monize with each other.*



II. CRITICAL OBJECTIONS.

Those which are urged specially against this epistle, and in par-
ticular against its historical intimations, are the following (comp.
De Wette, p. 1, seq., of his commentary).

1. The epistle can find no place in the history of the apostle's
life ; in reply to which all that is necessary has been said in the
General Introduction.

2. It is said to have been written shortly after the planting of
the churches in Crete, and before they were fully settled. But with
this do not agree the complaints which we find in the epistle of the
number of heretics in Crete, and their pernicious influence (i. 10, seq.),
insomuch that even in the choice of a presbyter it was to be a ques-
tion, whether he held fast the true doctrine (i. 9). " How could
such a reaction be formed so speedily in the bosom of the Cretan
Christianity ? And if it be supposed that those heretics were
strangers who had forced themselves in on the church, they must at

* Compare the appendix at the conclusion of the epistle.



INTRODUCTION.

least have plied their disorderly course for some length, of time, so
that the epistle could not have been written shortly after the plant-
ing of Christianity in the island." To this we reply, that De
Wette himself shews that Christianity cannot have been planted for
the first time in Crete shortly before by the apostle. It is thus quite
unnecessary to suppose that such a reaction was formed so speedily ;
it may have been formed long before. Hence the conjecture is also
unnecessary, that strangers intruded themselves on the church, who
yet must have pursued their disorderly course for some length of
time, according to which the epistle cannot have been written shortly
after the planting of Christianity in the island. It was, in fact, not
written shortly after the planting of Christianity ; for the apostle
did not plant it, but found it already there. His epistle, which was
written shortly after his departure from Crete, was not therefore
written shortly after the planting of Christianity there, and the
" heresy" did not first make its appearance after his departure ; on
the contrary, the apostle knows it from personal observation, from
having seen it for some length of time, as even De Wette main-
tains, p. 2. Finally, nothing is said in the epistle of a heresy pro-
perly so called. It is evident then, that in order to the removal of
these objections, the critics who urge them need only to give credit
to the statements of the epistle itself, which they themselves ac-
knowledge, against their supposition that it was the apostle who
planted Christianity in Crete, for which there is no foundation in the
epistle.

3. The great success which is said to have attended the apostle
in Crete, implies such a measure of receptivity for the gospel on the
part of the inhabitants, as gives an appearance of injustice to the
charge brought against the Cretans in i. 12, seq., as to their de-
praved disposition, a charge too founded on foreign testimony. For
the same reason the absence of all joyful and thankful acknowledg-
ment on the part of the apostle seems strange. In the Epistle to
the Galatians, although the first part is not written in a tone of
grateful acknowledgment, there are still not wanting many kind
and confidential expressions. To this we reply : that this epistle,
unlike that to the Galatians, was not addressed to the church. If
this had been the case, then doubtless it would have contained ex-
pressions of the same nature. Chiefly however : from what source
do we learn of the great success which Paul had at Crete ? The
epistle says nothing of this : it does not represent the spread of the
gospel there as the work of the apostle at all. On the contrary, the
apostle had there observed grevious corruptions in the Christian
life, as De Wette himself admits, and was not able entirely to put
them down during his stay ; wherefore he left Titus behind to set
in order what was still wanting. The charge against the national



INTRODUCTION. 553

character of the Cretans may therefore have been well founded, a
charge confirmed, too, from other sources. There appears the
utmost propriety in the apostle's making this charge to rest on
foreign testimony, that, namely, of a poet who was regarded by
themselves as a prophet.

4. But the moral and ecclesiastical state of the Cretan Chris-
tians, implies that Christianity must have existed for a greater
length of time there ; in proof of which reference is most justly
made to the words of i. 6, having believing children, and to the
moral qualifications that are elsewhere laid down there. To this we
have nothing to say, but to accept it as an acknowledgment of our
assertion. The critics have not been able even in the remotest de-
gree to prove that it cannot have been so, and that the apostle
must have been the first who carried the news of the gospel to
Crete ; comp. Acts ii. 11, and on i. 5 of this epistle.

5. It is remarkable, as the epistle was written soon after the
apostle had been in Crete, that we find in it not a single allusion to
what he experienced and did there, etc. Quite different is the case
in 1 Thess. To this objection also what has been already said ap-
plies, viz., that the apostle does not write to the Cretans. In that
case, probably such allusions would not have been wanting. It
was unnecessary for the apostle to speak of these things to Titus,
who had been in Crete at the same time with himself, and had seen
and heard everything along with him.

6. It is objected that the epistle does not answer its end, or cor-
respond to the relation between the writer and the receiver. What
is said as to the qualifications to be looked for in the choice of pres-
byters is self-evident. The same may be said of the other point,
namely, the refutation of the heretics. As on the one hand, they
themselves are indistinctly characterised, so on the other nothing is
said in opposition to them whioh might serve as a suitable refuta-
tion. This end is not served by what is said in i. 15 on things pure
and impure, or by the superficial moral rules in ii. 1-10, coupled
with the reference to the practical spirit of Christianity ii. 11-14.
Such are the objections made by the critics, who here and there
also make trifling admissions. With regard to the charge that i.
5-9, ii. 1-3, is too general and self-evident, we have endeavoured
to reply to it in the exposition. Further, that the moral precepts
in ii. 1, seq., are superficial, and not founded on any principle, is,
when viewed in the light of vers. 11-14, altogether incorrect. In
general it is a strange method, to aim at establishing conclusions
regarding the genuineness of an epistle, on the ground of its contain-
ing what is otherwise known or unknown. That method alone can
be the just one, which inquires whether the contents of the epistle
correspond to the state of things with which it deals. If this state



554 INTRODUCTION.

of things render it necessary to lay an emphasis on things already
known, no one surely is entitled to take offence at the fact of
their being already known. We only add that Schleiermacher
(Sendschreiber, p. 195) acknowledges how characteristic are the
precepts in the epistle to Titus, according to the distinctions of
sex and age. Here then also we have arbitrary suppositions of
the critics, which they have only to sacrifice to the real contents
of the epistle, in order to come at the truth. Again it is
said that the heretics are indistinctly characterized. We have
already seen, and the exposition will further shew, what a distinct
picture is drawn in this epistle of the corruptions of the Cretan
Christians. If, however, it is Gnostics similar to those of the second
century (De Wette), or even these themselves (Baur) that are
meant, then we freely confess that they are not only indistinctly, but
very indistinctly characterized. It is, moreover, remarkable that
De Wette should here say that the heretics are "indistinctly" char-
acterized, after saying that the apostle wrote concerning them with
"a knowledge whick presupposed a lengthened observation of
them" (p. 2.) A similar reply is to be made to the objection, that
this epistle contains nothing in opposition to these heretics that
might serve as an apt refutation of their errors, and that this desid-
eratum is not supplied by the " superficial and familiar moral pre-
cepts," in ii. 1-10 ; iii. 1, seq. This opinion is founded on the
erroneous supposition that the Pastoral Epistles aim at refuting a
dogmatical system. What the apostle says on " the heresy," is
more by way of characterizing than of refuting it ; besides, ii. 1, seq.
is not in the remotest way intended to serve as a refutation of her-
esies. Here also are manifest the false assumptions. The epistle
becomes altogether unintelligible on the supposition of its having
been written in the second century for the purpose of combating
the Gnostics and promoting hierarchical tendencies, on which cornp.
the General Introduction, 3.



EXPOSITION



EPISTLE TO TITUS.



1. INSCRIPTION AND SALUTATION.
(i. 1-4.)

THE inscription and salutation are in the apostle's usual manner.
He designates himself by his apostolical office, whence flows his
authority to give the instructions and exhortations that follow. He
then names the person to whom the epistle is addressed, with a refer-
ence to the relation in which he stands to him, and ends with the
usual apostolical salutation. The commencement of this epistle
bears a closo resemblance to that of the Epistle to the Romans, and
the Epistle to the Galatians, inasmuch as in these epistles also the
designation d-noo-oXog is more exactly defined. And it may be in-
ferred from this that here also, as in them, the more full and defini-
tive representation of the apostle's apostolic office, stands in closest
connexion with the design of the epistle, and as it were a compre-
hensive index to its contents. But while in its opening this epistle
bears as a whole a common stamp with the others, it displays here
also along with this similarity, the peculiarity which belongs to its
contents, and consequently to its form ; and that in a manner at
at once so easy, and so decided, as to be altogether unaccountable
in an imitator of the apostle's epistles, who wished to conceal
himself. For what could have been easier and more natural, than
for an imitator to avoid such peculiarities as servant of God, God
our Saviour, Christ our Saviour, and in these also to adhere to the
pattern presented in the rest of the apostle's epistles ?

Ver. 1. Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
etc. AcwAof 6eov here, in the same sense as in Acts xvi. 17 ; Rev. i.
1, xv, 3, x. 7, etc., not as in 1 Pet. ii. 16 ; Rev. vii. 3, etc. It is the
more general designation of the office, which finds its special 'ex-
pression in what follows, namely d-noa-ohos, etc. Hence Calvin
justly observes : he thus descends from the genus to the species.
The two predicates by which the apostle here designates himself,
occur nowhere else in the same connexion. Even the expression



556 TITUS I. 1.

servant of God, is not used by the apostle elsewhere in this particu-
lar sense ; although we find servant of Jesus Christ in Rom. i. 1. ;
Gal. i. 10 ; Phil. i. 1, as the more general form of his official desig-
nation, and also as designating the relation in which the Christian as
such stands to Christ as his Lord, 1 Cor. vii. 22 ; Eph. vi. 6 ; in both
these passages, however, the context gives special occasion to this
appellation. Rom. i. 1 has most similarity to this passage, as there
the apostle first represents himself generally as the servant of Jesus
Christ, and then in like manner adds the more special designation,
called to be an apostle. If it was his design in this passage to re-
present his office in its twofold aspect, with reference both to God
and to Christ, we find the complete counterpart of this in Rom. i.
1, where, with reference to the former he calls himself, servant, with
reference to the latter, apostle. It may be said with truth that the
apostle must thus express himself according to his usual manner.
The only question is, why he here in particular designates his office
in this twofold aspect. To this it has been answered that he has
already in his eye the Jewish opponents, in opposition to whom he
aims at establishing his own authority and that of Titus; or he so
characterizes himself on account of the church, and in order that
by this appeal to his own dignity and authority, more weight and
value might be imparted to the arrangements of Titus, who was
commissioned by him. But the epistle was not written for the
church, and much less for the opponents, so as to give any occasion
for confirming his authority and that of Titus ; it was written only
to and for Titus, with reference to whom there was no necessity for
any such attestation of the apostle's official standing. It might
indeed be supposed^ nevertheless, that the thought of those Jewish
teachers called forth in the apostle's mind the consciousness, that as
he was an apostle of Jesus Christ, so was he also and therewith a
servant of God ; and thus, while he refers to his calling, in which
the exhortations that follow have their ground, he calls himself a
servant of God as well as an apostle of Jesus Christ. But are we
not here within the sphere which belongs to a writer's individuality,
and where explanation finds its limit ? Who will venture to ex-
plain the reason why the apostle designates himself in Rom. i. 1,
by servant of Jesus Christ, in 1 Cor. i. 1, by called to be an apostle,
in 2 Cor. i. 1, by apostle ? (At- after aToaroAoc is not to be under-
stood as expressing opposition, but serves merely to introduce some-
thing different, Winer's Gr., 53, 7.) On the other hand, the
design of the following expressions which more exactly define dnoa-
roAof is manifest : according to the faith of God's elect, etc. We have
already noticed the similarity here to Rom. i. 1, seq. ; Gal. i. 1, seq.
The relation of these words to the subsequent contents of the epis-
tle is not to be mistaken. They describe the end of his apostolic



TITUS I. 1. 557

office as the producing of faith in the elect of God, and the knowl-
edge of the truth, whilst the subject matter of his preaching, with
which he was entrusted, according to the commandment of God our
Saviour, "is described as the hope of eternal life, which God that
cannot lie, promised before the world began, but hath in his own
time manifested his word through the preaching which is committed
to the apostle. The manner in which the apostle here more exactly
defines his office, can be understood only by contrast with those
whose knowledge was not directed to the truth that leads to godli-
ness, and whose doctrine had not for its essential contents the hope
of eternal life. And errors of this kind are in fact represented in
the epistle, i. 10-16, iii. 8-11. And besides the particular passages
which directly refer to those corruptions, the whole epistle is but an
efflux and evidence of the apostolic calling, which has for its end
the faith of the elect, and the knowledge of. the truth according to
godliness, and the hope of eternal life for its essential import. On
the construction of vers. 1-3, which proceed without interruption,
see Winer's Gr., 62, 4, p. 499. In particular, it is to be observed

that Kara manv KOL i-ni'yvuaiv do not mean " according to,

or in conformity with" the faith and the knowledge. The faith and
knowledge of individuals, are not the rule or measure of the apos-
tle's office. The true rendering of aard is " for, to," by way of dis-
tinction. Comp. Winer's Gr., 49, d., p. 358 ; 2 Tim. i. 1 ; 2 Cor.
xi. 6. It occurs nowhere else in connexion with d-rroaro^og. On the
absence of the article with the following nouns, moriv, iniyvuaiv,
K/cAe/crwv, comp. Winer's Gr., 19, 2 b., with 6eov, 19, 1, Anna.,
with d/byfeia, ibid. Kara rcianv KitXmr&v QEOV. The expression
e/cAe/croi is transferred from the Old Testament Is.rael to that under
the New Testament dispensation ; comp. Deut. xvi, 2, 21 ; Ps. cv.
43, cvi. 5, etc., njrnnins. This designation has its ground not in
anything -belonging to those who are thus distinguished, but in the
eternal act of the Divine will, the Trpodeois, Rom. viii. 28, or ISia,
rrpodeoig, 2 Tim. i. 9, in virtue of which they are fore-ordained in
Christ to salvation. How the predestination is realized in time is
shewn in Rom. viii. 30, compared with Luke xviii. 7 ; Rom. viii. 33;
Col. iii. 12, etc. Matthies observes on this expression, that the dif-
ficulty in the way of taking Kara as a final preposition is shewn by
this, namely, that KK^EKTOI must then either be understood of those
who are not Christians, but are to be brought to the faith according to
the Divine decree, or if it be understood of Christians, that Kara re-
quires an extension of the sense, namely, "' for the furtherance of
the faith of the elect." But Kara means generally, " for, to." The
sense is : the faith of the elect is aimed at. 'E/C/UKTCH, however
which, as the parallel member, elg emyvuoiv } etc., proves, is to be
taken quite generally, not with reference to certain individuals



558 TITUS I. 1.

signifies neither Christians nor not Christiana, but such as are
chosen of God to salvation. The faith of the elect of God is the
destination of the apostle's office ; it is all one whether the Khijcis
has already taken effect in them or not. For, that his apostolical
office hath this end and design also with regard to those who are al-
ready Christians, is plain from Phil. i. 5, etc. De Wette's suppo-
sition of a prolepsis, in support of which he adduces 2 Tim. ii. 10 ;
Acts xiii. 48, is therefore unnecessary. The first of these passages is
in regard to this point quite the same with the present, and the second
shews, how all faith on the part of individuals rests on the Divine
fore-ordination, which manifests itself in their becoming believers ;
so that they do not become elect by their faith, but become believers
because they are elect. Comp. Eph. i. 4, and on the whole subject
Rom. i. 5. When, moreover, we consider the reference to the j e-
culiar error combated in the epistle, in this more full and exact
representation of the apostolical office, which comes out especially in
the parallel clause KOI tniyvuaiv, etc., we cannot help thinking that
this expression also, elect of God, is used in opposition to those
whose faith rested on no such election of God. Kat imyvuaiv, etc.;
in these words the apostle denotes the second thing at which his
office aims. By this emyvuais is meant a knowledge resting on faith,
and penetrating ever farther and farther into the truth. Comp.
Phil. i. 9. For myvuot$ is, as Wahl observes : Plena et accurata
cognitio. Comp. on Kmyvttots, Harless on Eph. i. 17, p. 95, seq. On
d^dcia, the Christian truth, comp. Eph. i. 13. This truth is more
exactly defined in the words which follow, as a truth which leads to
godliness. On the article coming after the noun in dA^Oem^, comp.
Winer's Gr. 20, 4. It is the opposite of a knowledge which has
not to do with the truth that leads to godliness, but that leads away
from this, i. 11 ; i. 16, etc. Kara, as before, comp. 1 Tim. vi. 3.
Here also Matthies takes Kara in the sense of " comformable to,"
although he understands by d^.jjdeia evangelical truth, as if the god-
liness to which this truth alone can lead, were a rule lying beyond it.
Evcre/3em is not used by the apostle except in the Pastoral Epistles ;
it is found, however, in Acts iii. 12 ; 2 Pet. i. 3, 6, and in other
places. On the other hand we find evaefclv in an address by the
apostle, Acts xvii, 22 ; and in like manner evae/3?/^, Acts xxii. 12 ;
dat/37/c, Rom. iv. 5, v. 6 ; datf3eia } Rom. i. 18, xi. 26. If the apostle
had to combat in the Pastoral Epistles an error which tended to
doefteia. (2 Tim. ii. 16), as is abundantly evident from the represen-
tation which is given of the opponents therein referred to, it is easy
to account for the frequent occurrence of the term Kvaeftsia in these
epistles ; it thus belongs to those expressions, the use of which is
at once explained by a reference to the state of things which the
apostle had in his eye. And what more natural than that the



TITUS I. 2. 559

apostle who, at Bom. iv. 5, v. 6, denotes the state of men previous
to conversion by the term daeftrjg, should use the term evaefieLa in
opposition to those errors which result in a knowledge morally un-
fruitful, and lead away from a moral course, when he is laying stress
on the moral aspect of Christianity, seeing that this term denotes
the opposite of that which he expresses by doef3fc and daefieia (Rom.
i. 18), and which he here finds fault with in his opponents ? If
daefista, as the reverse of the evaefieta here used, is a Pauline expres-
sion, then evoK/3eta cannot, as De Wette maintains, be an unpauline
expression and idea ; and its use is fully accounted for by the errors
which are combated. Or, should the apostle have used the expres-
sions 0& harpswiv or dovXeveiv, in opposition to the morally unfruit-
ful, or rather altogether immoral course of those naraiokoyoi ;
expressions which De Wette says he might have used, but which
would only by possibility have conveyed his meaning, inasmuch as
De Wette himself admits, that no expression can be found in the
other epistles to denote that which the apostle had to say in the
given circumstances ? On the idea implied in (.vasfiEict) cornp. ii. 11,
12 ; 1 Tim. i. 5.

Ver. 2. In hope of eternal life, etc. These words, as De Wette
has already observed, are to be understood neither as more exactly
determining the godliness, nor the truth which leads to godliness.
For what proper sense do the words receive from Matthies' explana-
tion : " the truth which is conformable to piety derives its existence
from the hope of eternal life ?" Is not the dkrjdeta represented as
the objective truth ; on which the by-clause 77 K.ar' evae(3eiav can
make no alteration ? Nor can these words be connected with dnoa-
roXog, for in this case the co-ordinate position of &m with /cara,
would have been signified by a <5e or in some such way. It only re-
mains then with De Wette to connect trr' eX-nidi with the whole
sentence Kara, moriv, etc., or with the second member, Kal Kniyvuoiv.
The latter seems to me the more natural. The apostle has just said
what that is, which is the aim of his office, namely, the laith of the
elect, and the knowledge of the truth according to godliness ; and
he might have mentioned as a third thing at which the apostolical
office aims, the hope of eternal life. But he prefers, after having
in the words, truth wliicli leads to godliness, more exactly deter-
mined the subject matter of this knowledge, to mention the third
thing likewise in its relation to the knowledge thus determined ; it
is a knowledge the subject matter of which is that truth, and the
ground and condition of which is the hope of eternal life, by which
it is borne up and directed. 'Eni I take in the sense " on or with ;"
cornp. Winer's Grr., 48, c., p. 351. Olshausen, the end ; " to-
wards the hope." On the idea expressed in w?/ aluviog compare iii.
7. There lies in the words err' Khnidi, a further opposition to that



560 TITUS I. 2.

vain talking, i. 10 ; iii. 9, which discloses nothing of this hope of
eternal life. Very little weight will be given to De Wette's objec-
tion, that the apostle never makes eternal life the subject of hope,
and of Old Testament prophecies. Is not this eternal life repre-
sented as the end of all our striving in Horn. ii. 7 ; Gal. vi. 8, etc.,
as the sum of that which Christ hath obtained for us, Rom. v. 21,
vi. 23 ? Why then may he not represent it here as the object of
Christian hope, and as the sum of all the Divine promises ? The
single passage, Rom. vi. 23, the gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord, is sufficient to justify this. The apostle then char-
acterizes this w7? aluvio$ for the i\v refers to it ns the subject of
promise by the infallible God, npb %p6vuv aiwviurv. 'Ern/yye/Aaro in
the sense of promise, as used elsewhere by the apostle, Rom. iv. 20;
Gal. iii. 19. 'AipEvdrjs only here ; with respect to the idea, comp.
Heb. vi. 18 ; Rom. iii. 4, xi. 29 ; 1 Cor. i. 9. ITpd ^povwv aluviuv
may denote either what has been before all time, as in 2 Tim. i. 9
= npb TUV aluvuv, 1 Cor. ii. 7, or what has been done before ever-
lasting, t. e.., very ancient times. This indeterminateness has its