in Nicopolis for Titus, who is to come up from Crete after receiving Paul’s message. Sea travel was not possible during winter, so Paul would wait there (see comment on 2 Tim 4:21). Titus later walked northward to minister in Dalmatia (2 Tim 4:10), where some work may have been initiated before (Rom 15:19, referring to the same region). Because Paul later sent Tychicus from Rome to Timothy (2 Tim 4:12), it was probably Artemas he sent to Titus. (Although the name “Artemas” was compounded on the name of the Greek goddess Artemis, one cannot draw any conclusions about whether he was Jewish or *Gentile. By this period Jewish names in Egypt and possibly elsewhere were compounded with “Artem-” roots; cf. the analogously Jewish Christian “Apollos,” taken from the name of the Greek god Apollo.)
3:13. “Lawyer” could refer to a Jewish legal expert, but in the *Diaspora it could also refer to a jurist of Roman law. Legal cases were more the domain of trained *rhetoricians (like Apollos; see comment on Acts 18:24) than jurists, but the latter could also be prominent men. (In contrast to some other ancient professionals like physicians, who were sometimes slaves, lawyers were generally of higher social status.) Like most names, “Zenas” is attested as a name in Jewish funerary inscriptions, so his name cannot settle his ethnicity; perhaps both he and Apollos were from the educated Jewish elite in Alexandria. (If so, he was likelier an expert in Jewish *law, though an elite Alexandrian Jew could also have studied Greek laws.)
This verse constitutes a miniature “letter of recommendation” to provide hospitality to Zenas and Apollos (see comment on 1:8), who may be the bearers of this letter to Titus. “Help” means to supply their needs, providing for them to continue their voyage to their destination, perhaps to the south in Cyrene or Alexandria.
3:14. Here Paul enjoins charity (see comment on 2 Cor 9:6-8; Gal 6:6-10).
3:15. Such greetings were customary at the end of a letter, at times including expressions like “those who love you” (here to designate to whom general greetings most suitably applied).