Titus 3:5

ἅ. This reading is guaranteed by the majority of the uncials, viz. אAC*D2*G, and by 17; the rec. text has ὦν, an obvious correction, with CbD2cEKLP and many cursives and Fathers.

τὸ αὐτοῦ ἔλεος. So אRevelation 17 and the preponderance of patristic testimony; instead of the neuter, the rec. text has τὸν αὐτοῦ ἔλεον with D2bKL.

λουτροῦ. A stands alone in inserting τοῦ before λουτροῦ.

5. οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων τῶν ἐν δικαιοσύνη ἃ ἐποιήσαμεν ἡμεῖς, not by works done in righteousness which we did ourselves. This is the side of St Paul’s teaching so prominent in the Second Group of his Epistles (cp. Romans 9:11; Galatians 2:16 &c.). No more pregnant statement of the doctrines of the Gospel is found anywhere in his writings than we find in these verses. see on 1 Timothy 2:10 and 2 Timothy 1:9.

For the reading ἄ see the critical note.

ἀλλὰ κατὰ τὸ αὐτοῦ ἔλεος ἔσωσεν ἡμᾶς, but according to His own mercy He saved us. The position of αὐτοῦ makes it emphatic, and marks its contrast with ἡμεῖς of the preceding clause.

That man’s salvation is ‘according to’ God’s mercy is deep-rooted in the O.T.; cp. Ps. 108:26, σῶσόν με κατὰ τὸ μέγα ἔλεός σου.

διὰ λουτροῦ παλινγενεσίας καὶ�, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

That the ‘washing of regeneration’ is the Water of Baptism is undoubted; see Ephesians 5:26 καθαρίσας τῷ λουτρῷ τοῦ ὕδατος. It is the instrument (διά) of salvation (cp. 1 Peter 3:21 ὅ καὶ ὑμᾶς�), the means, that is, through which we are placed in a ‘state of salvation,’ in union with the mystical Body of Christ; cp. Galatians 3:27. For λουτρόν ‘washing,’ cp. Song of Solomon 4:2; Sir 34:25.

Two constructions are grammatically possible. (1) διά may govern λουτροῦ and also ἀνακαινώσεως, ‘through the washing of regeneration and through the renewing of the Holy Spirit,’ as the margin of the R.V. and, by its punctuation, the A.V., suggest. So it is taken by Tyndale, “by the fountain of the New Birth and with the renewing of the Holy Ghost”; and, of ancient versions, the Peshito also takes the words thus. Indeed D2*E*G d e g bear witness to the insertion in the text of διά before ἀνακαινώσεως. Or, (2) we may take ἀνακαινώσεως (with the Greek Fathers generally) as a second genitive after λουτροῦ, the meaning being ‘through a washing which was a washing of regeneration and of renewal of the Holy Spirit.’ This is the rendering of the Vulgate, “per lavacrum regenerations et renovationis Spiritus sancti,” and of the Bohairic and Armenian versions, and is adopted by the R.V. Both (1) and (2) being admissible in grammar, (2) seems to preserve better the balance of the sentence, and to bring out better the double function, as it were, of the baptismal water, which is not only the instrument of the New Birth (cp. John 3:5), but a pledge of the abiding grace of the Holy Ghost. It is this second aspect of baptismal grace, the Renovation of the Spirit, which is prominent in Confirmation. παλινγενεσία is, as it were, a ‘new creation’ (cp. Matthew 19:28, the only other place where the word is found in the N.T.); ἀνακαίνωσις (cp. Romans 12:2) is the daily renewal of grace which the Holy Spirit gives; cp. 2 Corinthians 4:16.

The Christmas Day Collect (while leaning to interpretation (1) above) supplies a good devotional paraphrase, where we pray that “we being regenerate, and made God’s children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by His Holy Spirit.”