Titus 1

Titus 1:2

In expectation of that infinite reward which God long since promised obscurely to Abraham, and will certainly perform to all his true children, that is, to all believers;

[b] before the world began] Of the word αἰών, that it signifies an age or long space of time, see note [p] on Luke i, by analogy with which αἰώνιος signifies ancient or long ago, but not always eternal; and χρόνοι αἰώνιοι here being spoken not of a decree, but of a promise of God’s, and such as cannot be broken without lying, (which must therefore signify such a promise which was made to somebody, and not only his secret unrevealed purpose,) cannot well be interpreted of eternity, but of some long time ago, under the times of the Old Testament, such as was made to Abraham, Gen. xv. 1. And thus the phrase πρὸ αἰωνίων χρόνων is all one with ἐκ γενεῶν ἀρχαίων, from ancient generations, Acts xv. 21, speaking of Moses’s time. And accordingly αἰώνιον is oft used in the Old Testament, either for that which is likely to last long, or whose beginning is long ago. So Prov. xxii. 28, αἰώνιον for ancient, Esa. lviii. 12, and lxi. 4, αἰώνιον, old: Ezech. xxxvi. 2, αἰώνια, ancient. And so 2 Tim. i. 9, though the scope of the place will allow it to signify eternity, God’s mercy being decreed to us in Christ before all time, yet the phrase of itself signifies no more than before ancient times, long while ago.

Titus 1:3

And hath in that season which he thought fit to design for it, most clearly now revealed by the preaching of the gospel, that which was committed to me as an apostle by Christ’s immediate appointment,

Titus 1:4

To Titus, whom I first converted to the faith, preaching it according to Christ’s appointment, to Gentiles (such was he) as well as Jews: Grace—

Titus 1:5

In our passage through Crete, I constituted thee bishop there, that thou mightest dispose and settle those things there which I, by the shortness of my stay, omitted to settle, and to ordain bishops in each city of that island (see note [b] Acts xi, and note [b] ch. xiv.) according to the directions which I then mentioned to thee how they should be qualified.

Titus 1:6

To wit, that thou shouldst ordain none but such as should be approved by testimony of the church (see note [b] Acts vi.) to be under no scandalous sin, which live not with a second wife after putting away the first, (see note [b] 1 Tim. iii.) whose children, if they have any, have all received the faith, (for if he bring not up his own children to be Christian, what hope is there that he will be fit to convert others, and to rule in the church?) and live temperately and regularly.

as becomes one that hath the government of God’s family intrusted to him; not selfwilled—

Titus 1:9

Holding fast that doctrine which is agreeable to that which from Christ and us you have been taught and seen exemplified, viz. that the truth of God must be confessed, though with the greatest hazards and losses, contrary to what is now infused by the new Gnostic teachers; that so he may be able to instruct all in the truth, or to comfort those that for their constancy to the faith are under any pressure, and convince the heretics of the falseness of their popular, grateful, carnal doctrine.

Titus 1:10

For there are already many unruly persons, that resist our doctrine, and vent idle fancies of their own, and seduce and corrupt others from the truth to their corrupt ways, which will be the ruining of them: and these are those especially that stand up as advocates for the observation of the Jewish law.

Titus 1:11

And these are not to be permitted to vent their deceits; for they seduce, where they come, whole families at once, and infuse abominable doctrines into them, and thereby make advantage to themselves.

Titus 1:12

And these are such kind of men as those which Epimenides, a Cretian poet and learned man, (see note [n] Luke i.) said that island was wont to be full of, liars, bestial, luxurious people.

[c] prophet of their own] Of Epimenides the author of this verse, it is known that he took upon him to teach men how the judgments of heaven, when at any time they fell on a city, pestilence, famine, &c., were to be averted. A story of this is notorious in Diogenes Laërtius, and is set down note [g] on Acts xvii. And so saith Theophylact of him, that as he was one of the wisest men among the Grecians, so he was θειασμοῖς καὶ ἀποτροπιασμοῖς προσέχων, “one that set himself to find out and teach others what ceremonies were to be used to avert the anger of the gods,” (which they that did are called among the heathens priests and diviners, 1 Sam. vi. 1, 2.) He further saith of him, that he did seem μαντικὴν κατορθοῦν, to rectify divination, and accordingly, saith Laertius, θεοφιλέστατος, one very much in the favour of the gods; but this, as it is elsewhere shewn at large, (note [n] on Luke i.) not referring only to prediction of things to come, but directing them in their duty for present actions. This gives an account of the reason why he is here called a prophet of their own, one so deemed by them. And as most such were among them, so was he, a poet also. Of him saith Chrysostom and Theophylact, that seeing the Cretians build a sepulchral monument to Jupiter, and worship him as one that was or had been but a man, ζηλώσας, in zeal and jealousy and rage for that god of his, he writes these verses to Jupiter, beginning.

Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεύσται, which Chrysostom makes up into a distich, καὶ γὰρ τάφον, ὦ ἄνα, σείο Κρῆτες ἐτεκτήραντο, σὺδ’ οὐ θάνες, ἐστὶ γὰρ αἰεί.

“The Cretans are always liars, for they have built thee a tomb, but thou hast never died, but shalt continue for ever.” But it must here be observed, that these verses are in Callimachus’s hymn πρὸς Δία, which that they are the very lines here referred to in Epimenides doth no way appear but by Chrysostom’s conjecture; nay, the contrary must be concluded by the κακὰ θηρία that here follows, but not in

[d] slow bellies] What is here meant by γαστέρες ἀργαὶ is matter of some question. Phavorinus seems to have read it γαστέρας ἀργοί, and renders it γαστρίμαργοι, great eaters; and so indeed that word, proverbially used for gluttons, seems to be made of γαστήρ, belly, and ἀργός, not in the notion of βραδύς, slow or idle, but of ταχύς, swift, (so saith Hesychius, ἀργούς, ταχείς, and in Homer κύνες ἀργοί are swift, eager dogs,) and so signifies greedy devourers. And to this sense hath Guil. Canterus with full confidence interpreted the phrase, Nov. Lect. I. 1. c. 15. But that which to me seems more facile, is to render γαστέρες bellies, as Hesychius doth, τροφῆς μονας ἐπιμελούμενοι, they that take no care but for food: and so the word bellies will be proverbially taken for gluttonous persons, as in Hesiod’s Theogonia, from whence the latter part of this verse seems to be imitated and lightly changed,

Ποιμένες ἀγραυλοί, κακ’ ἐλέγχει γαστέρες οἷον.

And then ἀργαί, idle, annexed to it, will signify all those sins of uncleanness consequent to gluttony, which are also proverbially expressed by idleness, as in Sodom, Ezech. xvi. 49, and so seem to signify here among the Gnostic heretics in Crete.

Titus 1:15

[e] Unto the pure—] The meaning of this verse will be discerned by considering the doctrine of the Gnostics, (which here, and through this whole Epistle, he arms them against,) that talked much of Christian liberty, and extended it to the partaking of idol feasts, and to all the filthiness of the flesh, calling themselves the spiritual and perfect, to whom all these things were lawful and indifferent or free. These are they that pervert the truth, ver. 14, teach things which are not lawful, ver. 11, and are μεμιασμένοι, polluted, in the latter end of this verse. Now the notion of lawful or indifferent is here expressed by pure, that is, that hath no impurity or turpitude in it, defileth not the conscience. Of which sort of things the apostle here pronounceth that to them that live pure lives, and unspotted from the pollutions of the flesh, these indifferent things may thus freely be used. And this