Titus 1:9

ἀντεχόμενον τοῦ κατὰ τὴν διδαχὴν πιστοῦ λόγου, holding by the faithful word which is according to the doctrine.

ἀντέχεοθαι is a difficult word; it is used of “holding to” one of two masters in Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13, and of “laying hold of” and so “supporting” the weak in 1 Thessalonians 5:14; and again in Proverbs 3:18 wisdom is said to be a tree of life τοῖς� “to them that lay hold upon her,” from which it seems that holding by is a legitimate rendering here.

The phrase πιστοῦ λόγου suggests the ‘Faithful Sayings’ of the Pastoral Epistles (see on 1 Timothy 1:15). κατὰ τὴν διδαχήν must mean ‘in accordance with the [Apostolic] doctrine,’ διδαχή being taken objectively, and not in the active sense of ‘teaching.’ Hence the whole clause indicates the function of the ἐπίσκοπος as the guardian of the ‘deposit of faith’ (cp. 1 Timothy 6:20).

ἵνα δυνατὸς ᾗ καὶ παρακαλεῖν, in order that he may be able both to exhort. For the distinction between διδασκαλία and παράκλησις see on 1 Timothy 4:13.

ἐν τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ τῇ ὑγιαινούσῃ. For this metaphor, often recurring in the Pastoral Epistles, see on 1 Timothy 1:10; ἐν indicates the sphere, as it were, in which the exhortation will take place. If the ἐπίσκοπος hold not by the ‘word which is faithful,’ his ‘doctrine’ will not be ‘wholesome’ and thus his ‘exhortation’ will be ill-founded and probably ineffective, if not misleading.

καὶ τοὺς�, and to convict the gainsayers. A firm grasp of the truth is the indispensable preparation for him who would undertake to dispel error. The ἀντιλέγοντες are cavillers at the truth, primarily the heretical teachers of Crete, but there are those in every age who satisfy themselves with like negations. Cp. 2 Timothy 4:2 ἕλεγξον … παρεκάλεσον.