THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO TITUS The precise period of St. Paul's visit to Crete for the purpose of preaching the gospel and organizing Christians, as already stated in the INTRODUCTION, is not certainly known. But from the great similarity between certain parts of this epistle and the First Epistle to... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 2. _In hope of eternal life_ ἐπ ʼ ἐλπίδι, on this as the basis. But to what did it form the basis? Was it St. Paul's office as an apostle, or that which it ministered to namely, the faith and knowledge of God's elect? Manifestly, this latter is the more natural reference. That faith and knowled... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 3. The structure of the sentence here has a somewhat irregular appearance; but it is better to leave it so, and give a natural interpretation of the words as they stand, than for the sake of a formal correctness to put a strain upon the meaning. It would have seemed to us, perhaps, the most ord... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 5. _For this cause I left thee behind in Crete, that thou shouldst further set in order the things which are wanting_ general indication of the work which had been assigned to Titus in Crete, which the apostle, for want of time to do it himself, left him behind (ἀπέλιπόν) (The best supported re... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 6. _If any one is blameless_ that is, such an one only as is blameless _husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of profligacy_ (lit. not in accusation of it, in a position that such accusation could be brought), _or unruly._ The qualifications have already been considered at... [ Continue Reading ]
Vers, 7, 8. _For a pastor must be blameless_ δεῖ εἶναι, ought to be so, should not be a pastor unless he is blameless _as Gods steward_: showing at once the original identity of elder and _episcopos_, by the substitution here of the one name for the other, and the weighty reason why he should be of... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 9. Then follows at the close what more especially pertained to the teaching function of his office: _holding fast the faithful word according to the teaching, in order that he may be able with the sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince_ (or reprove) _the gainsayers._ There can be no reas... [ Continue Reading ]
Vers. 10, 11. The apostle now, taking occasion from the last clause in the preceding verse, proceeds to discourse of the peculiar character of the adversaries whom the infant church in Crete had to contend against: _For there are many unruly vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumc... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 12. The apostle now passes on to the Cretans generally. They had in a measure been referred to already; for while persons of the Jewish race had been more particularly noticed, it was only as forming the most troublesome and dangerous class of adversaries to the cause of Christ in Crete. But th... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 14. Further, and with the view especially of securing real soundness of faith, the apostle would have them exhorted not to give heed to _Jewish fables and commandments of men, who turn away from the truth._ The same exhortation substantially was given at 1 Timothy 1:4 and 1 Timothy 4:3. The lyi... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 15. _To the pure all things are pure:_ a great counter principle set over against that on which those Jewish semi-Gnostic sciolists were trading to the perversion of their own and other people's consciences, Judaism in part, and Gnostic asceticism still more, associated moral good and evil with... [ Continue Reading ]
Ver. 16. The description is wound up by a fearful announcement of their morally shipwrecked and hopeless condition: _they confess that they know God, but in works deny [Him] being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate._ The description, it must be borne in mind, relates to t... [ Continue Reading ]