Titus 2:3

ἰεροπρεπεῖς. So the rec. text with the great majority of uncials (and the margin of the Harclean version); CH** 17, the Syriac, Latin, and Bohairic versions support ἰεροπρεπεῖ, and take it as qualifying καταστήματι.

μὴ οἴνῳ. This is the reading of the rec. text (adopted by Tischendorf and Lachmann), and it is supported by nearly all the available MSS. and versions. But the important group א*AC 73 read μηδὲ οἴνῳ, and this is printed by Tregelles and WH; μὴ οἴνῳ is the reading in the parallel passage 1 Timothy 3:8.

3. πρεσβύτιδας. πρεσβῦτις, an aged woman, is only found again in the Greek Bible at 4Ma 16:14. It is interesting to find Epiphanius (Haer. Collyr. 79, n. 3) using the word of the most venerable of the Church Widows (see 1 Timothy 5:9), who were quite distinct from the Deaconesses; he distinguishes the πρεσβῦτις carefully from the πρεσβύτερις or woman ‘elder.’ Here, however, the term πρεσβύτις is used just as πρεσβυτέρα was in 1 Timothy 5:2; it was not yet a distinct office. But we have in this and the corresponding passage in 1 Timothy the beginnings of what came to be an organised ministry in a later age.

ὡσαύτως. see on 1 Timothy 2:9.

ἐν καταστήματι, in demeanour; as compared with καταστολή dress of 1 Timothy 2:9, it points rather to a habit of mind than to outward appearance, as also it does at 3Ma 5:45, the only other place where the word κατάστημα is found in the Greek Bible. Of the Bishop of Tralles Ignatius says that his κατάστημα was itself μεγάλη μαθητεία (Trall. 3), and this, no doubt, is the idea here also.

ἱεροπρεπρεῖς, reverend, or as the A.V. has it “as becometh holiness”; the R.V. “reverent” does not seem to hit the sense, which has reference rather to the effect upon others of their decorous demeanour than to their own respect for sacred things. Yet it is hard to distinguish the two, and the parallel passage 1 Timothy 2:10 ὅ πρέπει γυναιξὶν ἐπαγγελλομέναις θεοσέβειαν in some measure countenances the subjective sense of the word here.

μὴ διαβόλους. see on 1 Timothy 3:6; 1 Timothy 3:11.

μηδὲ οἵνῳ πολλῷ δεδουλωμένας, nor enslaved to much wine, a stronger expression than the corresponding one, 1 Timothy 3:8 (see note thereon), which applies to deacons. The ‘slavery of sin’ is a familiar thought with St Paul (Romans 6:18; Romans 6:22 &c.), and in the case of no sin is the bondage more conspicuous than in the case of drunkenness. It may have been specially necessary to warn the Cretans, λαστέρες� (Titus 1:12), against it.

καλοδιδασκάλους, teachers of that which is good, sc. not in the public assemblies of Christians (1 Timothy 2:12, where see note), but in private ministrations, such as those of Lois and Eunice (2 Timothy 3:15) and those contemplated in the next verse. For the form of the word καλοδιδάσκαλος (ἄπ. λεγ. in the Greek Bible) see the note on ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν (1 Timothy 1:3), and for the force of καλόδ see on 1 Timothy 1:8.