Titus 1:1

Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ is the order of A, the Bohairic and Harclean Syriac Versions. Practically all the other authorities support Ἰη. Χριστοῦ, the reading of the rec. text. See crit. note on 1 Timothy 1:1.

1. Παῦλος δοῦλος θεοῦ. St Paul does not use this expression elsewhere, and it is thus an unlikely expression to be used by a forger. Paul calls himself ‘the slave of Christ Jesus’ or ‘of Christ’ at Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1; Galatians 1:10, which is also the phrase used in 2 Peter 1:1; Jude 1:1. St James (James 1:1) uses the longer phrase ‘a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Cp. Acts 16:17; 2 Timothy 2:24 and Revelation 15:3.

ἀπόστολος δὲ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. δέ signifies and further &c., this additional specification of his office being specially desirable in an official letter like the present. See on 1 Timothy 1:1, and see the crit. note.

κατὰ πίστιν ἐκλεκτῶν θεοῦ, according to the faith of God’s elect. κατά cannot mean simply secundum (Vg.), for the standard of St Paul’s apostleship was something higher even than the faith of the elect. It seems, as in the somewhat similar phrase κατʼ ἐπαγγελίαν ζωῆς of 2 Timothy 1:1, to convey the idea of purpose, though not so strongly as there; cp. Romans 1:5. For St Paul’s use of the word ‘elect’ see on 2 Timothy 2:10.

καὶ ἐπίγνωσιν�ʼ εὐσέβειαν, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness. κατά, in this clause, does not convey any suggestion of purpose, but of concomitance and intimate connexion; it is only in a life of godliness (see on 1 Timothy 2:2 for εὐσέβεια) that the ‘knowledge of the truth’ can be fully learnt (see on 1 Timothy 6:3). For the expression ἐπίγνωσις� see on 1 Timothy 2:4. The purpose of St Paul’s apostolic mission was to perfect the knowledge of the truth, no less than to promote the faith of the elect, of God’s chosen.