Titus

'One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said' (1:12), and then the line: 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons' (1:12). Paul adds four words that make it worse before they make it better: 'This testimony is true' (1:13). Two things need saying about the source, and both are usually stated too confidently. Ancient writers, including Clement of Alexandria and Jerome in his commentary on this letter, attribute the full hexameter line to Epimenides, a Cretan seer of the sixth century BC. No work of Epimenides survives to check it against. What does survive is the first half, quoted by the poet Callimachus in his Hymn to Zeus in the third century BC, where he throws it at the Cretans for claiming to have the tomb of Zeus on their island. So the attribution to Epimenides is a tradition rather than a text, and the first half of the line is certainly ancient and certainly aimed at Crete. On the sense: the Greek verb meaning to lie could be formed from the island's name, which shows how fixed the reputation was. Paul quotes the line about a specific problem, since the very next words apply it to the teachers he is answering, and the point of the whole letter is that people on Crete are being changed. He quotes pagan writers elsewhere the same way, taking a true sentence from a source he does not otherwise endorse.

Paul and the Poets→

'looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ' (2:13). The question is whether the verse names one person or two. In Greek a single article governs both nouns, and Granville Sharp published in 1798 the observation that when two singular personal nouns of this kind are joined by and under one article, they refer to one person. Later study by Daniel B. Wallace tested the rule across the New Testament and found it holds for that specific construction. Two further supports come from the letter and from Peter. Titus uses Saviour of God three times and of Christ three times, moving between them without explanation, and 2 Peter opens with the same construction, 'our God and the Saviour Jesus Christ' (2 Peter 1:1). This site teaches the deity of Christ at full strength here. The older objection was that Paul does not otherwise call Jesus God, and the answer is that he comes to the same point by other roads, most plainly in Colossians 2:9 and Philippians 2:6, and that John, Hebrews, and Thomas in the upper room say it outright.

The Deity of Christ→

'according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit' (3:5). The word for washing names a bath, and the ancient church read the verse in connection with baptism from very early on. What is argued is how tight the connection is and what carries the saving. The sentence itself settles two things before the argument starts. Salvation comes 'not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves' (3:5), which rules out treating the rite as a work that earns anything, and the source named is mercy. Beyond that the readings differ, and honored teachers hold each of them.

Regeneration→

Scripture first. Older women are to be 'reverent in demeanor, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good' (2:3), 'that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children' (2:4), 'to be sober-minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed' (2:5). The passage gives women a stated teaching office in the congregation with a named subject and named students. What is argued is its scope. Read next to 1 Timothy 2:12 some take it as the boundary, so that women teach women. Others take it as one example of a wider ministry, pointing to Priscilla teaching Apollos with her husband (Acts 18:26), to Philip's four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9), to Phoebe called a servant of her church (Romans 16:1), and to Paul's own statement that in Christ 'there can be no male and female' (Galatians 3:28). The phrase rendered workers at home describes the sphere most ancient women actually worked in, and readers differ on whether it prescribes that sphere or describes it. Honored teachers hold different positions here, Derek Prince among them in Women In The Church, Pts. 1-2, and unity is essential.

Women in Ministry→

Titus requires a man 'having children that believe, who are not accused of riot or unruly' (1:6). The parallel in the first letter to Timothy sets a different-sounding standard, 'one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity' (1 Timothy 3:4). The Greek word at Titus 1:6 can mean believing or faithful, and English versions split on it. If it means believing, the qualification reaches to the children's own faith, which no father can guarantee. If it means faithful, it describes children who are trustworthy and orderly, which matches the Timothy list and matches the rest of the same verse, since Paul immediately explains it by conduct rather than by profession. The practical stakes are real, because churches have disqualified good men over a grown child's choices.

Elders and Deacons→