Titus 1:2

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 knowledge were doubtless great things in themselves, but they stood connected with something that might be called greater still; they rested on a background of promise and hope, which, in a manner, stretched from eternity to eternity, having God's primeval promise for its origin, and a participation in His everlasting life for its end. What an elevated thought! And how peculiarly fitted, both to enhance the spiritual attainments which carried with them the realization of such a hope, and to exalt the ministry which was appointed to bring them, instrumentally, within the reach of men! The expression πρὸ χρόνων αἰωνίων can scarcely be rendered otherwise than before eternal times, though being connected with a promise, not with a purpose simply or decree, of God, it must be understood of eternity in the looser sense; that is, of a period indefinitely remote before the ordinary historical epochs of the world. So Calvin, substantially, and in this expressly differing from Augustine and Jerome, who would carry the matter up beyond all temporal epochs, and lose themselves in the thought of ages strictly eternal. “Here, however (says Calvin), because the discourse is of a promise, it does not comprise all ages, so as to lead us beyond the creation of the world; but it teaches that many ages had elapsed from the time that the promise of salvation was given.” Or, as he again puts it, that the promise “in the long order of ages is very ancient, because it began presently after the foundation of the world.” In short, it might be said to date from beyond the ages, which to man's view seem to stretch into a kind of interminable past. The characteristic of God as in His nature the antithesis of all that is false or deceptive ἀψευδὴς incapable of lying, is designed to inspire confidence in the word of promise: though given so long beforehand, it is fresh and living still, having its root in the unchangeable, ever-faithful Jehovah.