The Expositor's Bible: The Pastoral EpistlesPlummer, Alfred
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Pastoral Epistles
Plummer, Alfred
Bible. Pastoral Epistles -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
philosophical speculations, and (on the part of some) to a bigoted
maintenance of Jewish ordinances and superstitions. Against all these
Titus will have to contend with decision, and if need be with severity.
The letter, in which directions are given for the carrying out of all
this, is evidence of the great confidence which the Apostle reposed in
him. One of those who had worked also in Corinth, is either already with
him in Crete, or may soon be expected,--Apollos, and with him Zenas. So
that the Corinthian experience is doubly represented. Other helpers are
coming, viz., Artemas and Tychicus; and, when they arrive, Titus will be
free to rejoin the Apostle, and is to lose no time in doing so at
Nicopolis.
One commission Titus has in Crete which very naturally was not given to
him at Corinth. He is to perfect the organization of the Christian
Church in the island by appointing elders in every city. And it is this
charge among others which connects this letter so closely with the first
to Timothy, which very likely was written about the same time.
Whether Titus was set free from his heavy charge in Crete in time to
join St. Paul at Nicopolis, we have no means of knowing. At the time
when the second letter to Timothy was written, Titus had gone to
Dalmatia; but we are left in doubt as to whether he had gone thither by
St. Paul's desire, or (like Demas in going to Thessalonica) against it.
Nor does it appear whether Titus had gone to Dalmatia from Nicopolis,
which is not far distant, or had followed the Apostle from Nicopolis to
Rome, and thence gone to Illyria. With the journey to Dalmatia our
knowledge of him ends. Tradition takes him back to Crete as permanent
bishop; and in the Middle Ages the Cretans seem to have regarded him as
their patron saint.
The impression left upon our mind by the Acts is that St. Luke knew
Timothy and did not know Titus: and hence frequently mentions the one
and says nothing about the other. The impression left upon our mind by
the mention of both in Paul's Epistles, and by the letters addressed to
each, is that Titus, though less tenderly beloved by the Apostle, was
the stronger man of the two. St. Paul seems to be less anxious about the
conduct of Titus and about the way in which others will treat him. The
directions as to his personal behaviour are much slighter than in the
case of Timothy. He seems to credit him with less sensitiveness and more
decision and tact; perhaps also with less liability to be carried away
by fanatical views and practices than the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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