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TITUS, THE EPISTLE TO

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 1032 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TITUS, THE See also:EPISTLE TO , in the New Testament, an epistle which purports to have been written by See also:Paul to Titus (i. 1–4), who is in See also:charge of the See also:local churches at See also:Crete (i. 5). The younger See also:man is reminded of the qualifications which he is to insist upon in officials (i. 5–16), in view of current errors,2 doctrinal and moral. The genuine teaching, or " See also:sound See also:doctrine," which he is to propound (ii. 1, seq.), is then outlined, with regard to aged men and See also:women, younger men and slaves especially.' After a postscript (iii. 8–11), reiterating the counsels of the See also:letter, with particular reference to the outside public, some See also:personal notices are briefly added (iii. 12–13), and, with some final exhortations, the epistle ends. The origin of See also:Christian See also:missions in Crete is obscure. A strong Jewish See also:element existed among the See also:population (cf. i. 13 seq., iii.

9), which explains the particular See also:

hue of the local heresies as well as, perhaps, the initial efforts of a Christian propaganda (cf. Acts ii. I I). The See also:geographical situation of the See also:island also favoured an See also:early introduction of the new faith. " Crete was a See also:great wintering See also:place " for vessels (cf. Acts See also:xxvii. 12 seq.) working their slow way to See also:Rome along the See also:southern See also:coast of the Mediterranean,' so that the possibility of Jewish Christian evangelists having reached it before See also:long is to be granted freely. ' The See also:common names given to this See also:bird are so very inapplicable that it is a pity that " silerella " (from siler, an See also:osier) bestowed upon it by See also:Sir T. See also:Browne, its See also:original discoverer, cannot be restored. 2 On the somewhat harsh estimate of the Cretans in i. 12 see Dr J. Rendel See also:Harris in Expositor (7th See also:series, vol. ii. p.

305 seq.). The other features noted in the epistle, their turbulence, See also:

drunkenness and greed, all happen to be verified in the pages of See also:ancient writers like See also:Polybius. On the sub-Pauline See also:tone of iii. 5 cf. Sokolowski's Geist and Leben bei See also:Paulus (1903), p. to8 seq. Cf. W. M. See also:Ramsay: Pauline and other Studies (1907), p. 76, Hoennicke's Das Judenchristentum (1908), p. 156 seq., and See also:Harnack's See also:Mission and Expansion of See also:Christianity, ii. 229—230 (2nd ed., 1908).

It is more difficult to determine when Paul can have visited the island and See also:

left Titus behind him. Attempts have been made to find a setting for the epistle within the apostle's See also:life previous to his See also:Roman imprisonment (as recorded in Acts), but by common consent' it is now held that the epistle (if written by the apostle) must fall later, during the See also:period of missionary enterprise which is supposed to have followed his See also:release from the first captivity. Like the epistles to See also:Timothy, the Epistle to Titus thus belongs to a phase of the apostle's life for which we possess no other contemporary See also:evidence. The second imprisonment of 'Paul, after a period of freedom following his acquittal, is an See also:historical See also:hypothesis (cf. the statement in See also:Steinmetz's See also:Die zweiter&m.Gefangenschaft See also:des Paulus, p. 46 seq.), which is absolutely essential to the Pauline authorship of the pastorals. It is indeed supported by several critics who reject the latter, just as it is occasionally rejected by See also:advocates of their authenticity. But, upon the whole, such evidence from early tradition as can be adduced from the 2nd See also:century seems no more than an expansion of Paul's See also:language in Rom. xv. 24, 28. The pastorals themselves never mention any mission in See also:Spain. See also:Spanish tradition is silent on the fact, and the allusion to the " See also:west" (in Clem. Rom. v.) can be interpreted at least as fairly of Rome as of Spain. The entire problem is not without its difficulties still, after all the See also:research lavished upon it, but the probabilities seem to converge upon the conclusion that Paul was never released from his imprisonment, and consequently that he never revisited the See also:East.

The See also:

internal See also:criticism of the epistle starts from i. 7–9, which is plainly an See also:interpolation, perhaps from the margin, upon the qualifications of episcopoi. On the other See also:hand a passage like iii. 12–13 is indubitably a Pauline fragment, and the problem for the critic is to determine whether in the epistle as a whole we have a redacted and interpolated edition of what was originally a See also:note from the hand of Paul, or whether the epistle See also:drew upon some Pauline tradition (connecting Titus with Crete) and material, and was afterwards interpolated at i. 7–9. The latter hypothesis seems more probable, upon the whole, although there is little to choose between the two. The substantially Pauline See also:character of the epistle, for all See also:practical purposes, is to be granted upon either hypothesis, for the author or the editor strove not unsuccessfully, upon the whole, to reproduce the Pauline spirit and traditions The older notion that the personal data in Titus, or in the See also:rest of the pastorals, were invented to lend verisimilitude to the See also:writing must be given up. They are too circumstantial and artless to be the See also:work of a writer idealizing or creating a situation. Thus, in the See also:present epistle, a passage like iii. 12–13 is palpably genuine. But it is another question whether other passages can be added to it (e.g. i. I seq., 5–6, 12–13a, 16, iii.

1–7, 15, by See also:

Hesse; i. r, 4, iii. 15, by von See also:Soden; i. 1–6?, iii. 1–7, by See also:McGiffert), in See also:order to reconstruct a more or less See also:independent note from Paul's own See also:pen. It seems improbable that Titus or any of the pastorals is directed against any one phase of contemporary See also:heresy.' The See also:prohibition of See also:marriage (1 Tim. iv. 3) was common to See also:Marcion and See also:Apelles, while the See also:injunction of See also:fasting' is attributed to the Encratites (Iren. Adv. Hoer. i. 28, I) and to See also:Saturninus of See also:Antioch in See also:Syria (ibid. 1. 24, 3), the latter being also credited with having been the first to introduce a See also:dualism into humanity, which made See also:God send his Saviour to destroy the evil and redeem the See also:good, both classes having been formed by the angels (cf. Titus ii.

I I ; I Tim. iv. 1o). The exhaustive discussions on this point (cf. Bourquin, pp. 55 seq.) have led most scholars to the conclusion that no one See also:

system of 2nd-century See also:gnosticism is before the writer's mind. He is maintaining Paul's role. He makes the apostle prophesy, vaguely of course, the evil tendencies which were to come upon the See also:church; but the internal evidence, ' W. E. See also:Bowen, See also:Professor Bartlet (Apostolic See also:Age, pp. 178 seq. ; cf. also See also:article cn PAUL), Lisco (Vincula sanctcrum, 1900) and Laughlin are the only See also:recent exceptions, and their conjectural schemes are mutually destructive. The common See also:style of the epistles forbids any See also:dispersion of them over a See also:term of years.

They stand or fall together, as critics of all See also:

schools are practically agreed. The impossibility of placing them within the period of Acts is best known by See also:Hatch, Bourquin (pp. 10–25), See also:Bertrand (23–47) and von Soden. e The historical site for iii. 12–13, as well as for the tradition which forms the setting of the epistle, is probably to be sought in the neighbourhood of Acts xx. 3 (so Krenkel). Clemen See also:dates iii. 12–13 from See also:Macedonia after 2 See also:Cor. x.–xiii., i.–ix., previous to See also:Romans (in A.D. 59). Essenism, blended with Ebionitism, is the plausible conjecture of See also:Schleiermacher, See also:Neander and Mangold, but the See also:Essenes do not seem to have prohibited marriage so dogmatically. 8 See also:Asceticism was See also:bound up with the gnostic depreciation of the See also:body. By a natural recoil it produced licentiousness of conduct which the pastorals hotly denounce.

together with the impossibility of placing the epistles later than the first ten or twenty years of the 2nd century, render it impracticable to detect anything except incipient phases of syncretistic gnosticism behind the polemical allusions. It was a gnosticism fluctuating not only in its relation to the Church but in its emphasis upon certain ethical and theosophical ideas. One definite trait is its Jewish character (Titus i. 1o; 2 Tim. iii. 16; 1 Tim. i. 7, &c.). The errorists See also:

developed speculations and practical theories on the basis of the Old Testament See also:law, which proved extremely seductive to many Christians. But it is difficult to find any homogeneity in the repeated descriptions of this semi-gnostic phase, although now and then (e.g.-in i Tim. i. 7 seq. ; Titus i. 14, iii. 9) there are suggestions of the legalism which See also:Cerinthus advocated.

The See also:

Ophites are said to have not only used myths but forbidden marriage and held that the resurrection was purely spiritual (See also:Lightfoot) ; this, however, is probably no more than an interesting coincidence, and all attempts to identify the errorists definitely must be abandoned.' The early Fathers often indeed identify them with later types of gnosticism, but this cannot be taken as any sure See also:clue to the author's meaning. They naturally found in his prophetic words the anticipation of heresies current in their own age. Sometimes, as in the cases of the resurrection being allegorized2 and marriage repudiated,' it is feasible to detect distortions or exaggerations of Paul's own teaching, against which the Paulinist of the pastorals puts in a See also:caveat and a corrective. But these some-what " indiscriminate denunciations are certainly not what we expect from a man like Paul, who was an uncommonly clear-headed dialectician " (McGiffert). They partake of the nature of a See also:pastoral manifesto, which does not trouble to draw any See also:fine distinctions between the principles or motives of its opponents. The method resembles that of the First Epistle of See also:John, for although the errorists attacked in the latter manifesto are not those of the pastorals, and although the one writer eschews entirely the inner authority of the Spirit which the other posits, the same See also:anti-gnostic emphasis on practical See also:religion and stereotyped doctrine is See also:felt in both. For the view that a PauIinist was the author, see Schleiermacher, Cber den sogen. ersten Brief des Paulus an den Tim. (1807), which really opened the See also:modern phase of criticism on all three epistles; See also:Baur, Die sogenannten Pastoralbriefe des Apostels Paulus (1835) H. J. See also:Holtzmann, Die Pastoralbriefe kritisch u. exegetisch behandelt (188o), an exhaustive treatment; See also:Hilgenfeld, Zeitschrift See also:fur die wiss. Theologie (1897), 49 seq., 61 seq., 79 seq.; E. Y.

See also:

Hincks, See also:Journal of Bibl. Literature (1897), 94-117; and See also:Renan, S. Paul See also:xxiii.-'iii., L'Eglise chretienne, ch. v. The conservative position is maintained with varying confidence by C. W. See also:Otto, Die geschachtlichen Verhaltnisse der Pastoralbriefe (186o) ; Bertrand, Essai critique sur t'authenticite des Cp. pastorales (1888) ; G. G. See also:Findlay, appendix to Eng. trans. of See also:Sabatier's L'Apotre Paul, pp. 341 seq.; W. E. Bowen, Dates of Pastoral Letters (1900) ; T. C.

Laughlin, The Pastoral Epp. in the See also:

Light of one Roman Imprisonment (See also:California, 1905) ; and J. D. See also:James, The Genuineness and Authorship of the Pastoral Epistles (1906). For See also:general studies, see See also:Schenkel's Bibel-See also:Lexicon, iv. 393-402; Sabatier's article in Ency. des sciences religieuses, x. 250-259; J. R. See also:Boise, ' Clemen (Paulus i. 148) distinguishes broadly between the errorists of 2 Tim. and those controverted in the other two epistles. The former, he argues, are in the last resort libertinists and See also:antinomians; the latter must be regarded as ascetic Judaists. 2 2 Tim. ii. 18.

Paul's teaching about the believer being already risen with See also:

Christ gave a welcome handle to the later Gnostics. The passage in John v. 28-29 seems a correction of the possible inferences which might be See also:drawn from such teaching in Paul and in the See also:Fourth See also:Gospel itself. a Cf. Von Dobschiltz, Christian Life in the See also:Primitive Church (pp. 261 seq.). The Epp. of Paul written after he became a Prisoner (New See also:York, 1887) ; Plummer, Expositor's See also:Bible (1888); Bourquin, Etude critique sur See also:les past. epitres (189o) ; Harnack, Die Chronologie, 48o seq., 710-711; Moffatt, Ency. Bib., 5079-5096, and W. See also:Lock (See also:Hastings's Dict. Bible, vol. iv.). U.

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