For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped: men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.” This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.
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Titus 1:10-14 sits inside this longer paragraph.
For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped: men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.” This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.
Parallel Translations
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For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
whose mouths must be stopped: men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake.
One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.”
This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth.
-
For ther are many disobedient and talkers of vanite and disceavers of myndes namely they of the circumcision
whose mouthes must be stopped which pervert whole houses teachinge thinges which they ought not because of filthy lucre.
One beynge of the selves which was a poyet of their awne sayde: The Cretayns are all wayes lyars evyll beastes and slowe belies.
This witnes is true wherfore rebuke them sharply that they maye be sounde in the fayth
and not takynge hede to Iewes fables and commaudmentes of men that turne from the trueth.
Show all 3 translations
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For there are many disobedient and vaine talkers and deceiuers of mindes, chiefly they of the Circumcision,
Whose mouthes must bee stopped, which subuert whole houses, teaching things, which they ought not, for filthie lucres sake.
One of themselues, euen one of their owne prophets said, The Cretians are alwaies liars, euill beastes, slowe bellies.
This witnesse is true: wherefore conuince them sharply, that they may be sound in ye faith,
And not taking heede to Iewish fables and commandements of men, that turne away from the trueth.
Cross-references (70)
- 2 Timothy 4:4 (vv10, 14) and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn away to fables.
- 1 Timothy 5:20 (v13) Those who sin, reprove in the sight of all, that the rest also may be in fear.
- Colossians 2:22 (v14) (all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men?
- Titus 2:2 (v13) that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance:
- 1 Timothy 1:6 (v10) from which things some, having missed the mark, have turned away to vain talking,
Show all 69 cross-references
- 2 Timothy 3:6 (v11) For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
- Galatians 4:9 (v14) But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental…
- 1 Timothy 6:5 (v11) constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself…
- 2 Timothy 4:2 (v13) preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all patience and teaching.
- Titus 2:15 (v13) Say these things and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one despise you.
- 1 John 4:1 (v10) Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the…
- Proverbs 27:5 (v13) Better is open rebuke than hidden love.
- Matthew 15:9 (v14) And in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrine rules made by men.’ ”
- Romans 3:19 (v11) Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world…
- Romans 16:18 (v12) For those who are such don’t serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the…
- 2 Corinthians 13:10 (v13) For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave…
- Titus 3:10 (v11) Avoid a factious man after a first and second warning,
- 2 Peter 2:22 (v14) But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog turns to his own vomit again,” and “the sow that has washed to…
- Psalms 63:11 (v11) But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him will praise him, for the mouth of those who speak lies shall be silenced.
- Isaiah 29:13 (v14) The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from…
- Galatians 2:4 (v10) This was because of the false brothers secretly brought in, who stole in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they…
- 1 Timothy 4:2 (v12) through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron,
- 1 Timothy 4:6 (v13) If you instruct the brothers of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the…
- Titus 1:9 (v11) holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those…
- Psalms 107:42 (v11) The upright will see it, and be glad. All the wicked will shut their mouths.
- Psalms 141:5 (v13) Let the righteous strike me, it is kindness; let him reprove me, it is like oil on the head; don’t let my head refuse it; Yet my prayer is…
- Micah 3:5 (v11) Yahweh says concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; for those who feed their teeth, they proclaim, “Peace!” and whoever doesn’t…
- Mark 7:7 (v14) But they worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
- Acts 17:28 (v12) ‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
- 2 Corinthians 7:8-12 (v13) For though I grieved you with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you grieve, though just…
- Ephesians 4:14 (v10) that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in…
- 1 Timothy 1:4-7 (v14) and not to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than God’s stewardship, which is in faith— but the…
- Titus 1:7 (v11) For the overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward, not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for…
- Isaiah 56:10-11 (v11) His watchmen are blind. They are all without knowledge. They are all mute dogs. They can’t bark— dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber.…
- Jeremiah 8:10 (v11) Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to those who will possess them. For everyone from the least even to the…
- Ezekiel 13:19 (v11) You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to kill the souls who should not die, and to save the…
- Ezekiel 16:63 (v11) that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you…
- Micah 3:11 (v11) Her leaders judge for bribes, and her priests teach for a price, and her prophets of it tell fortunes for money: yet they lean on Yahweh,…
- Luke 20:40 (v11) They didn’t dare to ask him any more questions.
- Acts 11:2 (v10) When Peter had come up to Jerusalem, those who were of the circumcision contended with him,
- Romans 16:17-18 (v10) Now I beg you, brothers, look out for those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which you…
- 2 Corinthians 11:10 (v11) As the truth of Christ is in me, no one will stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
- Galatians 1:6-8 (v10) I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”, but there isn’t another…
- 1 Timothy 6:3-5 (v10) If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and doesn’t consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which…
- 2 Timothy 3:13 (v10) But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
- James 1:26 (v10) If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is…
- 2 Peter 2:1-3 (v11) But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies,…
- 2 Peter 2:15 (v12) forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing;
- Psalms 119:80 (v13) Let my heart be blameless toward your decrees, that I may not be disappointed.
- Matthew 23:13 (v11) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will…
- John 10:12 (v11) He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches…
- Acts 2:11 (v12) Cretans and Arabians: we hear them speaking in our languages the mighty works of God!”
- Acts 20:29 (v10) For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
- 2 Corinthians 11:12-15 (v10) But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from those who desire an occasion, that in which they boast, they may be found…
- Galatians 3:1 (v10) Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified?
- Galatians 4:17-21 (v10) They zealously seek you in no good way. No, they desire to alienate you, that you may seek them. But it is always good to be zealous in a…
- Galatians 5:1-4 (v10) Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul,…
- Philippians 3:2-3 (v10) Beware of the dogs; beware of the evil workers; beware of the false circumcision. For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the…
- 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 (v10) and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be…
- 1 Timothy 1:4 (v10) and not to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which cause disputes, rather than God’s stewardship, which is in faith—
- Hebrews 12:25 (v14) See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we…
- 2 Peter 2:1-2 (v10) But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies,…
- 2 Peter 2:12 (v12) But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are…
- 1 John 2:18 (v10) Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we…
- Jude 1:8-13 (v12) Yet in the same way, these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings. But Michael, the…
- Revelation 2:6 (v10) But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
- Revelation 2:14 (v10) But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling…
- Leviticus 19:17 (v13) “ ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.
- Acts 15:1 (v10) Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can’t be saved.”
69 distinct cross-references across this passage (70 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (23 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv10–14 10 For there are many unruly. After having laid…
10 For there are many unruly. After having laid down a general rule, which ought to be everywhere observed, in order that Titus may be more attentive to adhere to it, he holds out to him the urgent necessity which ought to excite him more than all things else. He warns him that he has to deal with many obstinate and incorrigible persons, that many are puffed up with vanity and idle talk, that many are deceivers; and that therefore they ought to choose, on the other hand, such leaders as are qualified and well prepared to oppose them. For, if the children of this world, when dangers arise, increase their solicitude and watchfulness, it would be disgraceful for us, when Satan is using his utmost efforts to remain careless and inactive, as if we were in a state of peace.
Unruly Instead of (inobedientes) disobedient, which is the rendering in the old translation for ἀνυπότακτοι Erasmus translates it (intractabiles) incorrigible. He means those who cannot endure to be brought to obey, and who throw off the yoke of subjection. He gives the appellation of vain talkers, not only to the authors of false doctrines, but to those who, addicted to ambitious display, occupy themselves with nothing but useless subtleties. Ματαιολογία (vain talking) is contrasted with useful and solid doctrine, and therefore includes all trivial and frivolous speculations, which contain nothing but empty bombast, because they contribute nothing to piety and the fear of God. And such is all the scholastic theology that is found, in the present day, in Popery. Yet he calls the same persons deceivers of minds. It may be thought preferable to view this as relating to a different class of persons; but, for my own part, I think that it means the same class; for the teachers of such trifles entice and fascinate the minds of men, so as no longer to receive sound doctrine.
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Chiefly they who are of the circumcision. He says that they are chiefly of the Jews; for it is highly requisite that such plagues shall be known by all. We ought not to listen to those who plead that we should spare the reputation of this or that individual, when the matter in question is the great danger of the whole Church. And so much the greater danger was to be apprehended from that nation, because it claimed superiority above others on account of the sacredness of its lineage. This is therefore the reason why Paul reproves the Jews more sharply, in order to take from them the power of doing injury.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv10, 12, 13 An applying of the general proposition to a particular:…
An applying of the general proposition to a particular: The Cretans above all others need sharp reprehensions: both because their minds are naturally given to lies and slothfulness, and also because of certain covetous Jews, which under a color of godliness joined partly certain vain traditions, and partly old ceremonies with the Gospel.
Of the Jews, or rather of those Jews, which went about to join Christ and the Law together.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv10–14 10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers…
10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:
Ver. 10. For there are many unruly] Lawless, yokeless, masterless men, untractable, untameable, that refuse to be reformed, hate to be healed. God will hamper these Belialists, 2Sa 23:6.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv10–14 For there are many unruly and vain takers: we…
For there are many unruly and vain takers: we have had both of these words before; the first signifieth stubborn, unruly men; the second, idle, foolish, vain talkers: the apostle saith, that in that age there were many of these.
And deceivers; and such who were deceivers of other men’s souls, or had their own souls deceived.
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Specially they of the circumcision; especially (he saith) the Jews, who mixed the law with the gospel; pressed the necessary observance of their ceremonies, and taught that all the Jews should be saved: of these there were many in Crete, they at this time being scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv10, 12 A reason is here subjoined by our apostle, why…
A reason is here subjoined by our apostle, why Titus should take such special care to fill the church with able guides, namely, because there was a multitude of false teachers dispersed abroad, and scattered up and down everywhere, particularly the judaizing doctors, those of the circumcision, mentioned Act 15:1 who would make Christianity nothing more that a supplement to the law of Moses. These he tells Titus must have their mouths stopped, not by force, for Titus had no power of the sword, but by confutation; he must take care to ordain such as might silence them, though not satisfy them. For mark the efficacy of error, and the power of seduction, they subvert whole houses, they make proselytes without number.
Learn hence, That such is the strength of error, and the weakness and unsteadiness of many Christians, that whole households may be subverted by the most gross deceivers. If the apostle’s converts were thus easily and universally misled, no wonder if ours be so.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv10–14 For there are many unruly,.... Persons who are not…
For there are many unruly,.... Persons who are not subject to the law of God, or Gospel of Christ; whose spirits are not subject to the prophets; and who will not submit themselves to them that have the rule over them, nor attend to the admonitions of the church, nor be brought into any regularity and order; and there were many of this sort, who were not sent forth by Christ, or his churches, but went forth of themselves, and were corrupters of the word; and therefore Christ's ministers ought to hold fast the faithful word, and convince such opposers by sound doctrine;
and vain talkers; who deliver out in their discourses empty, trifling, superficial, and frivolous things; which have no solidity and substance in them, nor do they tend to edification; only great swelling words of vanity, vain jangling and babbling about things to no profit.
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And deceivers; both of themselves and others; who lie in wait to deceive, and are deceitful workers; and by their good words, and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple; and so are dangerous persons, and of pernicious consequence:
especially they of the circumcision; or "of the Jews", as the Ethiopic version renders it; that is, not the unbelieving Jews, but such as professed Christianity, judaizing Christians, who joined Moses and Christ and blended the law and Gospel together; who taught that circumcision, and the observance of other ceremonies of the law, were necessary to justification and salvation; and hereby did a great deal of mischief among the churches.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv10, 11, 12, 14 They of the circumcision - The Jewish converts.
They of the circumcision - The Jewish converts.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv10–14 Verse 10. There are many unruly] Persons who will…
Verse 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.
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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's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv10, 12 Tit 1:10-11. For there are many unruly — Subject…
Tit 1:10-11. For there are many unruly — Subject to no order; and vain talkers — Ματαιολογοι, persons who utter a multitude of foolish and trifling things, especially concerning genealogies and fables; and deceivers — Φρεναπαται, deceived in their own minds, or deceivers of the minds of others; who delude their disciples with false opinions, in order to reconcile their consciences to wicked practices; specially they of the circumcision — Namely, the Jewish teachers, who, though converted to Christianity, taught the necessity of observing the Jewish law, together with faith in Christ, Act 21:20. Whose mouths must be stopped — Namely, by conviction from reason and Scripture; who subvert whole houses — Overthrow the faith of whole families by their false doctrine, and as he seems to mean, carry them over to Judaism; teaching things which they ought not — Which are most false and mischievous; for filthy lucre’s sake — For the sordid purpose of drawing money from their disciples.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv10–14 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and…
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers - There are many persons who are indisposed to submit to authority (see the word unruly in Tit 1:6); many who are vain talkers - who are more given to talk than to the duties of practical religion (see the character of “Talkative,” in the Pilgrim’s Progress); and many who live to deceive others under the mask of religion. They make great pretensions to piety; they are fluent in argument, and they urge their views in a plausible manner.
Specially they of the circumcision - Jews, spoken of here as “of the circumcision” particularly, because they urged the necessity of circumcision in order that men might be saved; Notes, Act 15:1. This proves that there were not a few Jews in the island of Crete.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv10–14 For there are also many. St. Paul here alludes…
For there are also many. St. Paul here alludes principally to the Jews, who were of the circumcision, from whom St. Paul suffered much during the greater part of his life. They constantly enforced the necessity of the new converted Gentiles observing the law of Moses, and of their being circumcised, if they wished to be saved. There were many Jews of this description in Crete; to resist whom, St. Paul here tells Titus he ought to appoint bishops remarkable for their zeal and learning. (Josephus; Socrates, lib. ii. chap. 38. Hist. Eccles.) --- Especially they who are of the circumcision; which shews who were chiefly the false teachers. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv10–14 and--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. "There are many unruly…
unruly--"insubordinate."
and--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. "There are many unruly persons, vain talkers, and deceivers"; "unruly" being predicated of both vain talkers and deceivers.
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vain talkers--opposed to "holding fast the faithful word" (Tit 1:9). "Vain jangling" (Ti1 1:6); "foolish questions, unprofitable and vain" (Tit 3:9). The source of the evil was corrupted Judaism (Tit 1:14). Many Jews were then living in Crete, according to JOSEPHUS; so the Jewish leaven remained in some of them after conversion.
deceivers--literally, "deceivers of the minds of others" (Greek, Gal 6:3).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11–14 11. Mouths must be stopped—Not by physical force, nor…
11. Mouths must be stopped—Not by physical force, nor usually by pure ecclesiastical authority. Yet, while church authority is less peremptory as to what private members believe, it is rightly exerted over what the minister whom it authorizes shall preach. In the present verse the meaning is, that the gainsayers shall be silenced by the ability of the elder to convince. Tit_1:9. Who not only seduce individuals, but subvert, that is, overthrow, (a Greek word physically expressive of overthrowing a building,) whole houses, or families. St. Paul, doubtless, speaks from memory here, of houses like that of the Philippian jailer, all baptized, (Act_16:33;) or like that of Stephanas, baptized by himself, (1Co_1:16;) or like that of Onesiphorus, administering to and sustaining him, (2Ti_1:16;) but houses unlike those in being subverted and drawn from the Church into the Jewish or Gnostic fold.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–14 10–16. The unruly rival teachers are to be repressed
10–16. The unruly rival teachers are to be repressed
10. many unruly] Add men, leaving the pair of attributes to go together, as in the Pauline usage, empty talkers and deceivers of the mind. Both compounds occur only here in N.T.; but the substantive, meaning vaniloquentia, has occurred 1Ti_1:6, where the meaning is defined in what follows, ‘though they understand neither what they say, nor whereof they confidently affirm;’ and the verb, meaning seducit, is used Gal_6:3 and defined by the context ‘if a man thinketh himself to be something when he is nothing.’ Peile translates ‘self-deceivers,’ i.e. visionary enthusiasts, comparing Isa_44:20 and Jas_1:26.
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specially they of the circumcision] Judaizing Christians. Jews from Crete are named among the visitors to Jerusalem Act_2:11, and the Christianising of the island cannot have been quite recent, even from Tit_1:6, ‘having faithful children.’
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv10–14 (10) For there are many unruly and vain talkers…
(10) For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers.—Nominally in the congregations of Christians, but in reality refusing all obedience, acting for themselves, factious, insubordinate. Titus would, alas, discover many such; these often would be found to be possessed of the gift of fluent and deceptive speech, and would deceive many. Professor Reynolds characterises such restless, uneasy spirits as loquacious, restless talkers, “who must say something, and who have broken the peace of many a home and shattered the prosperity of many a church; the multitude of teachers who have nothing true to say is the curse of the kingdom of God.”
Specially they of the circumcision.—Here St. Paul points out to Titus where he must look for the origin of this hostility. These unhappy men evidently did not belong to the stern and rigid Jewish party who hated with a bitter hate all the followers of the Nazarene, but were of the number of those sleepless opponents of St. Paul and his school—the Judaising Christians.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv10–14 Unruly men for unruly and, A.V and T.R. Unruly…
Unruly men for unruly and, A.V and T.R. Unruly (anupotaktoi); see ver. 6. Vain talkers (mataiologoi); only here in the New Testament, not found in the LXX, and rare in classical Greek. (see mataiologia , 1Ti_1:6) Kenologov and kenologia are used in the same sense of "vain, empty, talking." Deceivers (frenapatai); here only in the New Testament, not found in the LXX or in classical Greek literally, soul-deceivers, or, as some take St, self-deceivers (compare frenapataw , Gal_6:3, and for the sense Jam_1:26; but in both these instances the idea of self-deceiving is imported by the context, eauto and kardian autou) Here the word means "deceivers," whoso character is described in 2Pe_2:14 as "beguiling unstable souls." They of the circumcision; Judaizing Christians, the most obstinate and difficult adversaries with whom St. Paul had to cope. (see Galatians passim; Php_3:2, 3, etc.)
Vers. 10-13. The character of the adversaries at Crete.
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They were within the communion of the Christian Church. It was, therefore, all the more necessary that the ministers should be holy, laborious, and uncorrupt.
I THE MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THESE ADVERSARIES. "For there are many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision.
1. They were refractory. Though standing in Church relationships, they refused all obedience, and pursued purely factious and divisive courses, that led to the subversion of discipline and the distraction of families. Such persons mar the prosperity of many a Church.
2. They were vain talkers. Corruption quickly makes its way from the heart to the lips, and flows forth in glib and empty babbling.
(1) There is no allusion here to heresy, for the vain talking is merely opposed to useful and solid doctrine. The teachers were fluent and superficial, speaking, perhaps, great swelling words of vanity, which were of no profit to the hearers.
(2) The tongue was made for speaking, but it is the Lord"s will that it should always he used for iris glory. It ought to be the utterer of the "wisdom that is from above," which is "first pure, then peaceable.
(3) Vain talkers are the pest of Churches and families, sowing the seeds of distrust and turning men"s minds against the gospel.
1. They were deceivers. They deceived others by their good words and fair speeches, their vain speculations and their dexterous arguments, and thus became very dangerous persons.
2. They were of the circumcision" party in the Church.
(1) They were members of the Church, and therefore in a position to do much mischief.
(2) They were Judaizing Christians, who blended the Law and the gospel, teaching that circumcision was necessary to salvation.
(3) They were the persistent enemies of the Apostle Paul through his whole life, and thwarted him in his labors in every part of Asia and Europe.
II THE EFFECT OF THEIR SEDUCTION. "Subverting whole houses." They pursued a process of sapping and mining, subverting the faith, (2Ti_2:18) and bringing whole families to disorder and ruin. It was not a case of mischief done to a few isolated individuals. Thus they undermined the peace and stability of the Church itself.
III THE MOTIVE OF THEIR TEACHING. "Teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre"s sake." The real root of the evil is laid bare by the apostle. It was a sordid love of gain. Therefore the teaching was such as would accommodate itself to the prejudices of men. These men had no regard for God"s honor, for the interest of Christ, or for the welfare of souls; they only sought to increase their worldly substance by gaining popular applause.
1. Money in itself is no evil, for it has no moral character. It is only a blessing or a curse according to the use that is made of it.
2. The love of money is the root of all evil? It leads men to dishonor God, to ignore the claims of truth, to sacrifice the peace of the Church. The Pharisees in our Lord"s time devoured widows" houses. How many people still sacrifice religion so far as they imagine it to conflict with their worldly advancement!
3. The motive of these Cretan adversaries was baser than if it had been mere fanaticism or the love of proselytism. (Mat_23:15)
IV THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE APOSTLE"S STRONG LANGUAGE CONCERNING THEM. "One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons." This testimony is true. These words refer not to "those of the circumcision," but to the inhabitants of Crete, who had generally welcomed the injurious teaching referred to.
1. The apostles quotation of a heathen poet, Epimenides, shows that it is not improper for Christians to study the literature of heathen nations. Classical studies were once, on moral grounds, discouraged by the Church. Calvin says that nothing learned ought to be rejected, even though it should proceed from "the godless.
2. The quotation is the unbiased judgment of a Cretan poet, held in high honor for so-called prophetical gifts. It represents the character of the Cretans in the darkest light, as if to justify a heathen proverb, "The three worst C"s in the world are Cappadocia, Crete, and Cilicia.
(1) "Cretans are always liars." This estimate is fully borne out by profane writers, as well as by the proverb that makes "Cretizing" synonymous with "deception.
(2) They were evil beasts. In allusion to their fierceness, their wildness, their cruelty.
(3) They were "idle gluttons." They were sensual and slothful, corpulent and idle, and therefore fit disciples of teachers whose "god was their belly," and were content to eat the bread of others without working.
3. The apostle endorses this heathen testimony, showing that the Cretans had not changed their national character in six hundred years.
V THE TRUE METHOD OF DEALING WITH THE CRETAN ADVERSARIES. "Whose mouths must be stopped.
1. This does not warrant civil persecution.
2. It warrants the use of cogent arguments to silence gainsayers, such as those by which our Lord silenced the Sadducees and the Pharisees, as well as the use of faithful and stringent discipline to repress ecclesiastical and moral disorders. The adversaries were to be opposed by reason, faithfulness, and love, above all, by the faithful preaching of the gospel in its positive as well as its negative aspects. T.C.
Vers. 10-14. The sins of the sect and the sins of the tribe.
"For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision," etc. In the preceding verses Paul stated one purpose for which he left Titus in Crete, viz. to set in order "the things that are wanting," and to ordain elders in every city. He recognized at once, not only the importance of order in the new community, but also the importance of appointing men who, intellectually and morally, were qualified for its establishment and continuance., In these verses he gives Titus directions as to his aggressive work in Crete. He was to do battle with sin. "For there are many unruly men and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre"s sake." The great work of the gospel minister is to do battle with sin. In the text, sin is referred to as appearing in two aspects, in religious sect and in national character.
I IN RELIGIOUS SECT. "Specially they of the circumcision." These, undoubtedly, are Judaizing Christians, men who pretended to be converted to Christianity, men who sought not only to mingle Judaic elements with the new religion, but to inculcate and disseminate it in that form. Observe the description of sin as it appeared in this religious sect these men of the circumcision. Here is:
1. Factiousness. "Unruly." Not only would they not bow to the established order of the Church, but not to the spirit and principles of the new religion. They would not yield to the masterhood of Christ, the Author and Substance of the gospel; they were stir-willed. They would have a sect of their own.
2. Ostentation. "Vain talkers." Vain, not merely in the sense of proud, but in the sense of emptiness. In truth, as a rule, the emptiest men, intellectually, are at once the most conceited and loquacious. They talk, not for the edification of others, but for the gratification of themselves. Their fluency, whilst it wins the admiration of fools, deludes the ignorant, and disgusts the thoughtful.
3. Falsehood. "Deceivers." All merely nominal Christians are deceivers. They practically misrepresent the doctrines they profess to hold.
4. Mischievousness. "Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert overthrow whole houses." "The translation should ran, "seeing they subvert," etc. There was, indeed, grave cause why these men should be put to silence: the mischief they were doing in Crete to the Christian cause was incalculable. It was no longer individuals that their poisonous teaching affected, but they were undermining the faith of whole families. For an example how Titus and his presbyters were to stop the mouths of these teachers of what was false, comp. Mat_22:34-46, where the Lord, by his wise, powerful, yet gentle words, first put the Sadducees to silence, and then so answered the Pharisees " that neither durst any man from that day ask him any more questions (Dr. Ellicott).
5. Greed. "Teaching things which they ought not, ton filthy lucre"s sake." All the speeches they made, all the influence they exerted, sprang from sordid motives. Sin has a thousand branches and but one root, and that root is selfishness. How many, in what we call the religious world, are found teaching things which they ought not, for "filthy lucre"s sake things that gratify popular taste, that agree with popular prejudice, chime in with the popular thought! All this to fill their pews and to enrich their coffers. Now, these sins which are discovered, in the religious sect are prevalent outside of all religions; but they receive a peculiar color, shape, enormity, and mischievousness when we find them in the religious realm. The devil is less hideous amongst his fellows in hell than he is amongst the sons of God. Hence, to do battle with sin in these religious forms is the grand work of a true preacher; and truly, in this age, and here in England, he will find these sins on every hand. He will see factiousness building up sects, and little sects within sects; ostentation vain speaking, braggardism, sometimes cooing and sometimes bawling, everywhere; falsehood rogues robing themselves in the garb of sainthood, wolves in sheep"s clothing; mischievousness by their empty words and pernicious example subverting whole houses," filling the domestic air with poisonous cant; greed the gospel itself made a trade, and vested interests created in connection with doctrines and doings antagonistic to the life and spirit of him whom they call Master. Ah me! conventional religion is a calumny on the religion of Christ. Never was a Luther wanted in Christendom more than now. He is wanted to substitute the pure gospel of Christ for the denominationalized gospel.
II IN NATIONAL CHARACTER. "One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies idle gluttons." There are three sins mentioned here which seem to have prevailed amongst the Cretans as a race.
1. Lying. "The Cretans are always liars." Who made this charge against the Cretans? Paul says, "One of themselves, even a prophet of their own." The quotation is from a poem on "Oracles," by Epimenides, of Phoestus, who flourished B.C. 600, lived to the age of a hundred and fifty, and was supposed to have been a sleeper in a cave for fifty-seven years. He appears to have deserved the title prophet in the fullest sense. Plato speaks of him as a Divine man. The Cretans were characterized by the sin of lying liars." This expression was quoted by Callimachus in his " Hymn to Zeus," and well known in antiquity. "The very word "to Cretize" (Kretizein), or to play the part of a Cretan, was invented as a word synonymous with "to deceive," "to utter a lie; "just as Corinthiazein, "to play the part of a Corinthian," signified "to commit a still darker moral offence." Some writers suggest that this despicable vice of lying was received as a bequest from the early Phoenician colonists.
2. Sensuality. "Evil beasts." Not only liars, but gross and sensual, living in animalism and for it. All men may be called "beasts" who attend to their animal appetites as means of gratification rather than of relief. He who seeks happiness from his senses rather than from his soul is a beast; he who seeks it from without rather than from within is not better than a beast. The happiness of a true man cannot stream into him from without; it must well up from the depths of his own high thinkings and pure affections. Gluttony. "Slow bellies idle gluttons." Their gluttony made them dull, heavy, and indolent. Such are what may be called tribal or national sins. They were not confined to the Cretans, but for them the Cretans were notorious. These are national. But are these sins extinct in England? Have we no lying here? Our social air is impregnated with falsehood. Have we no sensuality and gluttony? Yes, alas! tens of thousands are every day pampering themselves with luxuries, whilst millions are being starved to death. Here, then, are common sins with which the preacher has to do battle. He has to "rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.
CONCLUSION. A true preacher, then, has no easy task. He has to wage fierce battle with the sins that are around him the sins of the sect and. the sins of the tribe. He is not to pander to men"s tastes, nor to battle with mere opinions and theories, but with sins; he must "resist unto blood, striving against sin." "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv10, 12, 14 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and…
Tit_1:10-11
For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers--The conjunction for showeth that the words following contain a reason of the matter preceding, viz.
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, why the minister should be a man so qualified with able parts, both to maintain the truth and censure the falsehood. The reason is drawn from the description
1. Of teachers, in these two verses; and
2. Of hearers, in the twelfth.
The teachers are described by three arguments.
1. From their indefinite number, there are many, not two or three, who are easily set down, but many.
2. By their adjuncts, which are two.
1. They are disobedient or refractory, such as will not submit themselves to the true doctrine and discipline of the Church.
2. They are vain talkers; that is, such as being given to ostentation and vanity, contemn the study and delivery of sound and profitable doctrine, and search out words and matters of wit and applause, both of them of more sweetness unto the flesh than soundness unto the soul and spirit.
3. By their most dangerous effects, and these also are two.
1. Their deceiving of minds; for which ungodly practice he especially brandeth them of the circumcision; that is, either by metonymy, the Jews themselves circumcised, or else Gentiles Judaising, embracing Jewish opinions, mixing the law and gospel, Moses and Christ, circumcision and baptism together, making indeed an hotchpotch of religion by confounding things that can never stand together. The second effect of them is their subversion of whole houses; that is, they poison and infect whole houses, yea, and where the grounds and foundation of religion hath been laid they overturn and overthrow all. This last effect is declared by two arguments.
1. From the instrumental cause of it, and that is by their false doctrine, teaching things which they ought not.
2. From the final cause of it, that is, covetousness, for filthy lucre sake. Now these teachers being so many, so dangerous and hurtful, their mouths must needs be stopped. Which is a common conclusion set between the two verses, as having reference unto them both, as a common remedy against all the mischief which anyway may be let in by them, and therefore those that are to be admitted into the ministry must be of ability to stop their mouths. (T. Taylor, D. D.)
Hindrances to religion
I. The chief hindrances to religion are often in the church itself. The persons alluded to were members and professed teachers.
1. Words without sincerity are vain.
2. Great attention may be paid to the letter of the law, while its spirit is violated--they of the circumcision.
3. The distinction between good and bad preachers--the former live to preach, while the latter preach to live.
II. Hindrances in the church must be removed. Whose mouths must be stopped.
1. Discipline must be exercised in love.
2. The prosperity of the Church of God must be considered before that of individuals.
3. Every age has its own obstructions to the truth--intemperance, covetousness, selfishness, the chief hindrances of the present.
III. Communities are affected by the conduct of individuals. The characters of men are transferred to their country; here the Cretians became a byword. So, drunken Englishmen abroad, compromise the character of their fellow countrymen. Four vices
1. Untruthfulness.
2. Passion--evil beasts.
3. Sensuality.
4. Slothfulness. (F. Wagstaff.)
The characteristics of false teachers
1. In that the first thing taxed in these false teachers by the apostle is disobedience, we learn that disobedience commonly is the ground of false doctrine. For
1. It is just with God to give up those to errors and delusion that receive not the truth in the love of it, for wheresoever it is received in love obedience cannot but be yielded unto it.
2. The nature of sin is ever to be excusing itself, and is loath to be crossed, although never so justly, but studieth how to defend itself as long as it can, even by wresting the Scriptures, and by taking up one error for the maintenance of another.
3. The tenor of Scripture joineth these two together (2Pe_2:1; 2Pe_2:10; 2Pe_2:12; Act_13:8; Act_13:10; 3Jn_1:9).
II. Preachers who themselves are disobedient unto the word, for most part become in their ministry no better than vain talkers.
1. In regard of themselves, being vain glorious persons, affect applause rather than godly edifying, which is a most vain thing.
2. In respect of their labour, which is all in vain, never attaining the end and right scope of the preaching of the gospel unto salvation; for he that soweth vanity what else can he look to reap?
3. In regard of the hearers, who also spend their pains in vain: they hear a great noise and pomp of words, and a glorious show of human wisdom, which may wrap the simple into admiration, but they are left without reformation; their ear is perhaps a little tickled, but their hearts remain untouched; neither are their souls soundly instructed nor fed with knowledge, but they go away as wise as they came.
These Paul calleth vain talkers and vain janglers (1Ti_1:6), and again, profane and vain babblers, and that justly.
1. Because their puffed discourses proceed from the profanity of their hearts.
2. They are as strange fire from the Lords altar, opposed to that which the Lord hath sanctified to the salvation of His people.
3. They are so far from the edifying of the Church that they cause men to increase unto more ungodliness and profaneness.
III. How did these false teachers deceive mens minds?
1. By suppressing the truth; for by their vain jangling and speaking, liker poets, philosophers, historians, than prophets, apostles, or any successors of theirs, they made a cleanly conveyance of the light from the people, and, withholding the truth and light, they led them from Christ, from the right knowledge of the Scriptures, from sound godliness and religion in judgment and practice, and so they remained as dark in their understanding, as erroneous in their judgments, as froward in their affections, and as wicked in their lives as ever before.
2. By flattery; for they would not deal directly against the sins of the age, as godly ministers do, but deceitfully, that they might not displease; herein imitating Satan himself, who was wont of old to answer in riddles, as he answered Cresus, that if he would transport himself over the river Halys he should overthrow a most mighty kingdom, namely, his own. But Micaiah will not deceive nor flatter with Ahab, although it stand upon his life.
3. By letting men see their estate in false glasses, so as they never see the truth of it, for people taught by fables and novelties think, and are borne in hand, that they are in heavens highway; their souls are brought on sleep, and coming from such frothy discourses, they sit down and please themselves in that they have done their task required, especially if they can bring home a jest or some witty sentence, when perhaps they scarce heard a word of Christ, of their justification, of their mortification, or of their glory.
4. By placing religion in bodily exercises, not in matters of spirit and truth (Col_2:20); thus did the Pharisees in their times, the Papists in these, and whosoever urge the decrees of men more than the commandments of God.
IV. But whose minds are deceived.
1. First their own and then others, for they are blind leaders of the blind, deceiving, and being deceived, and although our apostle expresseth not here who they be that are deceived, yet elsewhere he doth, as Rom_16:18, they deceive the hearts of the simple, and 2Ti_3:6, they lead captive simple women, and 2Pe_2:14, they beguile unstable souls, whence we see that ignorant, inconstant, and unsettled souls, which hand over head receive any doctrine without examination or trial, whose simplicity disableth them to judge between truth and falsehood, and whose levity makes them like shaken reeds, these are the carouses on which such vultures do seize. (T. Taylor, D. D.)
Danger from false teachers
Herodotus tells of a Scythian river having marvellous sweetness till a little bitter mingles with it, and gives it ever after an uncommon bitterness. So evil counsel, in some emergencies of the soul, will poison the whole current of its existence. You may poison a well from which a neighbourhood drinks, and yet be less guilty than to contaminate the flow of eternal thought. There are times when the greatest trust which one human being can repose in another is the confidence of wise direction. Confiding in the integrity of others, men sometimes commit their credit, their wives and children, to their keeping, and are guided by them through fiery coursers over the land, or by steam vessels over the seas; but when a man goes with his soul, and trusts that to what a fellow being may direct, the trust is as momentous as eternity itself. Yet this is done, for as by man came death, so by man comes life. Oh, ye who watch for souls, as every Christian should, see to it that you ask of God that which is profitable to direct, before you point out the way for a deathless mind to travel in. Example is said to speak louder than words. Whose mouths must be stopped
Faithful teachers must oppose seducers
The duty of every faithful minister is, when occasion is offered, timely to oppose himself against seducers, and stop the mouths of false teachers, wherein also the Church ought to back and strengthen him. For
1. The example of Christ must be our precedent, who most bodily and freely vindicated the law from the corrupt glosses and expositions of the Pharisees, and that in His first sermon.
2. In regard of the particular members of the Church, that they may be preserved in soundness from starting away and forsaking of the truth. And this is made one end of the precept; the madness of the false apostles must be made manifest, that they may prevail no longer.
3. In regard of the false teachers themselves; fools, saith Solomon, must be answered, lest they be wise in their own conceit; neither shall the labour be wholly lost upon them, for it shall be a means either to convert them and bring them to the knowledge of the truth, or else so to convince them as they shall be made excuseless. And further, the Church must strengthen every ministers hands in this contending for the faith, and so manifest herself to be the ground and pillar of truth, which is committed to her trust and safe keeping, against all gainsayers. This ministerial duty requireth a great measure of knowledge, and a man furnished with gifts of variety of reading and soundness of judgment.
(1) He must be well read and skilful in the Scriptures, that by them in the first place he may be able to shut the mouth of the adversary.
(2) To all this knowledge is required a sound judgment, that he may be able to infer good and necessary consequence upon the granting of the truth he standeth for, and on the contrary, the absurdities and inconveniences which necessarily follow his adversaries false positions. (T. Taylor, D. D.)
The silencing of evil talkers
Whose mouths must be stopped, does not mean that you are to throw them into an inquisition and gag their mouths, as was, and is, the practice of the Papacy. The heathen persecutors adopted the same method of dealing with the faithful martyrs of the Lord; for, in order to prevent them speaking of His grace, they cut out their tongues. The Moslems have the same bloody principle from their Koran; so that the Pope, the heathen, the grand Turk, are, on principle, persecutors. This is neither taught in our text, nor in any other part of the New Testament. On the contrary, the saints are persecuted, but they never persecute; they are to follow their Lord and Master to the cross, not the example of those who crucified Him. But their mouths must be stopped in a quite different manner from gagging; they must be opposed by reason, faithfulness, and love; their influence must be destroyed by the faithful preaching of the gospel; and if they be members of the Church, they must be silenced by discipline, and if still refractory, cast out of the communion of the faithful. (W. Graham, D. D.)
Stopping foolish speech
The heights and recesses of Mount Taurus are said to be much infested with eagles, who are never better pleased than when they pick the bones of a crane. Cranes are prone to cackle and make a noise (Isa_38:14), and particularly so while they are flying. The sound of their voices arouses the eagles, who spring up at the signal and often make the talkative travellers pay dearly for their impudent chattering. The older and more experienced cranes, sensible of their besetting foible and the peril to which it exposes them, take care before venturing on the wing to pick up a stone large enough to fill the cavity of their mouths, and consequently to impose unavoidable silence on their tongues, and thus they escape the danger. Persons troubled with unruly tongues may learn a lesson from the elder cranes. All Christians ought to bridle their tongues by watchfulness and prayer. The Psalmist formed a noble resolution: I said, I will take heed to my way, that I sin not with my tongue.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v12 Chapter 20
Chapter 20
CHRISTIANITY AND UNCHRISTIAN LITERATURE. - Tit_1:12-13
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THE hexameter verse which St. Paul here cites from the Cretan poet Epimenides is one of three quotations from profane literature which are made by St. Paul. Of the other two, one occurs in 1Co_15:33, "Evil communications corrupt good manners"; and the other in the Apostles speech on the Areopagus at Athens, as recorded in the Acts: {Act_17:28} "For we are also his offspring." They cannot be relied upon as sufficient to prove that St. Paul was well read in classical literature, any more than the quoting of a hackneyed line from Shakespeare, from Byron, and from Tennyson, would prove that an English writer was well acquainted with English literature. It may have been the case that St. Paul knew a great deal of Greek classical literature, but these three quotations, from Epimenides, from some Greek tragedian, and from Cleanthes or Aratus, do not at all prove the point. In all three cases the source of the quotation is not certain. In the one before us the Apostle no doubt tells us that he is quoting a Cretan "prophet," and therefore quotes the line as coming from Epimenides. But a man may know that "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears," is Shakespeare, without having read a single play. And we are quite uncertain whether St. Paul had even seen the poem of Epimenides on Oracles in which the line which he here quotes occurs. The iambic which he quotes in the letter to the Corinthians, although originally in some Greek play (perhaps of Euripides or Menander), had passed into a proverb, and proves even less than the line from Epimenides that St. Paul knew the work in which it occurred. The half-line which is given in his speech at Athens, stating the Divine parentage of mankind, may have come from a variety of sources: but it is not improbable that the Apostle had read it in the "Phaenomena" of Aratus, in which it occurs in the form in which it is reproduced in the Acts. This astronomical poem was popular in St. Pauls day, and he was the more likely to have come across it, as Aratus is said to have been a native of Tarsus, or at any rate of Cilicia. But even when we have admitted that the Apostle had read the "Phaenomena" of Aratus or Cleanthes Hymn to Zeus, we have not made much way towards proving that he was well read in Greek literature. Indeed the contrary has been argued from the fact that, according to the reading of the best authorities, the iambic line in the Corinthians is quoted in such a way as to spoil the scanning; which would seem to show that St. Paul was not familiar with the iambic meter. If that was the case he can scarcely have read even a single Greek play.
But the question is not one of great importance, although doubtless of some interest. We do not need this evidence to prove that the Apostle was a person, not only of great energy and ability, but of culture. There are passages m his writings, such as chapters 13 and 15 in 1 Corinthians, which are equal for beauty and eloquence to anything in literature. Even among inspired writers few have known better than St. Paul how to clothe lofty thoughts in noble language. And of his general acquaintance with the moral philosophy of his age, especially of the Stoic school, which was very influential in the neighborhood of Tarsus, there can be no doubt. Just as St. John laid the thoughts and language of Alexandrian philosophy under contribution, and gave them fuller force and meaning to express the dogmatic truths of the Gospel, so St, Paul laid the thoughts and language of Stoicism under contribution, and transfigured them to express the moral teaching of the Gospel. Cleanthes or Aratus, from one or both of whom one of the three quotations comes (and St. Paul seems to know both sources, for he says "as certain even of your own poets have said"), were both of them Stoics: and the speech in which the quotation occurs, short as it is in the Acts, abounds in parallels to the teaching of St. Pauls Stoic contemporary Seneca. If St. Paul tells us that "the God that made the world and all things therein dwelleth not in temples made with hands," Seneca teaches that "temples must not be built to God of stones piled on high: He must be consecrated in the heart of man." While St. Paul reminds us that God "is not far from each one of us," Seneca says "God is near thee: He is with thee; He is within." Again St. Paul warns his hearers that "we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and device of man"; and Seneca declares "Thou shalt not form Him of silver and gold: a true likeness of God cannot be molded of this material." But the quotations are of other interest than their bearing upon the question as to the Greek elements in the education and teaching of St. Paul. They have a bearing also on the question of Christian use of profane authors, and on the duty of self-culture in general. The leading teachers of the early Church differed widely in their estimate of the value of heathen literature, and especially of heathen philosophy. On the whole, with some considerable exceptions, the Greek Fathers valued it highly, as containing precious elements of truth, which were partly the result of direct inspiration, partly echoes of the Old Testament. The Latin Fathers, on the other hand, for the most part, treated all pagan teaching with suspicion and contempt. It was in no sense useful. It was utterly false, and simply stood in the way of truth. It was rubbish, which must be swept on one side in order to make room for the Gospel. Tertullian thinks that heathen philosophers are "blockheads when they knock at the doors of truth," and that "they have contributed nothing whatever that a Christian can accept." Arnobius and Lactantius write in a similar strain of contemptuous disapproval. Tertullian thinks it out of the question that a right-minded Christian should teach in pagan schools. But even he shrinks from telling Christian parents that they must allow their children to remain uneducated rather than send them to such schools. The policy of permitting Christian children to attend heathen schools, while forbidding Christian adults from teaching in them, appears singularly unreasonable. Every Christian teacher in a school rendered that school less objectionable for Christian children. But Tertullian urges that one who teaches pagan literature seems to give his sanction to it: one who merely learns it does nothing of the kind. The young must be educated: adults need not become schoolmasters. One can plead necessity in the one case; not in the other ("De Idol.," 10.). But the necessity of sending a child to a pagan school, because otherwise it could not be properly educated, did not settle the question whether it was prudent, or even right, for a Christian in after-life to study pagan literature; and it required the thought and experience of several centuries to arrive at anything like a consensus of opinion and practice on the subject. But during the first four or five centuries the more liberal view, even in the West, on the whole prevailed. From Irenaeus, Tatian, and Hermias, among Greek writers, and from various Latin Fathers, disapproving opinions proceeded. But the influence of Clement of Alexandria and Origen in the East, and of Augustine and Jerome in the West, was too strong for such opinions. Clement puts it on the broad ground that all wisdom is a Divine gift; and maintains that the philosophy of the Greeks, limited and particular as it is, contains the rudiments of that really perfect knowledge, which is beyond this world. Origen, in rebutting the reproach of Celsus, that the gospel repelled the educated and gave a welcome only to the ignorant, quotes the Epistle to Titus, pointing out that "Paul, in describing what kind of man the bishop ought to be, lays down as a qualification that he must be a teacher, saying that he ought to be able to convince the gainsayers, that by the wisdom which is in him he may stop the mouths of foolish talkers and deceivers." The Gospel gives a welcome to the learned and unlearned alike: to the learned, that they may become teachers; to the unlearned, not because it prefers such, but because it wishes to instruct them. And he points out that in enumerating the gifts of the Spirit St. Paul places wisdom and knowledge before faith, gifts of healing, and miracles. {1Co_12:8-10} But Origen does not point out that St. Paul himself makes use of heathen literature; although immediately before dealing with the accusation of Celsus, that Christians hate culture and promote ignorance, he quotes from Callimachus half of the saying of Epimenides, "Cretans are always liars" ("Con. Cels.," III 43.). What Origens own practice was we learn from the "Panegyric" of his enthusiastic pupil, Gregory Thaumaturgus (13.).
With the exception of atheistic philosophy, which is not worth the risk, Origen encouraged his scholars to study everything; and he gave them a regular course of dialectics, physics, and moral philosophy, as a preparation for theology. Augustine, who ascribes his first conversion from a vicious life to the "Hortensius" of Cicero ("Conf.," III 4. 1), was not likely to take an extreme line in condemning classical literature, from which he himself frequently quotes. Of Ciceros "Hortensius" he says, "This book in truth changed my affections, and turned my prayers to Thyself, O Lord, and made me have other hopes and desires." He quotes, among other classical authors, not only Virgil, Livy, Lucan, Sallust, Horace, Pliny, and Quintilian, but Terence, Persius, and Juvenal, and of the last from those Satires which are sometimes omitted by editors on account of their grossness. In his treatise "On Christian Doctrine" (II 40.), he contends that we must not shrink from making use of all that is good and true in heathen writings and institutions. We must "spoil the Egyptians." The writings of his instructor Ambrose show that he also was well acquainted with the best Latin classics. In Jerome we have what may be called an essay on the subject. Ruffinus had suggested to Magnus, a Roman rhetorician, that he should ask Jerome why he filled his writings with so many allusions and quotations taken from Pagan literature, and Jerome in reply, after quoting the opening verses of the book of Proverbs, refers him to the example of St. Paul in the Epistles to Titus and the Corinthians, and in the speech in the Acts. Then he points to Cyprian, Origen, Eusebius, and Apollinaris: "read them, and you will find that in comparison with them we have little skill (in quotation)." Besides these he appeals to the examples, among Greek writers, of Quadratus, Justin Martyr, Dionysius, Clement of Alexandria, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, etc.; and among Latins, Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Arnobius, Hilary, and Juvencus. And he points out that quotations from profane authors occur in nearly all the works of these writers, and not merely in those which are addressed to heathen. But while Jerome defends the study of classical authors as a necessary part of education, he severely condemns those clergy who amused themselves with such writers as Plautus (of whom he himself had been very fond), Terence, and Catullus, when they ought to have been studying the Scriptures. Later in life his views appear to have become more rigid; and we find him rejoicing that the works of Plato and Aristotle are becoming neglected.
It was the short reign of Julian, commonly called "the Apostate" (A.D. 361-363), which had brought the question very much to the front. His policy and legislation probably influenced Augustine and Jerome in taking a more liberal line in the matter, in spite of Latin dislike of Greek philosophy and their own ascetic tendencies. Julian, jealous of the growing influence of Christian teachers, tried to prevent them from lecturing on classical authors. From this he hoped to gain two advantages.
(1) Secular education would to a large extent be taken out of Christian hands.
(2) The Christian teachers themselves would become less well educated, and less able to contend with heathen controversialists. He sarcastically pointed out the inconvenience of a teacher expounding Homer and denouncing Homers gods: Christians had better confine themselves to "expounding Matthew and Luke in the Churches of the Galileans," and leave the interpretation of the masterpieces of antiquity to others. And he seems not to have contented himself with cynical advice, but to have passed a law that no Christian was to teach in the public schools. This law was at once cancelled by his successor Valentinian; but it provoked a strong feeling of resentment, and stirred up Christians to recognize and hold fast the advantages of a classical education.
But while the influence of the first three of the four great Latin Fathers was in favor of a wise use of the products of pagan genius, the influence of the last of the four was disastrously in the opposite direction.
In the period between Jerome and Gregory the Great two facts had had a calamitous effect upon the cause of liberal education.
(1) The inroads of the barbarians almost destroyed the imperial schools in Gaul and Italy.
(2) The miserable controversies about Origen produced an uneasy suspicion that secular study was prejudicial to orthodoxy. It is perhaps to this latter influence that we may attribute two ecclesiastical canons of unknown date and origin. In the "Apostolical Constitutions" (I 6.) we read, "Abstain from all heathen books. For what hast thou to do with such foreign discourses, or laws, or false prophets, which subvert the faith of the unstable? For what defect dost thou find in the law of God, that thou shouldest have recourse to those heathenish fables?" etc., etc. Again in a collection of canons, which is sometimes assigned to a synod at Carthage (A.D. 398), the 16th canon in the collection runs thus: "Abishop shall read no heathen books, and heretical books only when necessary." The Carthaginian synod of 398 is a fiction, and some of the canons in the collection deal with controversies of a much later date: but we need not doubt that all the canons were enacted in some Church or other in the course of the first six centuries. The spirit of this one is very much in harmony with the known tendencies of the sixth century; and we find Gregory the Great (A.D. 544-604) making precisely the same regulation. He forbade bishops to study heathen literature, and in one of his letters ("Epp.," 9:48) he rebukes Desiderius, Bishop of Vienne, for giving his clergy instruction in grammar, which involved the reading of the heathen poets. "The praises of Christ do not admit of being joined in the same mouth with the praises of Jupiter; and it is a grave and execrable thing for bishops to sing what even for a religious layman is unbecoming." The story that he purposely burnt the Palatine library is not traced earlier than the twelfth century, and is probably untrue; but it indicates the traditional belief respecting his attitude towards classical literature. And it is certainly true that he was twice in Constantinople, and on the second occasion remained there three years (A.D. 579-582), and yet never learnt Greek. In his time, as we learn both from himself and his contemporary, Gregory of Tours, the belief was very prevalent that the end of the world was at hand; and it was argued that mankind had more serious things to attend to than the study of pagan literature - or indeed any literature that was not connected with the Scriptures or the Church. Henceforward, in the words of Gregory of Tours, "the study of literature perished": and, although there were some bright spots at Jarrow and elsewhere, yet on the whole the chief services which Christianity rendered to classical learning during the next few centuries, were the preservation of classical authors in the libraries of monasteries and the preservation of the classical languages in the liturgies of the Church.
The question will perhaps never cease to be argued, although it is hardly probable that so extreme a view as that of Gregory the Great will ever again become prevalent. Let us take a statement of the question from the utterances of one who will not be suspected of want of capacity or experience in the matter, or of want of sympathy with stern and serious views respecting education and life.
"Some one will say to me perhaps," wrote John Henry Newman in 1859, "our youth shall not be corrupted. We will dispense with all general or national literature whatever, if it be so exceptional; we will have a Christian Literature of our own, as pure, as true as the Jewish." You cannot have it. From the nature of the Case, if Literature is to be made a study of human nature, you cannot have a Christian Literature. It is a contradiction in terms to attempt a sinless Literature of sinful man. You may gather together something very great and high, something higher than any literature ever was; and when you have done so, you will find that it is not Literature at all. You will simply have left the delineation of man, as such, and have substituted for it, as far as you have had anything to substitute, that of man, as he is or might be, under certain special advantages. Give up the study of man, as such, if so it must be; but say you do so. Do not say you are studying him, his history, his mind, and his heart, when you are studying something else. Man is a being of genius, passion, intellect, conscience, power. He exercises his great gifts in various ways, in great deeds, in great thoughts, in heroic acts, in hateful crimes. Literature records them all to the life
"We should be shrinking from a plain duty, did we leave out Literature from Education. For why do we educate except to prepare for the world? Why do we cultivate the intellect of the many beyond the first elements of knowledge, except to fit men of the world for the world? We cannot possibly keep them from plunging into the world, with all its ways and principles and maxims, when their time comes; but we can prepare them against what is inevitable; and it is not the way to learn, to swim in troubled waters, never to have gone into them. Proscribe (I do not say particular authors, particular works, particular passages) but secular literature as such: cut out from your class books all broad manifestations of the natural man; and those manifestations are waiting for your pupils benefit, at the very doors of your lecture room in living and breathing substance. They will meet him there in all the charm of novelty, and all the fascination of genius or of amiableness. Today a pupil, tomorrow a member of the great world: today confined to the Lives of the Saints, tomorrow thrown upon Babel; - thrown on Babel, without the honest indulgence of wit and humor and imagination ever permitted to him, without any fastidiousness of taste wrought into him, without any rule given him for discriminating the precious from the vile, beauty from sin, the truth from the sophistry of nature, what is innocent from what is poison."
Many Christians are apt to forget that all truth is of God; and that every one who in an earnest spirit endeavors to ascertain and to teach what is true in any department of human knowledge, is doing Gods work. The Spirit, we are promised by Christ Himself, "shall lead you into all the Truth," and "the Truth shall make you free." Our business is to see that nothing claims the name of truth unlawfully. It is not our business to prohibit anything that can make good its claim to be accounted true.
Those who enjoy large opportunities of study, and especially those who have the responsibility not only of learning, but of teaching, must beware of setting their own narrow limits to the domain of what is useful and true. It has a far wider range than the wants which we feel in ourselves or which we can trace in others. Even the whole experience of mankind would not suffice to give he measure of it. We dishonor rather than reverence the Bible, when we attempt to confine ourselves and others to the study of it. Much of its secret and inexhaustible store of treasure will remain undiscovered by us, until our hearts are warmed, our intellects quickened, and our experiences enlarged, by the masterpieces of human genius. "To the pure all things are pure." In the first century, in which the perils of heathenism to Christianity were tenfold what they are at present, St. Paul in plain terms told his converts that if they liked to accept the invitations of their heathen friends and acquaintances, they need not scruple to do so; {1Co_10:27} and by his own example, he shows them that they may enjoy and use what is beautiful and true in heathen literature. Let us beware of narrowing the liberty wisely allowed by him. Each one of us can readily find out what is dangerous for himself. There is plenty that is not dangerous: let him freely enjoy that. But the limits that are wise for ourselves are not to bind others. Their liberty is not to be circumscribed by our conscience. "The earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv10–14 10–13. There are many unruly and vain talkers. The…
10–13. There are many unruly and vain talkers. The last sentence suggests to Paul to speak of the Cretan errorists. The allusions to the false teachers show that the Epistle belongs to the closing years of the apostle's life. Of the circumcision. Jews, perhaps Judaizing Christians who had so troubled the Gentile churches. See the Galatian letter.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v10 Tit_1:10. Vain talkers.—Men of aimless speech, which is devoid…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Tit_1:10. Vain talkers.—Men of aimless speech, which is devoid of any good result. Men whose speech tendeth to poverty. Deceivers.—The word, which is peculiar to St. Paul, and perhaps coined by him (see Gal_6:3), brings out the idea of subjective fancies (Lightfoot).
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Tit_1:11. Whose mouths must be stopped.—The verb means “something must be put on their mouths”—they must be muzzled; but it afterwards came to mean, “to check speech.”
Tit_1:12. A prophet of their own.—Epimenides, the poet alluded to, was a contemporary of the seven wise men, and by some was reckoned as one of them. He was born in the sixth century B.C. The saying quoted by St. Paul is from a lost work. The Cretians are alway liars.—Chrysostom refers the words chiefly to the pretence that Jupiter lay buried amongst the Cretans; but in ancient times they were notorious for falsehood, so that “to Cretise” was equivalent to, “to lie and deceive.”
Tit_1:13. This witness is true.—Not only does a competent person attest it, but it agrees with fact. Rebuke them sharply.—With a sharply cut style, curtly, with thorough-going Sternness (Meyer).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Tit_1:10-14
The Mischief of Reckless Speech.
I. Reckless speech occasions great disorder.—“For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers … who subvert whole houses” (Tit_1:10-11). Excessive speech is always foolish, and is the index to a mind too full of conceit to have any room for wisdom. Churches and families are led into quarrels and divisions by reckless talkers. They indulge in unkind and calumnious words, perverse meanings are given to the sayings of those they dislike, bitter and provoking things are said of our neighbours’ characters, and, above all, they utter those evil, corrupt words that do the devil’s work, enticing others on to sin. Such vain talkers exult in the confusion and uproar they themselves create.
II. Reckless speech is morally degrading.—
1. Has no regard for the true gospel. “Specially they of the circumcision” (Tit_1:10). “Giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth” (Tit_1:14). Josephus tells us there were many Jews in Crete. The Jewish leaven remained in them after conversion, and they would become an easy prey to the advocates of a corrupted Judaism and an emasculated Christianity. The voluble Jewish talkers made sad havoc of the gospel.
2. Will say anything for gain. “Teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake” (Tit_1:11). They talked for a living, and were utterly unscrupulous as to what they said, so long as they got the money. Their chief object was gain, not profitable instruction.
3. Degenerates into lying and sensuality. “The Cretians are always liars.… This witness is true” (Tit_1:12-13). The quotation is from the Cretan writer Epimenides. He was sent for to purify Athens from its pollutions occasioned by Cylon, and was regarded as a diviner and prophet. “To Cretanise” was proverbial for “to lie,” as “to Corinthianise” was for “to be dissolute.” Lying and sensuality go together. Some people lie for the love of lying, and become almost incapable of speaking the truth. “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin” (Pro_10:19).
III. Reckless speech should be emphatically condemned.—“Whose mouths must be stopped” (Tit_1:11). “Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith” (Tit_1:13). The inveterate talker is not easily cured. Gentle methods are of no avail in dealing with him: his perversity must be boldly attacked and sharply rebuked. If he is not silenced, others he has led astray may be reclaimed.
“Words are mighty, words are living,
Serpents with their venomous stings;
Or bright angels crowding round us,
With heaven’s light upon their wings.
“Every word has its own spirit,
True or false, that never dies;
Every word man’s lips have uttered
Echoes in God’s skies.”
Lessons.—Reckless speech—
1. Is a sign of pitiable ignorance.
2. Is mischievous both to speaker and listener.
3. Will meet with its just punishment.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Tit_1:10-12. The Vice of Aimless Talk.
I. The chief hindrances to religion are often in the Church itself.
II. Hindrances in the Church must be removed.—
1. Discipline must be exercised in love.
2. The prosperity of the Church must be considered before that of individuals.
3. Every age has its own obstructions to the truth.
III. Communities are affected by the conduct of individuals.—Aimless talk leads to—
1. Untruthfulness.
2. Sensuality.
3. Sloth.
Tit_1:13. Christian Reproof—
I. Should always be based on a certain conviction.
II. Should be thorough and effective.
III. Should be for the sinner’s good.
Tit_1:14. The Perverting Power of Trivialities.
I. By distracting attention from the essentials of religion.
II. By dissipating the strength of the mind.
III. By attributing to the human an authority belonging only to the Divine.—F. W.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v10 The False Teachers Characterized and the Question of How…
The False Teachers Characterized and the Question of How to Deal with Them Discussed.
v. 10. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision,
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v. 11. whose mouths must be stopped; who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.
v. 12. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, the Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.
v. 13. This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith,
v. 14. not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.
v. 15. Unto the pure all things are pure; but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.
v. 16. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate.
The term "objectors" or "gainsayers" used by the apostle in the previous paragraph was not a general term, which might cover almost any form of heresy that Titus chose to connect with it, but Paul wanted it applied to a certain class of people, who, indeed, bore the distinguishing characteristics common to the heretics of all times. He writes: For there are many insubordinate people, vain talkers, and seducers, for the most part they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped. There were difficulties to battle with in Crete which resembled those that were troubling Timothy in Ephesus, 1Ti 1:4-7. There were certain Judaistic teachers that professed adherence to the Christian religion and therefore had little difficulty in entering the congregations. Their number was by no means small, and that fact probably accounts for the boldness which they displayed. They were disobedient, insubordinate, to their Pharisaic minds the simple truths of the Gospel were not sufficiently strict, they refused to acknowledge the authority of the apostolic doctrine. This conviction of theirs they, moreover, did not keep for themselves, but took every opportunity to spread it by loose and vain talk, by empty arguments, with a great show of wisdom. In doing so, they displayed the dangerous ability of presenting falsehood in the garb and guise of truth, a proceeding which naturally resulted in their deceiving many people that did not penetrate the disguise. Very likely these men claimed to have just as much right to teach as Paul himself, and their efforts to introduce Jewish rites and ceremonies into the Christian congregations could well arouse apprehension in the mind of the apostle. He therefore insists upon using only one method of dealing with them, namely, that of stopping their mouths, of continuing the rebuke of their false position so long until they no longer were able to answer and would keep the peace for the sake of their own peace of mind. The same method ought to be applied in similar cases also in our days, lest the pernicious activity of such disturbers of the peace harm the work of the Lord.
The apostle now substantiates his recommendation of such a radical suggestion: Who are subverting entire households, since they teach what they ought not, for the sake of gain. If these false teachers, who made a specialty of insinuating themselves into individual families, would continue in their pernicious activity unmolested, the omission of proper reproof would soon result in a most deplorable condition. For entire households had given car to their seductive talk, dissension had been eon-n in the midst of families, and the end promised to be still worse. This situation was the result of their teaching such doctrines as should not be taught at any time. They pretended that their empty tall; was sound Gospel-truth. What made the entire matter SO extremely sordid and disgusting was the fact that they were active along the lines just indicated only for the sake of filthy gain; their avowed object was to make money. Note: Even today people will become the ready dupes of similar enthusiasts, readily paying the false teachers great sums of money, as the history of various recent sects shows, while the Church of the pure confession is almost invariably battling with financial difficulties.
Since the false teachers of whom Paul speaks were Jews by descent, but Cretans by nationality, St. Paul adds a sentence for their benefit: There said one of them, their own prophet: Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. The apostle here places deceivers and deceived into one category, reminding them of the saying of one of their own poets, Epimenides, of the sixth century before Christ, who was regarded by the Cretans themselves as a prophet. The Cretans as a people are represented as liars, as men who deliberately made use of hypocritical, shady methods. Like evil beasts they are, that lie in wait to pounce upon unsuspecting men. Lazy gluttons they are, that shun the work and yet want to live profligate lives. It was not vindictiveness which caused Paul to quote this remark, which certainly is anything but flattering, but the desire to work a consciousness and knowledge of their national weaknesses in the Cretans, and thus probably lay the foundation for the proper remedy.
For the Holy Spirit here confirms the judgment contained in the ancient verse: This testimony is true. The divine inspiration declares that the remark agrees with the situation. For that reason Paul urges his young coworker: On this account rebuke them sharply, that they may show wholesomeness in the faith. No consideration should induce them to identify themselves with the morbid methods of the errorists. With the most emphatic sharpness Titus was to impress upon the Christians the need of wholesome saneness in all matters of faith. They had accepted the Word of Reconciliation, but they were not yet steadfast and certain in their faith. They were like a convalescent person, who is on the way to recovery, but is still in danger of a relapse.
The apostle points out the specific danger and the manner in which faith should overcome it: Not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Both the Jewish traditions and fables concerning genealogies and the Jewish precepts taken from the ceremonial law mere doctrines of men which could under no circumstances be coordinated with the Gospel-teaching. Just as today many people find it extremely interesting to speculate about many things concerning which the Bible is silent, as, for instance, the youth of Christ, so the Judaizing teachers, following the lead of the rabbinical doctors, placed their empty speculations above the Word of God and in its stead. They still wanted to be regarded as members of the Christian congregations, but had, as a matter of fact, already turned from the sound and wholesome truth of the Gospel to their own foolish ideas.
The apostle continues to characterize the false teachers by adding: All is pure to the pure: But for the polluted and unbelieving nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are polluted. As with the Pharisees, so with these false teachers all the thoughts of men revolved about the terms "pure" and "impure. " Mat 15:1-11; Mat 18:23; Mat 16:1-28; Mat 17:1-27; Mat 18:1-35; Mat 19:1-30; Mat 20:1-34; Mat 21:1-46; Mat 22:1-46; Mat 23:1-39; Mat 24:1-51; Mat 25:1-46; Mat 26:1-75; Mat 27:1-66; Mat 28:1-20. But in the New Testament this distinction is no longer valid. The purity of the soul and of the body does not depend upon eating or rejecting certain foods, but the condition of the heart in the sight of God is the deciding factor. He that comes into contact with, and makes use of, God’s creatures with a heart purified by faith, is free from all legal prejudice and sees in all things only pure creatures of Almighty God. But the opposite is true in the case of the polluted and unbelievers. The very people that insist most loudly upon the fulfillment of the Ceremonial Law and of many other precepts that men have devised, are often suffering with impurity of heart and mind. Their unbelief will not permit them to accept the true purity of the heart. They cannot get rid of their evil conscience, because they reject the purifying power of the Gospel. Even things that are in themselves pure and holy are contaminated by the attitude of these people. They are conscious always of acting under false pretenses, and therefore they always pollute their mind and their conscience anew.
The most objectionable feature of their behavior, however, is this, that they have the temerity to insist upon being considered teachers: They profess to know God, but with their works they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and unfit for every good work. They confess boldly, with a deceitful pretense that they know God. Their declaration of loyalty to Christ was intentionally brief and general, lest someone might hold them to a clear statement. At the same time such people deny the Lord with their works: their works mark their words as lies. It is not necessary to think of flagrant transgressions and crimes, for it is altogether sufficient to know that they sow dissension in the congregations. Detestable such people are: they are an abomination in the eyes of God; they deserve that God and men should turn from them as nauseous and offensive. Disobedient they are: they refuse to yield to the truth, they do not want to fulfill the will of God. And so they are finally unfit for any good work, they are of no use in the Christian congregation. Nothing that they do flows from the fear and love of God. Therefore the warning contained in these words, bidding Christian congregations be very careful about receiving members that are not fully approved, is altogether timely, also in our days.
Summary
After the salutation and address the apostle gives instructions regarding the qualifications of bishops, adding a few hints regarding the treatment of false teachers and their followers.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10, 12 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Because of those that would oppose God's word, Paul gives Titus reasons to preach God's word and warns him about false teachers.
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rebellious people
These are rebellious people who oppose Paul's gospel message.
empty talkers and deceivers
This phrase describes the rebellious people mentioned in the previous phrase. Here "empty" is a metaphor for useless, and "empty talkers" are people who say useless or foolish things. AT: "people who say useless things and deceive others" (See: Metaphor)
those of the circumcision
This refers to the Christian Jews who taught that men must be circumcised in order to follow Christ. (See: Metonymy)
It is necessary to stop them
"They must be prevented from spreading their teachings" or "They must be stopped from influencing others by their words"
what they should not teach
These are things that are not proper to teach regarding Christ and the Law because they are not true.
for shameful profit
This refers to profit that people make by doing things that are not honorable.
are upsetting whole families
"are ruining whole families." The issue was that they were upsetting families by destroying their faith. This may have caused the members of the families to argue with one another.
translationWords
circumcise
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv10–14 1:10-16 In a native population of troublemakers, Titus would…
1:10-16 In a native population of troublemakers, Titus would need to exercise a firm hand to rid these Christian communities of corruption and make them healthy in the faith (1:13-16).
1:10 rebellious people: The same Greek word is used of children in 1:6. • those who insist on circumcision for salvation (literally those of the circumcision): This probably refers to Jewish Christians; the Greek phrase leaves open whether or not they required circumcision of Gentiles. The Jewish flavor of this false teaching is suggested in 1:14-15 and 3:9.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.