Titus

THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO

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INTRODUCTION

GENUINENESS.--CLEMENT OF

ROME quotes it

[Epistle to the Corinthians, 2]; IRENÆUS

[Against Heresies, 3.3.4] refers to it as Paul's;

THEOPHILUS OF

ANTIOCH

[To Autolychus, 3.14], quotes it as Scripture. Compare

CLEMENT OF

ALEXANDRIA

[Miscellanies, 1, p. 299]; TERTULLIAN

[The Prescription against Heretics, 6].

TIME AND

PLACE OF

WRITING.--This Epistle seems to have been written

from Corinth [BIRKS], subsequently to his first

imprisonment, when Paul was on his way to Nicopolis

(Tit 3:12)

in Epirus, where he purposed passing the winter, shortly before his

martyrdom, A.D. 67. BIRKS

thinks, from the similarity of the Epistle to Titus and First Timothy,

that both were written from the same place, Corinth, and at dates not

widely apart; First Timothy shortly after coming to Corinth, before he

had planned a journey to Epirus, the Epistle to Titus afterwards. The

journey to Crete and Ephesus for the bearers of his letters would be

easy from Corinth, and he could himself thence easily pass into Epirus.

He had shortly before visited Crete, wherein a Church existed (though

without due organization), the first foundation of which he may have

partly laid at his former visit

(Ac 27:7,

&c.), when on his way to his first imprisonment at Rome. That he

returned to the East after his first imprisonment appears most probable

from

Php 2:24;

Phm 22.

However, there may have been seeds of Christianity sown in Crete, even

before his first visit, by the Cretans who heard Peter's preaching on

Pentecost

(Ac 2:11).

OCCASION OF WRITING.--Corrupt

elements soon showed themselves in the Cretan Church, similar to those

noticed in the Epistles to Timothy, as existing in the Ephesian Church,

Judaism, false pretensions to science, and practical ungodliness. Paul,

on his late visit, had left Titus in Crete to establish Church

government, and ordain presbyters (deacons are not

mentioned). Titus had been several times employed by Paul on a mission

to the Corinthian Churches, and had probably thence visited Crete,

which was within easy reach of Corinth. Hence the suitableness of his

selection by the apostle for the superintendence of the Cretan Church.

Paul now follows up with instructions by letter those he had already

given to Titus in person on the qualifications of elders, and the

graces becoming the old, the young, and females, and warns him against

the unprofitable speculations so rife in Crete. The national character

of the Cretans was low in the extreme, as

EPIMENIDES, quoted in

Tit 1:12,

paints it. LIVY [History, 44.45],

stigmatizes their avarice; POLYBIUS

[Histories, 6.46.9], their ferocity and fraud; and

[Histories, 6.47.5], their mendacity, so much so, that

"to Cretanize" is another name for to lie: they were included in

the proverbial three infamous initials "K" or "C," "Cappadocia, Crete,

Cilicia."

NOTICES OF TITUS.--It is

strange that he is never mentioned by this name in Acts, and there

seems none of those mentioned in that book who exactly answers to him.

He was a Greek, and therefore a Gentile

(Ga 2:1, 3),

and converted by Paul

(Tit 1:4).

He accompanied the apostle on the deputation sent from the Church of

Antioch to Jerusalem, to consult the apostles respecting the

circumcision of Gentile converts

(Ac 15:2);

and, agreeably to the decree of the council there, was not circumcised.

He was in company with Paul at Ephesus, whence he was sent to Corinth

to commence the collection for the Jerusalem saints, and to ascertain

the effect of the First Epistle on the Corinthians

(2Co 7:6-9; 8:6; 12:18),

and there showed an unmercenary spirit. He next proceeded to Macedon,

where he joined Paul, who had been already eagerly expecting him at

Troas

(2Co 2:12, 13,

"Titus my brother,"

2Co 7:6).

He was then employed by the apostle in preparing the collection for the

poor saints in Judea, and became the bearer of the Second Epistle to

the Corinthians

(2Co 8:16, 17, 23).

Paul in it calls him "my partner and fellow helper concerning you." His

being located in Crete

(Tit 1:5)

was subsequent to Paul's first imprisonment, and shortly before the

second, about A.D. 67, ten years subsequent to the

last notice of him in Second Corinthians

(2Co 12:18),

A.D. 57. He probably met Paul, as the apostle

desired, at Nicopolis; for his subsequent journey into Dalmatia, thence

(or else from Rome, whither he may have accompanied Paul) would be more

likely, than from the distant Crete

(2Ti 4:10,

written subsequently to the Epistle to Titus). In the unsettled

state of things then, Titus' episcopal commission in Crete was to be

but temporary, Paul requiring the presence of Titus with himself,

whenever Artemas or Tychicus should arrive in Crete and set him free

from his duties there.

Tradition represents him to have died peaceably in Crete, as

archbishop of Gortyna, at an advanced age.