Tituschapter 1
16 verses · Paul, by tradition · AD 63 to 65 · Paul's letters
Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness,
Introduction
Paul, by tradition, Paul's letters, Titus Overview.
Paul wrote this letter to a younger coworker he had left on Crete with a job half done. The island had many towns, new believers in each, and no settled leaders. Its people carried a reputation for lying that the rest of the Greek world repeated as a joke. This first chapter hands Titus a task and a measure for the men he is to choose. Listen for how often the chapter turns to speech, to what is taught, said and denied. Notice also how much of it happens inside a household.
Context
- Who
- Cretan believers in scattered towns with no settled leadership
- What
- Paul's greeting to Titus, his charge to appoint elders in every town of Crete, the qualities those elders must have, and a warning about the teachers already at work.
- Where
- Written to Titus on the island of Crete, where Paul had left him to organize the churches town by town.
- When
- After Paul's first imprisonment in Rome, about AD 63 to 65 by the usual dating.
- Why
- To give scattered new churches leaders who could hold the teaching and silence those who were upsetting whole households.
Historical context
Crete was a long mountainous island famous for its many towns, the old saying gave it a hundred cities, and for a bad reputation. Cretans were proverbial liars in the Greek world; there was even a verb meaning 'to cretize,' that is, to lie. The line Paul quotes about Cretans being liars and lazy gluttons comes from one of their own poets.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Rome had taken the island in the previous century and joined it with Cyrene in North Africa as a single province. Piracy had been the old trade, and the mountain towns were hard to govern from anywhere.
There was a Jewish population on Crete as well, Josephus mentions it, and Acts lists Cretans among those in Jerusalem at Pentecost. That explains why the trouble in this chapter comes specifically from teachers of the circumcision peddling Jewish myths and human commandments.
Appointing elders in every town meant riding a circuit. There was no central council; each town's congregation needed its own recognized men, and Titus's job was to install them and leave.
Significance
The first hearers had just been quoted their own national insult, from their own poet, and told it was true. That takes the ground out from under any claim that they were fine as they were.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The elder list gave scattered groups a way to survive without an apostle: known men, with households everyone could see, who could hold the teaching and shut down the talkers.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Promised by the God Who Cannot Lie
Titus 1:1-2
a servant of God: The hope of eternal life rests on a promise that God, who cannot lie, made before time began. The promise is dated before creation, when no creature yet existed to receive it.
Titus 1:1
“Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ - See notes at Rom 1:1; compare the notes at 1Co 9:1-5. According to the faith of God’s elect - Compare the Rom 8:33 note; Eph 1:4 note; 2Ti 2:10 note. The meaning of the word rendered here, “according to” - κατὰ kata - is, probably, with reference to; that is, he was appointed to be an apostle with respect to the faith of those whom God had chosen, or, in order that they might be led to believe the gospel.”
4 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Titus 1:1
“An apostle of Jesus Christ - According to the knowledge of the truth. We serve God according to the measure of our faith: we fulfil our public office according to the measure of our knowledge. The truth that is after godliness - Which in every point runs parallel with and supports the vital, spiritual worship of God; and, indeed, has no other end or scope.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Titus 1:1
"Paul the servant of God: an apostle however of Jesus Christ." In the Epistle to the Romans he begins thus: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle," but in this one he calls himself "a servant of God," while he is "an apostle of Jesus Christ." For if the Father and the Son are one, and he who believes in the Son, believes also in the Father, that servitude of the Apostle Paul is to be referred, indiscriminately, either to the Father or to the Son.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Tituspatristic
Titus 1:1
“Paul, a servant of God,.... So James styles himself, Jas 1:1 and others of the apostles, as Peter and Jude, call themselves the servants of Jesus Christ; and as does the Apostle Paul also; and both seem to be esteemed by them as high characters and titles of honour, by which they chose to be described and known.”
Titus 1:1
“Here he is described by his relation and office: A servant of God, not in the general sense only, as a man and a Christian, but especially as a minister, serving God in the gospel of his Son, Rom. i. This is a high honour; it is the glory of angels that they are ministering spirits, and sent forth to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation, Heb. i.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
who cannot lie: The hope rests on who made the promise. God cannot lie, and Clement of Rome draws the lesson that nothing is impossible with God except to lie. Chrysostom reads before time began as a plan fixed from the beginning and never changed.
Titus 1:2
“The faith and godliness of Christians lead to eternal life, and give hope and well-grounded expectation of it; for God, that cannot lie, hath promised it. It is the honour of God that he cannot lie or deceive: and this is the comfort of believers, whose treasure is laid up in his faithful promises.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verse
Titus 1:2
“In hope of eternal life - In expectation of a state of being and well being which should last through eternity, when time should be no more. This includes, not only the salvation of the soul and its eternal beatification, but also the resurrection of the body. This was a point but ill understood, and not very clearly revealed, under the Mosaic law; but it was fully revealed under the Gospel, and the doctrine illustrated by the resurrection and ascension of Christ.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Titus 1:2
“But God can neither be in doubt, nor can he be deceived. For he only is in doubt who is ignorant of the future. One who has predicted one thing while something else has happened is deceived about the future. Not so with God. What is plainer than the fact that Scripture states the Father to have said one thing of the Son and that the same Scripture proves another thing to have taken place? The Son was beaten, he was mocked, was crucified and died.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.17.215-16patristic
Titus 1:3-4
He has made His word evident: Paul holds his trust by the command of God our Savior in verse 3. In verse 4 the same title is given to Christ Jesus our Savior, one title for each person.
Titus 1:3
“Pay close attention to the text and order of the reading: for eternal life, which the not false God promised before eternal ages, is none other than the Word of God. For he has manifested his word in due time, saying: Therefore the word itself, which was in the beginning with the Father, must be that life eternal which he had promised; and the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Tituspatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Titus 1:3
“What creature dares ask, "Why no sooner?" Manifested his word - Containing that promise, and the whole "truth which is after godliness." Through the preaching wherewith I am intrusted according to the commandment of God our saviour - And who dares exercise this office on any less authority?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Titus 1:3
“Preaching is a work appointed by a God as a Saviour. See a proof here of Christ's deity, for by him was the gospel committed to Paul when he was converted ( Acts ix. 10, 14, 15 ), and again when Christ appeared to him, v. 17-21 .”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
my true child: Titus was a Gentile, and Paul calls him a true child. Jerome notes that the Greek word for true means legitimate or genuine, a son by right.
Titus 1:4
“And the Apostle writes to his beloved son Titus, which is called in Greek, γνησίῳ τέκνῳ: and cannot be explained in Latin: for γνήσιος means this rather, when someone is called faithful and proper, and (so to speak) legitimate or genuine without comparison to another. From which we understand that there was much difference even among the sons of Paul, that he had some γνησίους, that is, most genuine, closely connected to himself, and born of true marriage and free procreation; but others almost from a handmaid and from Hagar, who cannot receive inheritance with the free son, Isaac.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Tituspatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Titus 1:4
“To Titus, mine own son - Him whom I have been the instrument of converting to the Christian faith; and in whom, in this respect, I have the same right as any man can have in his own begotten son. See the preface; and see on 1Ti 1:2 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Titus 1:4
“AMONG the friends of Paul, Titus was one of the most useful and one of the best beloved. Paul was the Apostle to the Gentiles and Titus was a Gentile. I should suppose that both his parents were Gentiles and, in this respect, he differed from Timothy, whose mother was a Jewess. Timothy would well serve as a preacher to the circumcision, but Titus would be a man after Paul's heart as a preacher to the Gentiles.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2439: “Five Links in a Golden Chain” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Appoint Elders in Every Town
I left you in Crete: Paul left Titus in Crete to set in order what was unfinished and to appoint elders in every town. The plural shows elders set in place town by town.
Titus 1:5
“For this cause left I thee in Crete - Compare the notes, 1Ti 1:3. On the situation of Crete, see the Introduction, Section 2. That thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting - Margin, “left undone.” The Greek is: “the things that are left;” that is, those which were left unfinished; referring, doubtless, to arrangements which had been commenced, but which for some cause had been left incomplete. Whether this had occurred because he had been driven away by persecution, or called away by important duties demanding his attention elsewhere, cannot now be determined.”
3 more voices on this verse
Titus 1:5
"For this reason, I left you in Crete, so that you would correct what was lacking." It is the dignity of the apostolic Church to lay the foundation, which no one can lay except the architect. And the foundation is none other than Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 3:11). Those who are lesser artisans can build houses upon the foundation.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Tituspatristic
Titus 1:5
“Ordain elders - Appoint the most faithful, zealous men to watch over the rest. Their character follows, Tit i, 6-9. These were the elders, or bishops, that Paul approved of;-men that had living faith, a pure conscience, a blameless life.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Titus 1:5
Elder is the term of dignity in relation to the college of presbyters; bishop points to the duties of his office in relation to the flock. From the unsound state of the Cretan Christians described here, we see the danger of the want of Church government. The appointment of presbyters was designed to check idle talk and speculation, by setting forth the "faithful word."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Titus 1:6-7
An elder must be blameless: Verse 7 repeats the elder's standard under a second title, overseer. So presbuteros in verse 5 and episkopos in verse 7 name one office.
Titus 1:6
“I have set down these things which I have been told are to be avoided, but the Apostle is the Master of virtues, and he teaches that gainsayers are to be convicted with patience, who lays down that one should be the husband of a single wife, not in order to exclude him from the right of marriage (for this is beyond the force of the precept), but that by conjugal chastity he may preserve the grace of his baptismal washing; nor again that he may be induced by the Apostle's authority to beget children in the priesthood; for the…”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · Letters, Epistle 63, Sections 62-63patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Titus 1:6
“If any be blameless - See the notes on 1Ti 3:2, etc. Having faithful children - Whose family is converted to God. It would have been absurd to employ a man to govern the Church whose children were not in subjection to himself; for it is an apostolic maxim, that he who cannot rule his own house, cannot rule the Church of God; 1Ti 3:5.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Titus 1:6
“The immorality of the Cretan professors rendered this a necessary requisite in one who was to be a reprover: and their unsoundness in doctrine also made needful great steadfastness in the faith (Tit 1:9, 13). having faithful children--that is, believing children. He who could not bring his children to faith, how shall he bring others? [BENGEL].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Verse 5 named these men elders, and verse 7 calls the same man an overseer. Matthew Henry reads the two titles as one office, since no standing officer stood above them. A steward runs a house he does not own.
Titus 1:7
"For it is necessary that a bishop be without blame, as the steward of God: not arrogant, not prone to anger, not given to wine, not a striker, not greedy for filthy lucre." Therefore, it is required among stewards that a faithful person be found: and not eating and drinking with drunkards, striking slaves and maidservants; but uncertain of the return of God, and giving food to his servants in due season. But between the stewards and the servile, this is the only difference: that a servant is appointed over his servants.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Tituspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Titus 1:7
“For a bishop must be blameless - 1Ti 3:2. As the steward of God - See notes, 1Co 4:1-2. A man, in order to perform the duties of such an office, should be one against whom no accusation could lie. Not self-willed - Compare 2Pe 2:10. The word - αὐθάδης authadēs - does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament.”
Titus 1:8-9
he must be hospitable: Verse 9 gives the office its task: to encourage others by sound teaching and refute those who contradict it. The word for sound, hugiaino, means healthy, and it opens a thread that runs through the whole letter.
Titus 1:8
"But [he should be] hospitable, a lover of good, chaste, just, holy, continent or abstinent, one who holds to the correct doctrine, faithful in speech, so that [he] is able to comfort [others] in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict it." Above all, hospitality is required of a future bishop. For if everyone wishes to hear it from the Gospel: "I was a stranger and you took me in" (Matt. 25:35): how much more should a bishop, whose house should be a common inn for everyone!
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Tituspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Titus 1:8
“A lover of hospitality - Φιλοξενον· A lover of strangers. See the note on 1Ti 3:2. Instead of φιλοξενον, one MS. has φιλοπτωχον, a lover of the poor. That minister who neglects the poor, but is frequent in his visits to the rich, knows little of his Master’s work, and has little of his Master’s spirit. A lover of good men - Φιλαγαθον· A lover of goodness or of good things in general. Sober - Prudent in all his conduct. Just in all his dealings. Holy in his heart.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
hold firmly to the faithful word: The elder holds the teaching he received and uses it two ways. It encourages the church and refutes those who contradict it. Origen notes that Paul here makes the bishop a teacher, and Chrysostom asks how a man unskilled in speaking could answer the objectors.
Titus 1:9
“To Titus he gives commandment that among a bishop's other virtues [which he briefly describes] he should be careful to seek a knowledge of the Scriptures. A bishop, he says, must hold fast "the faithful word as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." In fact, want of education in a clergyman prevents him from doing good to any one but himself.”
Jerome · written before 420 · LETTERS 53.3patristic
1 more voice on this verse
Titus 1:9
“I have kept the faith, was Paul's comfort ( 2 Tim. iv. 7 ), and not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God; there was his faithfulness, Acts xx. (2.) Here is the end: That he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort, and to convince the gainsayers, to persuade and draw others to the true faith, and to convince the contrary-minded.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Empty Talkers on Crete: Rebuke Them Sharply
Titus 1:10-11
For many are rebellious: The deceivers must be silenced because they undermine entire households, and verse 11 names their motive as dishonorable gain. A household overturned by one false teacher is the danger that elders appointed in every town are set to prevent.
Titus 1:10
“There are many unruly - Persons who will not receive the sound doctrine, nor come under wholesome discipline. Vain talkers - Empty boasters of knowledge, rights, and particular privileges; all noise, empty parade, and no work. Deceivers - Of the souls of men by their specious pretensions. They of the circumcision - The Judaizing teachers, who maintained the necessity of circumcision, and of observing the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law, in order to the perfecting of the Gospel.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Titus 1:10
"There are many unruly persons, vain talkers, and deceivers"; "unruly" being predicated of both vain talkers and deceivers. vain talkers--opposed to "holding fast the faithful word" (Tit 1:9). "Vain jangling" (1Ti 1:6); "foolish questions, unprofitable and vain" (Tit 3:9). The source of the evil was corrupted Judaism (Tit 1:14).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
who must be silenced: Barnes notes that the Greek word for silenced is used nowhere else in the New Testament and means to curb, as with a bridle. These teachers were overturning whole households for money. Matthew Henry holds that faithful ministers must oppose such men in good time.
Titus 1:11
“Whose mouths must be stopped - The word here rendered stopped - ἐπιστομιζειν epistomizein - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means, properly, to check, or curb, as with a bridle; to restrain, or bridle in; and then, to put to silence. It is, of course, implied here that this was to be done in a proper way, and in accordance with the spirit of the gospel. The apostle gives Timothy no civil power to do it, nor does he direct him to call in the aid of the civil arm.”
1 more voice on this verse
Titus 1:11
“In case of obstinacy indeed, breaking the peace of the church, and corrupting other churches, censures are to have place, the last means for recovering the faulty and preventing the hurt of many. Observe, Faithful ministers must oppose seducers in good time, that, their folly being made manifest, they may proceed no further.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Titus 1:12-13
one of their own prophets: Paul quotes Epimenides, a sixth century Cretan poet: Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. The Greek verb kretizein, to Cretanize, meant to lie, so the line was a proverb the culture already told of itself.
Titus 1:12
“One of themselves, even a prophet of their own - This was Epimenides, who was born at Gnossus, in Crete, and was reckoned by many the seventh wise man of Greece, instead of Periander, to whom that honor was by them denied. Many fabulous things are related of this poet, which are not proper to be noticed here. He died about 538 years before the Christian era. When St. Paul calls him a prophet of their own, he only intimates that he was, by the Cretans, reputed a prophet.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
rebuke them sternly: Paul agrees with the Cretan poet and turns the saying into an order. The sharp word aims at their health. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that gentleness would not reclaim offenders this stubborn, and Chrysostom ties the sharpness to their deceitful habits.
Titus 1:13
“Therefore rebuke them sharply, he says, they are liars and evil beasts, and lazy gluttons, who deceive with falsehoods and thirst for the blood of the deceived like wild animals, and not working in silence, eat their own bread, whose god is their belly, and their glory is in their shame, and rebuke them so that they may be sound in the faith. Speak of the health of faith and what follows: that old men be sober, honorable, chaste, sound in the faith and love and patience, to whose faith the health of teachings is also called.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Tituspatristic
pay no attention to Jewish myths: The deceivers teach Jewish myths, the speculative genealogies met already in 1 Timothy, and the commands of men, human rules dressed as law. Both come from men who have rejected the truth.
Titus 1:14
“Those who have this health of faith and doctrine and sound words, do not heed Jewish fables and the commands of men who turn away from the truth. Let us acquiesce for a short time to the Jews, and listen patiently to their foolishness, and then we will understand what the Jewish tales are which have no authority from Scripture, nor any rational basis, but are the product of the fables and imaginations of certain people about animals and legends, of whom Isaiah prophesied, saying: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Tituspatristic
3 more voices on this verse
Titus 1:14
“Not giving heed to Jewish fables - See on 1Ti 1:4 (note); 1Ti 4:7 (note). Commandments of men - The injunctions of the scribes and Pharisees, which they added to the law of God. That turn from the truth - For such persons made the word of God of none effect by their traditions. Sometimes the verb αποστρεφομαι signifies to be averse from, slight, or despise. So, here, the persons in question despised the truth, and taught others to do the same.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Titus 1:14
“Not giving heed to Jewish fables,.... Concerning God himself, the angels, and the creation of man; concerning the giving of the law at Mount Sinai; concerning the Messiah and his earthly kingdom, and the feast that will be made for the righteous in his days, which will consist of flesh, fish, and fowl, Behemoth, Leviathan, and Zuz, and of wine kept in the grape from the foundation of the world; and concerning the rolling of the dead through the caverns of the earth at the resurrection, with a multitude of other things which were traditionally received.”
Titus 1:14
“He gives the reasons of this, from the liberty we have by the gospel from legal observances, and the evil and mischief of a Jewish spirit under the Christian dispensation in the last two verses . To good Christians that are sound in the faith and thereby purified all things are pure.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Titus 1:15-16
all things are pure: To the pure, all things are pure describes a clean conscience. The verse supplies its own guard: to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, since both their minds and their consciences are defiled.
Titus 1:15
“But to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure - The apostle joins defiled and unbelieving, to intimate that nothing can be clean without a true faith: for both the understanding and conscience, those leading powers of the soul, are polluted; consequently, so is the man and all he does.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Titus 1:15
“All things made by God are beautiful and pure, for the Word of God has made nothing useless or impure.… But since the devil's darts are varied and subtle, he contrives to trouble those who are of simpler mind, and tries to hinder the ordinary exercises of the brethren, scattering secretly among them thoughts of uncleanness and defilement.”
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · Letters to Amun 48patristic
Titus 1:15
“I SHALL not profess, this evening, to enter into a full exposition of this text, for there are many deep things in it, and many intricate questions are suggested by it. I shall only make some observations upon it intended to be of practical service. This text has often been misused—made to mean what was never in the Apostle's mind. He does not mean that a wrong thing becomes right to a pure-minded man—that is the very opposite of what he does mean!”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3521: “A Searching Test” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
They profess to know God: The chapter ends on a gap between word and deed. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the denial as practical, since these teachers claimed a real knowledge of God. The phrase unfit for any good deed sets up the good works that fill the next two chapters.
Titus 1:16
"They confess to know God, but deny Him with their deeds: abominable and disobedient, and disqualified for every good deed." Those whose mind and conscience are defiled confess to know God, but deny Him with their deeds, according to what is said in Isaiah: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me (Isaiah 29:13). Therefore, just as someone who honors with their lips but moves far away in heart, so anyone confessing God with their words but denying Him with his deeds is.
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Tituspatristic
3 more voices on this verse
Titus 1:16
“They profess that they know God,.... That there is a God; that there is but one, only, true, and living God, the God of Israel, as professed by the Jews; and that this God is Father, Son, and Spirit, as believed by the Christians: for the persons the apostle speaks of were judaizing Christians. Yet this knowledge was but notional; it lay in theory and profession only; they had not a spiritual experimental knowledge of God in Christ, which only has eternal life connected with it: but in works they deny him.”
Titus 1:16
“They profess that they know God - He still speaks concerning the unbelieving Jews, the seducing teachers, and those who had been seduced by their bad doctrine. None were so full of pretensions to the knowledge of the true God as the Jews. They would not admit that any other people could have this knowledge; nor did they believe that God ever did or ever would reveal himself to any other people; they supposed that to give the law and the prophets to the Gentiles would be a profanation of the words of God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Titus 1:16
“And disobedient -- apeitheis, unpersuadable and unbelieving. They might do divers things; but it was not the obedience of faith, nor what was commanded, or short of the command. To every good work reprobate, without skill or judgment to do any thing aright.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A charge to appoint elders whose hold on the faithful word would check the idle talk of the false teachers, as Jamieson, Fausset & Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Five faults and six virtues | Verse 7 lists five things an overseer must not be, and verse 8 lists six things he must be: hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. The five faults are self-absorption, temper, drink, violence and greed. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown set the self-willed man against the lover of hospitality, the harsh temper against the open door.Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Titus 1:7. | Titus 1:7, Titus 1:8 |
| The household on both sides | The elder is tested at home in verse 6, where his children are believers and not open to accusation. The false teachers are judged at home too, since in verse 11 they undermine entire households. Jerome reads the rule of one's own house as first requiring of the household the conduct a man teaches others.Jerome, Letters 69.9, on Titus 1:6. | Titus 1:6, Titus 1:11 |
| A pagan poet quoted as a witness | Verse 12 quotes a Cretan poet against the Cretans, and verse 13 says the testimony is true. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that Crete had no wild beasts, so the poet's jibe was that its people took their place. Chrysostom raises three questions about the line, who said it, why Paul quoted it and whether it is correct, and answers each.John Chrysostom, Homily on Titus 3, on Titus 1:12. | Titus 1:12, Titus 1:13 |
The structure
6 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter runs in three parts. Verses 1 to 4 are the greeting, long for so short a letter, and they tie Paul's office to the hope of eternal life promised by God, who cannot lie. Verses 5 to 9 give the charge and the list of qualities for an elder. Verses 10 to 16 describe the men the elders will have to answer.
The two halves mirror each other. The elder holds firmly to the faithful word in verse 9, and the false teachers are full of empty talk in verse 10. The elder's household is above accusation, and the teachers undermine entire households. The chapter opens on the God who cannot lie and closes on men who profess to know God and deny Him by their actions.
The debate
The phrase the husband of but one wife in verse 6 is read in more than one way. Tertullian and the Apostolic Constitutions read it as a man married only once, whether his wife is living or dead. Chrysostom reads it as a guard against teachers who condemned marriage, showing that a married man may hold the office. Jerome, in his letter on the office, reads verses 5 and 7 as proof that elder and overseer name one office, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold the same, with elder as the title of dignity and overseer as the title of the work.
Where it stands in the letter
The last words of the chapter call the false teachers unfit for any good deed. The phrase good works or good deeds returns in 2:7, 2:14, 3:1, 3:8 and 3:14, so the chapter sets the measure the rest of the letter applies to every believer.
Keep studying
Studies10
People and groups1
Places1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Titus 1:5 and John Chrysostom, Homily on Titus 2, on Titus 1:5.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2439: “Five Links in a Golden Chain” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Clement of Rome, FIRST LETTER OF CLEMENT 27; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Titus; John Chrysostom; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, AGAINST CELSUS 3.48.