Titus 2:5

οἰκουργούς. So the best MSS., א*ACD2*EG, seem to require us to print; also Clement (§ 1), in a passage which recalls this verse, has τὰ κατὰ τὸν οἶκον σεμνῶς οἰκουργεῖν ἐδιδάσκετε. Of the word οἰκουργός only one other instance has been produced, and that from Soranus, a medical writer of the second century. The rec. text with the bulk of MSS. (אcD2cHKLP) and Fathers has οἰκουρούς, which certainly gives more point to the whole passage. The Latin and Syriac Versions both seem to support it, the Vulgate rendering being domus curam habentes. See exegetical note.

5. σώφρονας, soberly discreet; see on 1 Timothy 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8 above.

ἁγνάς, chaste, probably in its primary sense. see on 1 Timothy 4:12; 1 Timothy 5:22; cp. 2 Corinthians 11:2.

οἰκουργούς, ἀγαθάς. Some excellent critics, e.g. Lachmann, Tregelles and Weiss, remove the comma, and treat ἀγαθάς as qualifying the word which precedes it. This, however, is to disturb the rhythm of the sentence, and is not in accordance with the ancient interpretations of the passage. We shall see that ἀγαθάς may very well be taken absolutely, as all the words preceding it are taken.

The question then arises, Are we to read οἰκουργούς or οἰκουρούς? Diplomatic evidence certainly favours the former, and the passage quoted in the critical note from Clement of Rome may also be alleged to support the opinion that οἰκουργούς was the primitive reading. But the resultant meaning (apparently, for it was an extraordinarily rare word, as the crit. note shews) workers at home is not very impressive. And when we remember that the alternative reading οἰκουρούς keepers at home, supplies an attribute of good wives by which Greek writers generally set great store (Field supplies a large number of apt illustrations) we are much tempted to hold that it was the word used by St Paul. Wetstein quotes Philo, de Exsecr. 4, and the words are worth reproducing as illustrating the whole passage before us: γυναῖκας ἃς ἡγάγοντο κουριδίας ἐπὶ γυησίωυ παιδῶν σπορᾷ, σώφρονας οἰκουροὺς καὶ φιλάνδρους. Another passage from Philo (de Prof. 27) is interesting. Of a virtuous wife he says κοσμιότητι καὶ σωφροσύνῃ καὶ ταῖς ἄλλαις διαπρέπουσιν�, ἑνὶ προσέχουσαν�. In short, οἰκουρούς is the word we should naturally expect in such a catalogue from a writer in St Paul’s circumstances; οἰκουργούς is of very doubtful meaning, nor is it supported by such overwhelming external evidence as to require its adoption. Hence we are disposed to hold by the A.V. keepers at home (or perhaps ‘keepers of their homes’) in preference to the R.V. workers at home.

ἀγαθάς. The Vulgate translates benignas, ἀγαθός thus having an absolute meaning akin to what it has at Matthew 20:15; 1 Peter 2:18, and (according to the most probable interpretation) Romans 5:7, where it is contrasted with δίκαιος. ἀγαθάς means here, then, kind (the rendering of the R.V.) or kindly.

ὑποτασσομένας τοῖς ἰδίοις�, submitting themselves, each to her own husband, advice which St Paul had given before in almost identical words (Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18). See for this unemphatic use of ἴδοις on 1 Timothy 6:1, and cp. Titus 2:9 below.

Whatever may be thought of the ‘subjection of women’ there can be no doubt that St Paul’s belief was that the man is, and ought to be, ‘head of the wife’ (Ephesians 5:23). see on 1 Timothy 2:11.

ἴνα μὴ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ βλασφημῆται. Quoted as in Romans 2:24 (cp. also 1 Timothy 6:1) from Isaiah 52:5. Christianity has undoubtedly emancipated woman from the state of degradation in which Greek civilisation and Hebrew prejudice were alike content to leave her; but the first preachers of the Gospel sanctioned no sudden revolution in domestic life any more than in civic life. For Christianity was a religious movement before it became either a social or political movement; and it was the constant fear of its early exponents that it might be misinterpreted as loosening the bonds of society and of the state, and that so the Word of God, i.e. the Gospel (see Addit. Note on 1 Timothy 4:5), might be blasphemed. see on 1 Timothy 6:1.

iv. Young men