Preface to the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Titus.
CLA_TIT.PDF, source PDF p. 3
Editorial note: Source collation note — paragraph 30: “cut off the cherethims (והכרתי את כרתים literally, i will destroy”; “nation of the cherethites, (גוי כרתים goi kerethim, the nation”; “25:16, we find והכרתי את כרתים vehicratti eth kerethim, which”. source PDF page 6: “cut off the Cherethims כרתים את והכרתי literally, I will destroy”; “nation of the Cherethites, כרתים גוי goi Kerethim, The nation”; “25:16 we find כרתים את והכרתי vehicratti eth Kerethim which”. Compared with CLA_TIT.PDF PDF p. 3, CLA_TIT.PDF PDF p. 6. The source-font or layout comparison does not securely establish every letter, mark or local sequence in these passages. The flagged language readings or layout are retained; the original source pages should be consulted for these specific readings. Additional-source investigation: an automated comparison of surrounding English text located possible corresponding passages in OCR from separately digitized printed volumes. The linked scan pages are research locators; their images have not been collated for this note's flagged readings. OCR agreement does not verify Greek or Hebrew letters, diacritics, word order, or table layout. The flagged readings or layout remain uncertain. CLA_TIT.PDF, PDF page 3; CLA_TIT.PDF, PDF page 6; Additional printed-scan page locator (OCR context only; flagged reading unverified).
PREFACE TO THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE
APOSTLE TO TITUS.
IT is strange, that of a person who must have attained considerable eminence in the Christian Church, and one to whom a canonical epistle has been written by the great apostle of the Gentiles, we should know so very little. That Titus was a frequent companion of St. Paul in his journeys we have evidence from his epistles; and although this was the case, he is not once mentioned in the book of the Acts of the Apostles!
That he was a Greek, and brought up in heathenism, we learn from Galatians 2:3: “But neither Titus, who was with me, being a GREEK, was compelled to be CIRCUMCISED.” As he was uncircumcised, he was neither a Jew nor a proselyte of justice, and probably was a mere heathen till he heard the Gospel preached by St. Paul, by whose ministry he was converted to the Christian faith; Titus 1:4: “To Titus, my own son, (γνησιω τεκνω, my genuine son,) after the common faith;” which words sufficiently indicate that St. Paul alone had the honour of his conversion. That he was very highly, and consequently deservedly, esteemed by St. Paul, is evident from the manner in which he mentions him in different places: “I had no rest in my spirit till I found Titus, my brother;” 2 Corinthians 2:13. “Nevertheless, God, that comforteth those who are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you: therefore, we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all; and his inward affection is more abundant toward you whilst he remembereth how with fear and trembling ye received him;” 2 Corinthians 7:6, 7, 13, 15. “But thanks be to God, who put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you;” 2 Corinthians 8:16, 23. “Did Titus make a gain of you? Walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? 2 Corinthians 12:18.
Though St. Paul’s preaching the Gospel in Crete is not expressly mentioned anywhere, yet it may be plainly inferred from Titus 1:5: “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city.” It is supposed that this was some time in the year 62, after the apostle was released from his first imprisonment in Rome. But not being able to spend much time in that island, he left the care of the Churches to Titus, and sailed into Judea in the beginning of 63, taking Timothy with him. Having spent some time in Jerusalem, he proceeded to Antioch, comforting and establishing the Churches whithersoever they went. From Antioch he set out on his fifth and last apostolical journey, in which he and Timothy travelled through Syria and Cilicia, and came to Colosse in Phrygia, early in the year 64. On this occasion it is supposed he wrote his Epistle to Titus, in which he desires him to meet him in Nicopolis, as he had intended to spend the winter there; Titus 3:12. From Colosse he went with Timothy to Ephesus, where he left him to regulate and govern the Church; from thence he passed into Macedonia, and probably visited Philippi, and different Churches in that province, according to his intention, Philippians 2:24; and thence to Nicopolis, where he intended to spend the winter, and where he had desired Titus to meet him. See above.
Whether Titus ever left Crete we know not; nor how, nor where, he died. Some traditions, on which little dependence can be placed, say he lived till he was 94 years of age, and died and was buried in Crete. He appears to have been a young man when intrusted with the care of the Churches in this island. In such an extensive district, an aged or infirm man would have been of little service.
Crete, where Titus was resident, to whom this epistle was sent, is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea; it lies between 22° and 27° long. E., and between 35° and 36° lat. N. According to Strabo, it is 287 miles in length; Pliny makes it 270, and Scylax 312. Pliny also states that its greatest breadth is 55 miles; and, as its length was so disproportionate to its breadth, it is called, by Stephanus Byzantinus, the long island. It has the Archipelago to the north, the African sea to the south, the Carpathian to the east, and the Ionian to the west. It is now generally computed to be about 250 miles long, about 50 broad, and 600 in circumference. It was anciently called Æria, Cthonia, Curete, Idæa, and Macaris; but its most common name was Crete. Of it Homer gives us the following description. Odyss., lib. xix. v. 172-179:—
Κρητη τις γαι᾽ εστι, μεσω ενι οινοπι ποντω,
Καλη και πιειρα, περιρρυτος. εν δ᾽ ανθρωποι
Πολλοι, απειρεσιοι, και εννηκοντα ποληες.
Αλλη δ᾽ αλλων γλωσσα μεμιγμενη. εν μεν αχαιοι,
Εν δ᾽ ετεοκρητες μεγαλητορες, εν δε κυδωνες,
Δωριεες τε τριχαικες, διοι τε πελασγοι.
Τοισι δ᾽ ενι κνωσσος μεγαλη πολις. ενθα τε μινως
Εννεωρος βασιλευς διος μεγαλου οαριστης.
Crete awes the circling waves, a fruitful soil;
And ninety cities crown the sea-born isle.
Mix’d with her genuine sons, adopted names
In various tongues avow their various claims.
Cidonians, dreadful with the bended yew,
And bold Pelasgi, boast a native’s due:
The Dorians plumed amidst the files of war,
Her foodful glebe, with fierce Achaians, share.
Cnossus, her capital of high command,
Where sceptred Minos, with impartial hand,
Divided right; each ninth revolving year
By Jove received in council to confer.
POPE.
Though in the above quotation Homer attributes to this island only ninety cities, εννηκοντα ποληες, yet In other places he gives it the epithet of εκατομπολις, hundred cities. And this number it is generally allowed to have had originally; but we must not let the term city deceive us, as in ancient times places were thus named which would rate with villages or hamlets only in these modern times. Few places in antiquity have been more celebrated than Crete: it was not only famous for its hundred cities, but for the arrival of Europa on a bull, or in the ship Taurus, from Phœnicia; for the Labyrinth, the work of Dædalus; for the destruction of the Minotaur, by Theseus; for Mount Ida, where Jupiter was preserved from the jealousy of his father Saturn; for Jupiter’s sepulchre; and above all, for its king, Minos, and the laws which he gave to his people; the most pure, wholesome, and equal, of which antiquity can boast. Their lawgiver, Minos, is said by Homer to have held a conference every ninth year with Jupiter, from whom he is reported to have received directions for the farther improvement of his code of laws; though this be fable, it probably states a fact in disguise. Minos probably revised his laws every ninth year, and, to procure due respect and obedience to them, told the people that he received these improvements from Jupiter himself. This was customary with ancient legislators who had to deal with an ignorant and gross people, and has been practised from the days of Minos to those of Mohammed.
According to ancient authors, Crete was originally peopled from Palestine. Bochart has shown, Canaan, lib. i. c. 15, col. 420, that that part of Palestine which lies on the Mediterranean was by the Arabs called Keritha, and by the Syrians, Creth; and the Hebrews called its inhabitants Kerethi כרתי or Kerethim כרתים which the Septuagint have translated κρητας. Thus Ezekiel 25:16, we find והכרתי את כרתים vehicratti eth Kerethim, which we translate I will cut off the Cherethims, translated by the Septuagint και εξολοθρευσω κρητας, I will destroy the Cretans; and Zephaniah 2:5: “Wo unto the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Cherethites, (גוי כרתים goi Kerethim, The nation of the Kerethim;”) παρποκοι κρητων, Sept., The sojourners of the Cretans. That these prophets do not speak of the island of Crete is plain from their joining the Kerethim with the Pelishtim as one and the same people. “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will stretch out my hand upon the Philistines, and will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the seacoast;” Ezekiel 25:16. “Wo unto the inhabitants of the seacoasts, the nation of the Cherethites; the word of the Lord is against you: O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee;” Zephaniah 2:5. Accordingly it appears that the Kerethim were a part of the Philistines. The Kerethim in Palestine were noted for archery; and we find that some of them were employed by David as his life guards, 2 Samuel 8:18; 15:18; 20:23; 1 Kings 1:38; 1 Chronicles 18:17; in all which places they are called, in our translation, Cherethites; but the Hebrew is כרתי Kerethi, which the Chaldee paraphrase renders קשתיא kashtia, or קשתייה kashtaiyah, archers. See the Targum of Rab. Joseph. It is very likely that the Kerethi or Kerethim of Palestine had their name from their successful use of their favourite instrument the bow, as by it they destroyed many; for כרת carath, in Hebrew, signifies to destroy or lay waste; and hence the paronomasia of the prophet, quoted above, Ezekiel 25:16: “I will cut off the Cherethims (והכרתי את כרתים literally, I will destroy the destroyers.”)
Idomeneus, who assisted Agamemnon in the Trojan war, was the last king of Crete. He left the regency of the island to his adopted son Leucus, who, in the absence of the king, usurped the empire; the usurper was however soon expelled, and Crete became one of the most celebrated republics in antiquity. The Romans at last, under Quintus Metellus, after an immense expenditure of blood and treasure, succeeded in subduing the island, on which he abolished the laws of Minos, and introduced the code of Numa Pompilius. Crete, with the small kingdom of Cyrene, became a Roman province; this was at first governed by proconsul, next by a quæstor and assistant, and lastly by a consul. Constantine the Great, in the new division he made of the provinces of the empire, separated Crete from Cyrene, and left it, with Africa and Illyria, to his third son Constans. In the ninth century, in the reign of Michael II., it was attacked and conquered by the Saracens. About 965, the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, in the following century, defeated and expelled the Saracens, and reunited the island to the empire, after it had been under the power of the infidels upwards of 100 years. It remained with the empire until the time of Baldwin, earl of Flanders, who, being raised to the throne, rewarded the services of Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, by making him king of Thessalonica, and adding to it the island of Crete. Baldwin, preferring a sum of gold to the government of the island, sold it to the Venetians, A. D. 1194, under whose government it was called Candia, from the Arabic [Arabic] Kandak, a fortification, the name which the Saracens gave to the metropolis which they had built and strongly fortified. In 1645, in the midst of a profound peace, it was attacked by the Turks with a fleet of 400 sail, which had on board an army of 60,000 men, under the command of four pachas, to oppose whom the whole island could only muster 3,500 infantry, and a small number of cavalry; yet with these they held out against a numerous and continually recruited army, disputing every inch of ground, so that the whole Ottoman power was employed for nearly thirty years before they got the entire dominion of the island. In this long campaign against this brave people the Turks lost about 200,000 men! Since about the year 1675, the whole island has been under the government of the Turks.
The island of Crete is perhaps one of the most salubrious in the world. The soil is rich, and it produces no ferocious or poisonous animal. The present number of its inhabitants may amount to about 350,200, of whom about 200 are Jews, 150,000 Greeks, and 200,000 Turks. This is a large population for a place under Turkish despotism; but had it the blessings of a free government, it could support at least treble the number. The island is divided into twelve bishops’ sees, under the patriarch of Constantinople; but though the execrable Turks profess to allow to the Christians the free exercise of their religion, yet they will not permit them to repair their churches. It is only by the influence of large sums of gold, paid to the pachas, that they can keep their religious houses from total dilapidation. The Mohammedans have indeed converted most of the Christian temples into mosques. In Candia, the metropolis, they have left two churches to the Greeks, one to the Armenians, and a synagogue to the Jews. Candia is about five hundred miles from Constantinople. Is it not strange that the maritime powers of Europe have not driven those oppressors of the human race from this and every inch of Christian ground which they have usurped by treachery and violence, and which they continue to govern by despotism and cruelty?
Many have observed the affinity that subsists between the First Epistle to Timothy and this to Titus. Both epistles are directed to persons left by the writer to preside in their respective Churches during his absence. Both epistles are principally occupied in describing the qualifications of those who should be appointed to ecclesiastical offices; and the ingredients in this description are nearly the same in both epistles. Timothy and Titus are both cautioned against the same prevailing corruptions; the phrases and expressions in both letters are nearly the same; and the writer accosts his two disciples with the same salutations, and passes on to the business of his epistle with the same transition.
For example:—
Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith-as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, &c.; 1 Timothy 1:1-3.
To Titus, my own son after the common faith-for this cause left I thee in Crete; Titus 1:4, 5.
If Timothy was not to give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions, 1 Timothy 1:4;
Titus was also to avoid foolish questions and genealogies, Titus 3:9; not giving heed to Jewish fables, Titus 1:14.
If Timothy was to let no man despise his youth, 1 Timothy 4:12; Titus was also to let no man despise him, Titus 2:15.
This verbal consent is also observable in some very peculiar expressions, which have no relation to the particular character of Timothy or Titus. The phrase πιστος ο λογος, it is a faithful saying, occurs thrice in the First Epistle to Timothy, once in the second, and once in that to Titus; and in no other part of St. Paul’s writings. These three epistles were probably written towards the close of his life, and are the only epistles written after his first imprisonment at Rome.
The same observation belongs to another singularity of expression, viz. the epithet sound, (υγιαινων,) as applied to words or doctrine. It is thus used twice in the First Epistle to Timothy, twice in the second, and thrice in the Epistle to Titus; besides two cognate expressions, {υγιαινοντας τη πιστει, sound in the faith, and λογον υγιη, sound speech. And the word is not found in the same sense in any other part of the New Testament. The phrase God our Saviour stands in the same predicament. It is repeated three times in the First Epistle to Timothy, and thrice in the Epistle to Titus; but does not occur in any other book of the New Testament, except once in the Epistle of Jude.
Similar terms, though intermixed with others, are employed in the two epistles, in enumerating the qualifications required in those who should be advanced to the station of authority in the Church; compare 1 Timothy 3:2-4 with Titus 1:6-8.
The most natural accounts which can be given of these resemblances, is to suppose that the two epistles were written nearly at the same time, and whilst the same ideas and phrases dwelt in the writer’s mind. The journey of St. Paul to Crete, alluded to in this epistle, in which Titus was left in Crete to set in order the things which were wanting, must be carried to the period which intervened between his first and second imprisonment. For the history of the Acts, which reaches to the time of St. Paul’s imprisonment, contains no account of his going to Crete, except upon his voyage as a prisoner to Rome; and that this could not be the occasion referred to in this epistle, is evident from hence, that when St. Paul wrote this epistle he appears to have been at liberty; whereas, after that voyage, he continued at least two years in confinement. It is agreed that St. Paul wrote his First Epistle to Timothy from Macedonia; and that he was in these parts, i.e. in the Peninsula, when he wrote the Epistle to Titus, is rendered probable by his directing Titus to come to him in Nicopolis. The most noted city of that name was in Epirus, near to Actium; but the form of speaking, as well as the nature of the case, renders it probable that the writer was in the neighbourhood of this city when he dictated this direction to Titus.
Upon the whole, if we be allowed to suppose that St. Paul, after his liberation at Rome, sailed into Asia, taking Crete in his way; and that from Asia, and from Ephesus its capital, he proceeded to Macedonia, and, crossing the Peninsula in his progress, came into the neighbourhood of Nicopolis; we have a route which falls in with every thing. It executes the intention expressed by the apostle of visiting Colosse and Philippi, as soon as he should be set at liberty at Rome. It allows him to leave “Titus at Crete,” and “Timothy at Ephesus, as he went into Macedonia;” and he wrote to both not long after from the Peninsula of Greece, and probably the neighbourhood of Nicopolis; thus bringing together the dates of these two epistles, and thereby accounting for that affinity between them, both in subject and language, which has been above pointed out. Though the journey thus traced out for St. Paul be in a great measure hypothetical, yet it is a species of consistency which seldom belongs to falsehood, to admit of an hypothesis which includes a great number of independent
Joseph Benson
Preface
BEN_VOL8.PDF, source PDF p. 471
EPISTLE OF PAUL THE
APOSTLE TO TITUS.
PREFACE
TITUS was originally a Gentile, and converted to Christianity by St. Paul, as appears from the apostle’s calling him, (Titus 1:4,) “his own son after,” or according to, “the common faith;” though the particular time of his conversion cannot be ascertained. The earliest account which we find of him (for Luke does not once mention his name in the Acts) is in Galatians 2:1, where the apostle informs us he took him with him from Antioch to Jerusalem, to attend the council that was held there, to consider of the question concerning the circumcision of the converted Gentiles, fourteen years after Paul’s own conversion. At which time, it appears, the Judaizers in Jerusalem urged the necessity of having Titus circumcised; but Paul would not suffer him to submit to that rite, that he might not seem to abridge the liberty of the Gentile converts. Some years after this, the apostle sent him to Corinth, as appears from 2 Corinthians 2:13, where his piety and disinterested and zealous preaching of the gospel procured him a kind reception. Coming from thence to Paul, in Macedonia, he brought him such intelligence, concerning the state of the Corinthian church, as gave him the highest satisfaction. And, as Titus had expressed a particular regard for the Corinthians, the apostle thought proper to send him back again to them, that he might edify them by the exercise of his ministry among them, and excite them to finish, without delay, the collection for the poor saints in Judea, which they had begun during Titus’s former visit to them, 2 Corinthians 7:6, 15; 8:6, 16, 17; 12:18. The apostle, it appears, at the same time made him the bearer of his second epistle to them. After this, we hear no more mention of him till he is spoken of, in this epistle, as having been with Paul in Crete, where, it appears, the apostle had preached the gospel with great success; (probably after his first, and before his second, imprisonment at Rome;) Christian churches having been formed in several cities of that island. To which success, it is probable, the labours of Titus had contributed no little, and that he was therefore much beloved by, and had great authority over, the new converts there. On this account, and also because the apostle knew his fidelity and ability for such an office, not judging it proper to remain in the island himself, he left Titus there to superintend these churches, and regulate their affairs. This circumstance shows the high esteem and great affection which the apostle had for Titus; as does also the manner in which he speaks of his discharging the commission he gave him to the Corinthians, and his terming him his “brother, partner, and fellow-helper,” in his second epistle to the members of that church, 2 Corinthians 2:13; 8:23.
Although learned men have thought it probable that this epistle was written during the apostle’s last progress through the Asiatic churches, some time before his second imprisonment at Rome, and, consequently, that it was the last of his epistles, except the second to Timothy; yet nothing can be certainly determined, either as to its date or the place from which it was sent; for, though the spurious postscript supposes it to have been written from Nicopolis, yet the contrary is plainly intimated, Titus 3:12: as the apostle does not say, I propose to winter “here,” (which would have been most natural, if he had resided there when he was writing,) but “there;” which shows he was at that time in some other place. It is plain, however, Titus was at Crete when he received it; being left there, as has been observed, to settle the churches in that island, and ordain elders to minister and preside in them. Accordingly, the greatest part of the epistle is taken up in giving him directions for the more successful discharge of this office among the Cretans; and particularly for his behaviour toward those corrupt Judaizing teachers, who endeavoured to pervert the faith, and disturb the peace of the Christian church everywhere.
This epistle is very similar, as to its tenor and style, to the two epistles to Timothy, and they cast much light upon one another; and are worthy the serious attention of all Christian ministers and churches in all ages. This has four parts: I. The inscription, Titus 1:1-4. II. The instruction of Titus to this effect: 1. Ordain good presbyters: (5-9:) 2. Such as are especially needful at Crete: (10-12:) 3. Reprove and admonish the Cretans: (13-16:)
4. Teach aged men and women; (Titus 2:1-5;) and young men, being a pattern to them; (6-8;) and servants, urging them by a glorious motive: (9- 15:) 5. Press obedience to magistrates, and gentleness to all men; (Titus 3:1, 2;) enforcing it by the same motive: (3-7:) 6. Good works are to be done; foolish questions avoided; heretics to be shunned; 8-11. III. An invitation of Titus to Nicopolis, with some admonitions, 12-44. IV. The conclusion, 15.
Joseph Sutcliffe
St. Paul’s Epistle to Titus.
SUT_VOL5.PDF, source PDF p. 233
ST. PAUL’S EPISTLE TO TITUS.
WIDE and wild are the conjectures of learned men respecting Titus. Where all histories are silent, conjecture should be restrained. Titus was a Greek, and converted, it would seem, under Paul’s ministry, because he calls him his own son: Titus 1:4. He accompanied Paul to Jerusalem, according to Usher in the year fifty two, and was uncircumcised. Galatians 2:3. Paul sent him to Corinth, to enquire into the state of the churches there. 2 Corinthians 12:13. The intelligence being favourable, Paul sent him back, and no doubt by the entreaty of private letters: chap. 7:6-13. Paul left him in Crete to nourish the churches, and establish order of discipline, but certainly not for life, because he afterwards requested him to come to Nicopolis, a city of Epirus. Titus 3:12. It likewise appears that Titus left Rome to go into Dalmatia. 2 Timothy 4:10.
The apostolic men were always bishops, or the chief pastors, wherever they might for a time remain. Ordinations were received through their hands, as from the hands of the holy apostles themselves.
Daniel Whedon
Introduction
WHD_CO14.PDF, source PDF p. 4
TITUS
INTRODUCTION
AS the Epistle to Titus is a sort of abridgment of the First to Timothy, so Titus himself appears like a fainter edition of Timothy. Both were chosen by the Apostle Paul, as young men most likely to be a sort of continuation of himself after his earthly ministry should be closed. Hence his solicitude that they should possess and maintain the true type of his Christian doctrine, morality, and church organization. Paul calls Titus “my partner and fellow helper;” but of Timothy he had said, “I have no other like-minded.” Of Titus we know nothing from the Book of Acts; and learn all we know from four epistles—Galatians, I1 Corinthians, II Timothy, and the present Epistle.
His Latin name, TITUS, indicates, but does not prove, that he was a Roman, as we know he was a Gentile. He was converted from paganism to Christianity by Paul, and so is called by him his “own son.” He went with Paul to the Council of Jerusalem as an uncircumcised Gentile Christian, and was not permitted by Paul to be circumcised. The apostle had, indeed, himself circumcised Timothy, when it was possible so to do, on the ground that circumcision was a matter of indifference; but when, at the Council of Jerusalem, it was claimed by eminent leaders that circumcision should be a permanent part of Christianity, Paul promptly made Titus a test case. And when he was not compelled to be circumcised, the victory of emancipation from Jewish ritualism was decisive. Titus, then, had the conspicuous honour of being the typical uncircumcised Christian Gentile. Thenceforth the Judaistic party slowly waned, until it finally expired. Titus was next employed in a more active mission, in which he won the apostle’s high commendation. Paul, during his long ministry at Ephesus, undertaking to collect a pecuniary contribution in behalf of the poor saints at Jerusalem, sent him, attended by other brethren, on that errand to Corinth. At the same time, being anxious as to the effect of his first severe epistle on the allegiance of the Corinthian Christians, he engaged Titus to ascertain about that matter, and to report in person to him. Under the pressure of failing health, Paul became intensely anxious for Titus to return with his report. He left Ephesus and went northward to Troas, hoping there to see Titus, but no Titus came. He then crossed the Hellespont and passed over into Macedonia, where, to his great joy, Titus appeared, and reported that all was well at Corinth.* The apostle returned him to Corinth, with his Second Epistle, to complete the work of the collections. With such ability and probity did he distinguish himself in this mission, that Paul dared confide to him the high responsibility of organizing and controlling the Christian bodies in the island of Crete.
[* Compare our Introduction to 2 Corinthians.]
But from the mission to Corinth (A.D. 57) to the vicar-apostolate in Crete
(67) was a long interval, during which we catch no glimpse of Titus. Paul had meanwhile passed from middle life to a somewhat premature agedness, and Titus had attained the bloom of manhood. Together they were labouring in Crete, and when St. Paul left the island he left it in charge of Titus. How long after that departure, or from what locality, this epistle was written, cannot be precisely decided. It could not be long, for the epistle describes the work of organization as yet to be completed. It was written, perhaps, from Asia Minor, when the apostle was about to start for Nicopolis, where he proposes to collect a force of Christian preachers. To that assemblage he invites Titus; but whether the latter ever went to Nicopolis we know not. At Nicopolis, it is supposed, St. Paul was apprehended and conveyed to Rome. Titus was with him in his prison at Rome. But before Paul’s trial he departed, doubtless for good reasons, to Dalmatia. There the New Testament record leaves him.†
Traditionally both Dalmatia and Crete claim Titus as their first bishop; the former faintly, the latter boldly. Candia, the modern Cretan capital, professes to be his burial place. There exists an ancient Greek fragment of a “Life and Acts of Titus,” professedly written by Zenas the lawyer, in which Titus is styled Bishop of Gortyna. On the ancient site of Gortyna are the ruins of a magnificent old church of St. Titus. “St. Titus” was the watchword of the Cretans in resisting the invasion of the Venetians. When the Venetians conquered Crete, the antiphonal worship was adopted, in which the Venetians chanted “Holy St. Mark, defend us,” and the Cretans responded, “Holy St. Titus, defend us.” There is extant an able panegyric by Andreas the Cretan, published in 1644, possessing some interest. Andreas tells us that Titus was a descendant of the ancient Cretan judges, Rhadamanthus and Minos; that early in life he obtained a copy of the Hebrew Scriptures and learned the language in a brief time; and that he was present at the Council of Jerusalem. He loftily eulogizes Titus as “the first foundation of the Church of the Cretans; the pillar of the truth; the prop of the faith; the silenceless trumpet of the evangelic preachings; the sublime echo of the tongue of Paul.” All this seems to show, that, however little this epistle compliments the Cretans, the Cretans contrived to be very proud of the epistle. There is an antecedent probability that Titus would, during the rest of his life after the death of Paul, retain a sort of special relation to Crete as its proper apostle, and the specific assignment of his connexion with Gortyna can hardly be rejected as purely fabulous. By its position—a little east of the centre of the Mediterranean—Crete was in the highway of the early Christian missionaries. It had, as our map will show, Palestine and Cyprus on its east; Asia Minor, Patmos, with its sister isles, and Italy, on its north; and Paul touched upon it in his disastrous voyage from Syria to Rome. Cretans were present at the Pentecost; and how early sporadic clusters of Christians existed on the island we can only conjecture. Paul and Titus found them in their dispersed state, and it became the task of Titus, as instructed in this letter, to indoctrinate them in the orthodox faith, to frame them to a Christian morality, and to organize them into a body of efficient Churches.
Paul and Titus must have found in Crete a half-civilized, turbulent people, proud of their supposed antiquity, and intensely patriotic. Homer tells us of “the hundred-citied Crete,” and its pre-historic judges, Minos and Rhadamanthus, were so just as to be appointed, after their death, as judges in Hades. The justice of their ancestors, however, was not inherited by the Cretans, as they were celebrated by the ancient writers for piracy, lying, and every form of dishonesty, and even at the present day they are described as “the worst characters of the Levant.” The island was successively conquered by the Romans, Saracens, Venetians, and Turks, under the last of whom it now is, though aspiring for a union with the kingdom of Greece. The present epistle and the two to Timothy are called the Pastoral Epistles. Their whole tone, style, and peculiar phrases indicate that they were written near the same time, in the advanced age of the apostle, and a mature state of the Church. As a lesser composition covering the same ground, this seems to have been written after the First to
Order of Thought in the Epistle.
WHD_CO14.PDF, source PDF p. 7
Timothy; and as we know that Second Timothy was the last epistle written before St. Paul’s martyrdom, this would, in the order of time, come between the two. As to its authenticity, the same remarks may be applied to it as to First Timothy in our Introduction to that epistle. It is sad to remark, that the Christianity of Paul and Titus proved hardly more successful in forming the Cretan character to a high model than did the justice of Minos and Rhadamanthus. The emphasis with which St. Paul insists on a Gospel which shall reveal itself in external life and character— that shall give honesty to the knave, purity to the unchaste, humanity to the cruel, peaceableness to the turbulent, civilization to the rude and uncouth—is earnest and persistent. He projected the bringing the reckless sailors, the wild mountaineers, and the cheating townsmen of Crete to a civilized Christianity. But with what a dexterity every thing of the practical and life-long element of Christianity can be eluded! Crete belongs now to the “Holy Orthodox Church,” but a Christianized paganism has transformed the legendry of saints into a mythology; a luxuriant ritualism has sought salvation by trinkets and genuflections; a romantic reverence for sacred localities and mementos has substituted itself in place of the downright Christian pieties, virtues, and honesties. As through the ages Christian civilization has advanced, Crete has, doubtless, advanced; yet preserving the same sad relative immorality amid surrounding peoples. ORDER OF THOUGHT IN THE EPISTLE.
Adam Clarke
Preface to the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Titus.
CLA_TIT.PDF, source PDF p. 3
Editorial note: Source collation note — paragraph 30: “cut off the cherethims (והכרתי את כרתים literally, i will destroy”; “nation of the cherethites, (גוי כרתים goi kerethim, the nation”; “25:16, we find והכרתי את כרתים vehicratti eth kerethim, which”. source PDF page 6: “cut off the Cherethims כרתים את והכרתי literally, I will destroy”; “nation of the Cherethites, כרתים גוי goi Kerethim, The nation”; “25:16 we find כרתים את והכרתי vehicratti eth Kerethim which”. Compared with CLA_TIT.PDF PDF p. 3, CLA_TIT.PDF PDF p. 6. The source-font or layout comparison does not securely establish every letter, mark or local sequence in these passages. The flagged language readings or layout are retained; the original source pages should be consulted for these specific readings. Additional-source investigation: an automated comparison of surrounding English text located possible corresponding passages in OCR from separately digitized printed volumes. The linked scan pages are research locators; their images have not been collated for this note's flagged readings. OCR agreement does not verify Greek or Hebrew letters, diacritics, word order, or table layout. The flagged readings or layout remain uncertain. CLA_TIT.PDF, PDF page 3; CLA_TIT.PDF, PDF page 6; Additional printed-scan page locator (OCR context only; flagged reading unverified).
PREFACE TO THE EPISTLE OF PAUL THE
APOSTLE TO TITUS.
IT is strange, that of a person who must have attained considerable eminence in the Christian Church, and one to whom a canonical epistle has been written by the great apostle of the Gentiles, we should know so very little. That Titus was a frequent companion of St. Paul in his journeys we have evidence from his epistles; and although this was the case, he is not once mentioned in the book of the Acts of the Apostles!
That he was a Greek, and brought up in heathenism, we learn from Galatians 2:3: “But neither Titus, who was with me, being a GREEK, was compelled to be CIRCUMCISED.” As he was uncircumcised, he was neither a Jew nor a proselyte of justice, and probably was a mere heathen till he heard the Gospel preached by St. Paul, by whose ministry he was converted to the Christian faith; Titus 1:4: “To Titus, my own son, (γνησιω τεκνω, my genuine son,) after the common faith;” which words sufficiently indicate that St. Paul alone had the honour of his conversion. That he was very highly, and consequently deservedly, esteemed by St. Paul, is evident from the manner in which he mentions him in different places: “I had no rest in my spirit till I found Titus, my brother;” 2 Corinthians 2:13. “Nevertheless, God, that comforteth those who are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus; and not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you: therefore, we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all; and his inward affection is more abundant toward you whilst he remembereth how with fear and trembling ye received him;” 2 Corinthians 7:6, 7, 13, 15. “But thanks be to God, who put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellow helper concerning you;” 2 Corinthians 8:16, 23. “Did Titus make a gain of you? Walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? 2 Corinthians 12:18.
Though St. Paul’s preaching the Gospel in Crete is not expressly mentioned anywhere, yet it may be plainly inferred from Titus 1:5: “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city.” It is supposed that this was some time in the year 62, after the apostle was released from his first imprisonment in Rome. But not being able to spend much time in that island, he left the care of the Churches to Titus, and sailed into Judea in the beginning of 63, taking Timothy with him. Having spent some time in Jerusalem, he proceeded to Antioch, comforting and establishing the Churches whithersoever they went. From Antioch he set out on his fifth and last apostolical journey, in which he and Timothy travelled through Syria and Cilicia, and came to Colosse in Phrygia, early in the year 64. On this occasion it is supposed he wrote his Epistle to Titus, in which he desires him to meet him in Nicopolis, as he had intended to spend the winter there; Titus 3:12. From Colosse he went with Timothy to Ephesus, where he left him to regulate and govern the Church; from thence he passed into Macedonia, and probably visited Philippi, and different Churches in that province, according to his intention, Philippians 2:24; and thence to Nicopolis, where he intended to spend the winter, and where he had desired Titus to meet him. See above.
Whether Titus ever left Crete we know not; nor how, nor where, he died. Some traditions, on which little dependence can be placed, say he lived till he was 94 years of age, and died and was buried in Crete. He appears to have been a young man when intrusted with the care of the Churches in this island. In such an extensive district, an aged or infirm man would have been of little service.
Crete, where Titus was resident, to whom this epistle was sent, is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea; it lies between 22° and 27° long. E., and between 35° and 36° lat. N. According to Strabo, it is 287 miles in length; Pliny makes it 270, and Scylax 312. Pliny also states that its greatest breadth is 55 miles; and, as its length was so disproportionate to its breadth, it is called, by Stephanus Byzantinus, the long island. It has the Archipelago to the north, the African sea to the south, the Carpathian to the east, and the Ionian to the west. It is now generally computed to be about 250 miles long, about 50 broad, and 600 in circumference. It was anciently called Æria, Cthonia, Curete, Idæa, and Macaris; but its most common name was Crete. Of it Homer gives us the following description. Odyss., lib. xix. v. 172-179:—
Κρητη τις γαι᾽ εστι, μεσω ενι οινοπι ποντω,
Καλη και πιειρα, περιρρυτος. εν δ᾽ ανθρωποι
Πολλοι, απειρεσιοι, και εννηκοντα ποληες.
Αλλη δ᾽ αλλων γλωσσα μεμιγμενη. εν μεν αχαιοι,
Εν δ᾽ ετεοκρητες μεγαλητορες, εν δε κυδωνες,
Δωριεες τε τριχαικες, διοι τε πελασγοι.
Τοισι δ᾽ ενι κνωσσος μεγαλη πολις. ενθα τε μινως
Εννεωρος βασιλευς διος μεγαλου οαριστης.
Crete awes the circling waves, a fruitful soil;
And ninety cities crown the sea-born isle.
Mix’d with her genuine sons, adopted names
In various tongues avow their various claims.
Cidonians, dreadful with the bended yew,
And bold Pelasgi, boast a native’s due:
The Dorians plumed amidst the files of war,
Her foodful glebe, with fierce Achaians, share.
Cnossus, her capital of high command,
Where sceptred Minos, with impartial hand,
Divided right; each ninth revolving year
By Jove received in council to confer.
POPE.
Though in the above quotation Homer attributes to this island only ninety cities, εννηκοντα ποληες, yet In other places he gives it the epithet of εκατομπολις, hundred cities. And this number it is generally allowed to have had originally; but we must not let the term city deceive us, as in ancient times places were thus named which would rate with villages or hamlets only in these modern times. Few places in antiquity have been more celebrated than Crete: it was not only famous for its hundred cities, but for the arrival of Europa on a bull, or in the ship Taurus, from Phœnicia; for the Labyrinth, the work of Dædalus; for the destruction of the Minotaur, by Theseus; for Mount Ida, where Jupiter was preserved from the jealousy of his father Saturn; for Jupiter’s sepulchre; and above all, for its king, Minos, and the laws which he gave to his people; the most pure, wholesome, and equal, of which antiquity can boast. Their lawgiver, Minos, is said by Homer to have held a conference every ninth year with Jupiter, from whom he is reported to have received directions for the farther improvement of his code of laws; though this be fable, it probably states a fact in disguise. Minos probably revised his laws every ninth year, and, to procure due respect and obedience to them, told the people that he received these improvements from Jupiter himself. This was customary with ancient legislators who had to deal with an ignorant and gross people, and has been practised from the days of Minos to those of Mohammed.
According to ancient authors, Crete was originally peopled from Palestine. Bochart has shown, Canaan, lib. i. c. 15, col. 420, that that part of Palestine which lies on the Mediterranean was by the Arabs called Keritha, and by the Syrians, Creth; and the Hebrews called its inhabitants Kerethi כרתי or Kerethim כרתים which the Septuagint have translated κρητας. Thus Ezekiel 25:16, we find והכרתי את כרתים vehicratti eth Kerethim, which we translate I will cut off the Cherethims, translated by the Septuagint και εξολοθρευσω κρητας, I will destroy the Cretans; and Zephaniah 2:5: “Wo unto the inhabitants of the seacoast, the nation of the Cherethites, (גוי כרתים goi Kerethim, The nation of the Kerethim;”) παρποκοι κρητων, Sept., The sojourners of the Cretans. That these prophets do not speak of the island of Crete is plain from their joining the Kerethim with the Pelishtim as one and the same people. “Thus saith the Lord God, Behold I will stretch out my hand upon the Philistines, and will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the seacoast;” Ezekiel 25:16. “Wo unto the inhabitants of the seacoasts, the nation of the Cherethites; the word of the Lord is against you: O Canaan, the land of the Philistines, I will even destroy thee;” Zephaniah 2:5. Accordingly it appears that the Kerethim were a part of the Philistines. The Kerethim in Palestine were noted for archery; and we find that some of them were employed by David as his life guards, 2 Samuel 8:18; 15:18; 20:23; 1 Kings 1:38; 1 Chronicles 18:17; in all which places they are called, in our translation, Cherethites; but the Hebrew is כרתי Kerethi, which the Chaldee paraphrase renders קשתיא kashtia, or קשתייה kashtaiyah, archers. See the Targum of Rab. Joseph. It is very likely that the Kerethi or Kerethim of Palestine had their name from their successful use of their favourite instrument the bow, as by it they destroyed many; for כרת carath, in Hebrew, signifies to destroy or lay waste; and hence the paronomasia of the prophet, quoted above, Ezekiel 25:16: “I will cut off the Cherethims (והכרתי את כרתים literally, I will destroy the destroyers.”)
Idomeneus, who assisted Agamemnon in the Trojan war, was the last king of Crete. He left the regency of the island to his adopted son Leucus, who, in the absence of the king, usurped the empire; the usurper was however soon expelled, and Crete became one of the most celebrated republics in antiquity. The Romans at last, under Quintus Metellus, after an immense expenditure of blood and treasure, succeeded in subduing the island, on which he abolished the laws of Minos, and introduced the code of Numa Pompilius. Crete, with the small kingdom of Cyrene, became a Roman province; this was at first governed by proconsul, next by a quæstor and assistant, and lastly by a consul. Constantine the Great, in the new division he made of the provinces of the empire, separated Crete from Cyrene, and left it, with Africa and Illyria, to his third son Constans. In the ninth century, in the reign of Michael II., it was attacked and conquered by the Saracens. About 965, the Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, in the following century, defeated and expelled the Saracens, and reunited the island to the empire, after it had been under the power of the infidels upwards of 100 years. It remained with the empire until the time of Baldwin, earl of Flanders, who, being raised to the throne, rewarded the services of Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, by making him king of Thessalonica, and adding to it the island of Crete. Baldwin, preferring a sum of gold to the government of the island, sold it to the Venetians, A. D. 1194, under whose government it was called Candia, from the Arabic [Arabic] Kandak, a fortification, the name which the Saracens gave to the metropolis which they had built and strongly fortified. In 1645, in the midst of a profound peace, it was attacked by the Turks with a fleet of 400 sail, which had on board an army of 60,000 men, under the command of four pachas, to oppose whom the whole island could only muster 3,500 infantry, and a small number of cavalry; yet with these they held out against a numerous and continually recruited army, disputing every inch of ground, so that the whole Ottoman power was employed for nearly thirty years before they got the entire dominion of the island. In this long campaign against this brave people the Turks lost about 200,000 men! Since about the year 1675, the whole island has been under the government of the Turks.
The island of Crete is perhaps one of the most salubrious in the world. The soil is rich, and it produces no ferocious or poisonous animal. The present number of its inhabitants may amount to about 350,200, of whom about 200 are Jews, 150,000 Greeks, and 200,000 Turks. This is a large population for a place under Turkish despotism; but had it the blessings of a free government, it could support at least treble the number. The island is divided into twelve bishops’ sees, under the patriarch of Constantinople; but though the execrable Turks profess to allow to the Christians the free exercise of their religion, yet they will not permit them to repair their churches. It is only by the influence of large sums of gold, paid to the pachas, that they can keep their religious houses from total dilapidation. The Mohammedans have indeed converted most of the Christian temples into mosques. In Candia, the metropolis, they have left two churches to the Greeks, one to the Armenians, and a synagogue to the Jews. Candia is about five hundred miles from Constantinople. Is it not strange that the maritime powers of Europe have not driven those oppressors of the human race from this and every inch of Christian ground which they have usurped by treachery and violence, and which they continue to govern by despotism and cruelty?
Many have observed the affinity that subsists between the First Epistle to Timothy and this to Titus. Both epistles are directed to persons left by the writer to preside in their respective Churches during his absence. Both epistles are principally occupied in describing the qualifications of those who should be appointed to ecclesiastical offices; and the ingredients in this description are nearly the same in both epistles. Timothy and Titus are both cautioned against the same prevailing corruptions; the phrases and expressions in both letters are nearly the same; and the writer accosts his two disciples with the same salutations, and passes on to the business of his epistle with the same transition.
For example:—
Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith-as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, &c.; 1 Timothy 1:1-3.
To Titus, my own son after the common faith-for this cause left I thee in Crete; Titus 1:4, 5.
If Timothy was not to give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions, 1 Timothy 1:4;
Titus was also to avoid foolish questions and genealogies, Titus 3:9; not giving heed to Jewish fables, Titus 1:14.
If Timothy was to be a pattern, (τυπος,) 1 Timothy 4:12; so was Titus, Titus 2:7.
If Timothy was to let no man despise his youth, 1 Timothy 4:12; Titus was also to let no man despise him, Titus 2:15.
This verbal consent is also observable in some very peculiar expressions, which have no relation to the particular character of Timothy or Titus. The phrase πιστος ο λογος, it is a faithful saying, occurs thrice in the First Epistle to Timothy, once in the second, and once in that to Titus; and in no other part of St. Paul’s writings. These three epistles were probably written towards the close of his life, and are the only epistles written after his first imprisonment at Rome.
The same observation belongs to another singularity of expression, viz. the epithet sound, (υγιαινων,) as applied to words or doctrine. It is thus used twice in the First Epistle to Timothy, twice in the second, and thrice in the Epistle to Titus; besides two cognate expressions, {υγιαινοντας τη πιστει, sound in the faith, and λογον υγιη, sound speech. And the word is not found in the same sense in any other part of the New Testament. The phrase God our Saviour stands in the same predicament. It is repeated three times in the First Epistle to Timothy, and thrice in the Epistle to Titus; but does not occur in any other book of the New Testament, except once in the Epistle of Jude.
Similar terms, though intermixed with others, are employed in the two epistles, in enumerating the qualifications required in those who should be advanced to the station of authority in the Church; compare 1 Timothy 3:2-4 with Titus 1:6-8.
The most natural accounts which can be given of these resemblances, is to suppose that the two epistles were written nearly at the same time, and whilst the same ideas and phrases dwelt in the writer’s mind. The journey of St. Paul to Crete, alluded to in this epistle, in which Titus was left in Crete to set in order the things which were wanting, must be carried to the period which intervened between his first and second imprisonment. For the history of the Acts, which reaches to the time of St. Paul’s imprisonment, contains no account of his going to Crete, except upon his voyage as a prisoner to Rome; and that this could not be the occasion referred to in this epistle, is evident from hence, that when St. Paul wrote this epistle he appears to have been at liberty; whereas, after that voyage, he continued at least two years in confinement. It is agreed that St. Paul wrote his First Epistle to Timothy from Macedonia; and that he was in these parts, i.e. in the Peninsula, when he wrote the Epistle to Titus, is rendered probable by his directing Titus to come to him in Nicopolis. The most noted city of that name was in Epirus, near to Actium; but the form of speaking, as well as the nature of the case, renders it probable that the writer was in the neighbourhood of this city when he dictated this direction to Titus.
Upon the whole, if we be allowed to suppose that St. Paul, after his liberation at Rome, sailed into Asia, taking Crete in his way; and that from Asia, and from Ephesus its capital, he proceeded to Macedonia, and, crossing the Peninsula in his progress, came into the neighbourhood of Nicopolis; we have a route which falls in with every thing. It executes the intention expressed by the apostle of visiting Colosse and Philippi, as soon as he should be set at liberty at Rome. It allows him to leave “Titus at Crete,” and “Timothy at Ephesus, as he went into Macedonia;” and he wrote to both not long after from the Peninsula of Greece, and probably the neighbourhood of Nicopolis; thus bringing together the dates of these two epistles, and thereby accounting for that affinity between them, both in subject and language, which has been above pointed out. Though the journey thus traced out for St. Paul be in a great measure hypothetical, yet it is a species of consistency which seldom belongs to falsehood, to admit of an hypothesis which includes a great number of independent
Joseph Benson
Preface
BEN_VOL8.PDF, source PDF p. 471
EPISTLE OF PAUL THE
APOSTLE TO TITUS.
PREFACE
TITUS was originally a Gentile, and converted to Christianity by St. Paul, as appears from the apostle’s calling him, (Titus 1:4,) “his own son after,” or according to, “the common faith;” though the particular time of his conversion cannot be ascertained. The earliest account which we find of him (for Luke does not once mention his name in the Acts) is in Galatians 2:1, where the apostle informs us he took him with him from Antioch to Jerusalem, to attend the council that was held there, to consider of the question concerning the circumcision of the converted Gentiles, fourteen years after Paul’s own conversion. At which time, it appears, the Judaizers in Jerusalem urged the necessity of having Titus circumcised; but Paul would not suffer him to submit to that rite, that he might not seem to abridge the liberty of the Gentile converts. Some years after this, the apostle sent him to Corinth, as appears from 2 Corinthians 2:13, where his piety and disinterested and zealous preaching of the gospel procured him a kind reception. Coming from thence to Paul, in Macedonia, he brought him such intelligence, concerning the state of the Corinthian church, as gave him the highest satisfaction. And, as Titus had expressed a particular regard for the Corinthians, the apostle thought proper to send him back again to them, that he might edify them by the exercise of his ministry among them, and excite them to finish, without delay, the collection for the poor saints in Judea, which they had begun during Titus’s former visit to them, 2 Corinthians 7:6, 15; 8:6, 16, 17; 12:18. The apostle, it appears, at the same time made him the bearer of his second epistle to them. After this, we hear no more mention of him till he is spoken of, in this epistle, as having been with Paul in Crete, where, it appears, the apostle had preached the gospel with great success; (probably after his first, and before his second, imprisonment at Rome;) Christian churches having been formed in several cities of that island. To which success, it is probable, the labours of Titus had contributed no little, and that he was therefore much beloved by, and had great authority over, the new converts there. On this account, and also because the apostle knew his fidelity and ability for such an office, not judging it proper to remain in the island himself, he left Titus there to superintend these churches, and regulate their affairs. This circumstance shows the high esteem and great affection which the apostle had for Titus; as does also the manner in which he speaks of his discharging the commission he gave him to the Corinthians, and his terming him his “brother, partner, and fellow-helper,” in his second epistle to the members of that church, 2 Corinthians 2:13; 8:23.
Although learned men have thought it probable that this epistle was written during the apostle’s last progress through the Asiatic churches, some time before his second imprisonment at Rome, and, consequently, that it was the last of his epistles, except the second to Timothy; yet nothing can be certainly determined, either as to its date or the place from which it was sent; for, though the spurious postscript supposes it to have been written from Nicopolis, yet the contrary is plainly intimated, Titus 3:12: as the apostle does not say, I propose to winter “here,” (which would have been most natural, if he had resided there when he was writing,) but “there;” which shows he was at that time in some other place. It is plain, however, Titus was at Crete when he received it; being left there, as has been observed, to settle the churches in that island, and ordain elders to minister and preside in them. Accordingly, the greatest part of the epistle is taken up in giving him directions for the more successful discharge of this office among the Cretans; and particularly for his behaviour toward those corrupt Judaizing teachers, who endeavoured to pervert the faith, and disturb the peace of the Christian church everywhere.
This epistle is very similar, as to its tenor and style, to the two epistles to Timothy, and they cast much light upon one another; and are worthy the serious attention of all Christian ministers and churches in all ages. This has four parts: I. The inscription, Titus 1:1-4. II. The instruction of Titus to this effect: 1. Ordain good presbyters: (5-9:) 2. Such as are especially needful at Crete: (10-12:) 3. Reprove and admonish the Cretans: (13-16:)
4. Teach aged men and women; (Titus 2:1-5;) and young men, being a pattern to them; (6-8;) and servants, urging them by a glorious motive: (9- 15:) 5. Press obedience to magistrates, and gentleness to all men; (Titus 3:1, 2;) enforcing it by the same motive: (3-7:) 6. Good works are to be done; foolish questions avoided; heretics to be shunned; 8-11. III. An invitation of Titus to Nicopolis, with some admonitions, 12-44. IV. The conclusion, 15.
Joseph Sutcliffe
St. Paul’s Epistle to Titus.
SUT_VOL5.PDF, source PDF p. 233
ST. PAUL’S EPISTLE TO TITUS.
WIDE and wild are the conjectures of learned men respecting Titus. Where all histories are silent, conjecture should be restrained. Titus was a Greek, and converted, it would seem, under Paul’s ministry, because he calls him his own son: Titus 1:4. He accompanied Paul to Jerusalem, according to Usher in the year fifty two, and was uncircumcised. Galatians 2:3. Paul sent him to Corinth, to enquire into the state of the churches there. 2 Corinthians 12:13. The intelligence being favourable, Paul sent him back, and no doubt by the entreaty of private letters: chap. 7:6-13. Paul left him in Crete to nourish the churches, and establish order of discipline, but certainly not for life, because he afterwards requested him to come to Nicopolis, a city of Epirus. Titus 3:12. It likewise appears that Titus left Rome to go into Dalmatia. 2 Timothy 4:10.
The apostolic men were always bishops, or the chief pastors, wherever they might for a time remain. Ordinations were received through their hands, as from the hands of the holy apostles themselves.
Daniel Whedon
Introduction
WHD_CO14.PDF, source PDF p. 4
TITUS
INTRODUCTION
AS the Epistle to Titus is a sort of abridgment of the First to Timothy, so Titus himself appears like a fainter edition of Timothy. Both were chosen by the Apostle Paul, as young men most likely to be a sort of continuation of himself after his earthly ministry should be closed. Hence his solicitude that they should possess and maintain the true type of his Christian doctrine, morality, and church organization. Paul calls Titus “my partner and fellow helper;” but of Timothy he had said, “I have no other like-minded.” Of Titus we know nothing from the Book of Acts; and learn all we know from four epistles—Galatians, I1 Corinthians, II Timothy, and the present Epistle.
His Latin name, TITUS, indicates, but does not prove, that he was a Roman, as we know he was a Gentile. He was converted from paganism to Christianity by Paul, and so is called by him his “own son.” He went with Paul to the Council of Jerusalem as an uncircumcised Gentile Christian, and was not permitted by Paul to be circumcised. The apostle had, indeed, himself circumcised Timothy, when it was possible so to do, on the ground that circumcision was a matter of indifference; but when, at the Council of Jerusalem, it was claimed by eminent leaders that circumcision should be a permanent part of Christianity, Paul promptly made Titus a test case. And when he was not compelled to be circumcised, the victory of emancipation from Jewish ritualism was decisive. Titus, then, had the conspicuous honour of being the typical uncircumcised Christian Gentile. Thenceforth the Judaistic party slowly waned, until it finally expired. Titus was next employed in a more active mission, in which he won the apostle’s high commendation. Paul, during his long ministry at Ephesus, undertaking to collect a pecuniary contribution in behalf of the poor saints at Jerusalem, sent him, attended by other brethren, on that errand to Corinth. At the same time, being anxious as to the effect of his first severe epistle on the allegiance of the Corinthian Christians, he engaged Titus to ascertain about that matter, and to report in person to him. Under the pressure of failing health, Paul became intensely anxious for Titus to return with his report. He left Ephesus and went northward to Troas, hoping there to see Titus, but no Titus came. He then crossed the Hellespont and passed over into Macedonia, where, to his great joy, Titus appeared, and reported that all was well at Corinth.* The apostle returned him to Corinth, with his Second Epistle, to complete the work of the collections. With such ability and probity did he distinguish himself in this mission, that Paul dared confide to him the high responsibility of organizing and controlling the Christian bodies in the island of Crete.
[* Compare our Introduction to 2 Corinthians.]
But from the mission to Corinth (A.D. 57) to the vicar-apostolate in Crete
(67) was a long interval, during which we catch no glimpse of Titus. Paul had meanwhile passed from middle life to a somewhat premature agedness, and Titus had attained the bloom of manhood. Together they were labouring in Crete, and when St. Paul left the island he left it in charge of Titus. How long after that departure, or from what locality, this epistle was written, cannot be precisely decided. It could not be long, for the epistle describes the work of organization as yet to be completed. It was written, perhaps, from Asia Minor, when the apostle was about to start for Nicopolis, where he proposes to collect a force of Christian preachers. To that assemblage he invites Titus; but whether the latter ever went to Nicopolis we know not. At Nicopolis, it is supposed, St. Paul was apprehended and conveyed to Rome. Titus was with him in his prison at Rome. But before Paul’s trial he departed, doubtless for good reasons, to Dalmatia. There the New Testament record leaves him.†
† [Consult, with our notes, Galatians 2:1, 3; 2 Corinthians 12:18; 8:6, 16-23; 2:12, 13; 7:6-15; 2 Timothy 4:10.]
Traditionally both Dalmatia and Crete claim Titus as their first bishop; the former faintly, the latter boldly. Candia, the modern Cretan capital, professes to be his burial place. There exists an ancient Greek fragment of a “Life and Acts of Titus,” professedly written by Zenas the lawyer, in which Titus is styled Bishop of Gortyna. On the ancient site of Gortyna are the ruins of a magnificent old church of St. Titus. “St. Titus” was the watchword of the Cretans in resisting the invasion of the Venetians. When the Venetians conquered Crete, the antiphonal worship was adopted, in which the Venetians chanted “Holy St. Mark, defend us,” and the Cretans responded, “Holy St. Titus, defend us.” There is extant an able panegyric by Andreas the Cretan, published in 1644, possessing some interest. Andreas tells us that Titus was a descendant of the ancient Cretan judges, Rhadamanthus and Minos; that early in life he obtained a copy of the Hebrew Scriptures and learned the language in a brief time; and that he was present at the Council of Jerusalem. He loftily eulogizes Titus as “the first foundation of the Church of the Cretans; the pillar of the truth; the prop of the faith; the silenceless trumpet of the evangelic preachings; the sublime echo of the tongue of Paul.” All this seems to show, that, however little this epistle compliments the Cretans, the Cretans contrived to be very proud of the epistle. There is an antecedent probability that Titus would, during the rest of his life after the death of Paul, retain a sort of special relation to Crete as its proper apostle, and the specific assignment of his connexion with Gortyna can hardly be rejected as purely fabulous. By its position—a little east of the centre of the Mediterranean—Crete was in the highway of the early Christian missionaries. It had, as our map will show, Palestine and Cyprus on its east; Asia Minor, Patmos, with its sister isles, and Italy, on its north; and Paul touched upon it in his disastrous voyage from Syria to Rome. Cretans were present at the Pentecost; and how early sporadic clusters of Christians existed on the island we can only conjecture. Paul and Titus found them in their dispersed state, and it became the task of Titus, as instructed in this letter, to indoctrinate them in the orthodox faith, to frame them to a Christian morality, and to organize them into a body of efficient Churches.
Paul and Titus must have found in Crete a half-civilized, turbulent people, proud of their supposed antiquity, and intensely patriotic. Homer tells us of “the hundred-citied Crete,” and its pre-historic judges, Minos and Rhadamanthus, were so just as to be appointed, after their death, as judges in Hades. The justice of their ancestors, however, was not inherited by the Cretans, as they were celebrated by the ancient writers for piracy, lying, and every form of dishonesty, and even at the present day they are described as “the worst characters of the Levant.” The island was successively conquered by the Romans, Saracens, Venetians, and Turks, under the last of whom it now is, though aspiring for a union with the kingdom of Greece. The present epistle and the two to Timothy are called the Pastoral Epistles. Their whole tone, style, and peculiar phrases indicate that they were written near the same time, in the advanced age of the apostle, and a mature state of the Church. As a lesser composition covering the same ground, this seems to have been written after the First to
Order of Thought in the Epistle.
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Timothy; and as we know that Second Timothy was the last epistle written before St. Paul’s martyrdom, this would, in the order of time, come between the two. As to its authenticity, the same remarks may be applied to it as to First Timothy in our Introduction to that epistle. It is sad to remark, that the Christianity of Paul and Titus proved hardly more successful in forming the Cretan character to a high model than did the justice of Minos and Rhadamanthus. The emphasis with which St. Paul insists on a Gospel which shall reveal itself in external life and character— that shall give honesty to the knave, purity to the unchaste, humanity to the cruel, peaceableness to the turbulent, civilization to the rude and uncouth—is earnest and persistent. He projected the bringing the reckless sailors, the wild mountaineers, and the cheating townsmen of Crete to a civilized Christianity. But with what a dexterity every thing of the practical and life-long element of Christianity can be eluded! Crete belongs now to the “Holy Orthodox Church,” but a Christianized paganism has transformed the legendry of saints into a mythology; a luxuriant ritualism has sought salvation by trinkets and genuflections; a romantic reverence for sacred localities and mementos has substituted itself in place of the downright Christian pieties, virtues, and honesties. As through the ages Christian civilization has advanced, Crete has, doubtless, advanced; yet preserving the same sad relative immorality amid surrounding peoples. ORDER OF THOUGHT IN THE EPISTLE.
1. Apostolic Title and Address Titus 1:1-4
2. Portraiture of the Suitable Eldership for Crete Titus 1:5-9
3. Contrasted Portraiture of the Cretan Errorists Titus 1:10-16
4. Portraiture of a true Christian Laity under true Teaching Titus 2:1-15
5. Miscellaneous Injunctions Titus 3:1-11
6. Concluding Directions, Personal and Official Titus 3:12-15