Titus 3:3

ἦμεν γάρ ποτε καὶ ἡμεῖς : The connexion is: you need not suppose that it is hopeless to imagine that these wild Cretan folk can be reclaimed. We ourselves are a living proof of the power of God's grace. Ephesians 2:3 sqq. is an exact parallel. Cf. also 1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 5:8; Colossians 3:7; 1 Peter 4:3.

ἀνόητοι : insipientes, foolish, in the sense in which the word is used in Proverbs (e.g. Proverbs 17:28), without understanding of spiritual things.

πλανώμενοι : The analogy of 2 Timothy 3:13 suggests that this is passive, deceived, not neuter, errantes (Vulg.), though of course there are many examples of this latter sense in the N.T.

ποικίλαις : See note on 2 Timothy 3:6.

διάγοντες : sc βίον, as in 1 Timothy 2:2.

στυγητοί κ. τ. λ.: odibiles, odientes invicem (Vulg.). This marks the stage of degradation, before it becomes hopeless: when vice becomes odious to the vicious, stands a self-confessed failure to produce happiness.