Titus 1:7

δεῖ γὰρ τὸν ἐπίσκοπον�, for the ἐπίσκοπος must be ἀνέγκλητος. See Introd. chap. V. for the significance of the titles πρεσβύτερος and ἐπίσκοπος in the Pastoral Epistles. For the singular τὸν ἐπίσκοπον see on 1 Timothy 3:2.

ὡς θεοῦ οἰκονόμον, as God’s steward, as steward of the οἶκος θεοῦ (1 Timothy 3:15). The commission of the ἐπίσκοπος is, in the end, from God and not from man; he is God’s steward, the steward of His mysteries (1 Corinthians 4:1) and of His manifold grace (1 Peter 4:10), not, be it observed, the steward of the Christian community. It is to God, not to man, that he is responsible for the due discharge of his office.

μὴ αὐθάδη, not self-willed. αὐθάδης only occurs once again in N.T., viz. τολμηταί, αὐθάδεις (2 Peter 2:10); it signifies self-satisfied and so self-willed, arrogant. Field notes that Aristotle (Magn. Moral. I. 28) counts σεμνότης as the mean between αὐθάδεια and ἀρέσκεια, i.e. between arrogance on the one hand and over-complaisance of manner on the other, an interesting observation. σεμνότης is mentioned as one of the qualities of the ἐπίσκοπος at 1 Timothy 3:4 (see also on 1 Timothy 2:2).

μὴ ὀργίλον, not irascible, ‘not soon angry’ as the A.V. felicitously renders. ὀργίλος is a ἄπ. λεγ. in the N.T.; Aristotle reckons πραῢτης as the mean between ὀργιλότης and that incapacity for being roused to anger which he calls ἀοργησία (Nic. Eth. IV. 5); see on 2 Timothy 2:25. In the Didache (§ 3) we have the precept μὴ γίνου ὀργίλος.

μὴ πάροινον, μὴ πλήκτην. see on 1 Timothy 3:3.

μὴ αἰσχροκερδῆ. see on 1 Timothy 3:8, where μὴ αἰσχροκερδεῖς is a note of the διάκονοι. The corresponding qualification for the ἐπίσκοπος in 1 Timothy is ἀφιλάργυρον (see on 1 Timothy 3:3). See also on Titus 1:11 below.