Doing What Is Good (3:1–11)

Remind the people to be subject to rulers (3:1). Paul’s instructions regarding submission to rulers and authorities (3:1)—all of whom were undoubtedly pagans at the time—shows that Christianity is not a social revolutionary religion. Its impact on society should always be profound and good. But it does not engage in revolutionary or bellicose tactics, since Christ’s kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36).

God our Savior (3:4). Throughout 3:3–8, Paul uses the title “Savior” twice: once of God (3:4) and once of Christ (3:6); he also reiterates that God has “saved” us (3:5). The words, “Savior,” “save,” and “salvation” occur proportionally more often in the Pastoral Letters than in other New Testament books, so it was obviously on Paul’s mind as he himself faced further imprisonment or was already in custody facing trial.16 But the focus of most of the references to the salvation wrought by our Savior is different from what one normally finds in Greco-Roman antiquity, so we should look into this a little more fully.

Both gods and men were commonly called “saviors” in the Greek and Roman world (cf. comments on 1 Tim. 4:10). But the “salvation” referenced by the title “savior” and the “saving” they did to earn it were usually some benefaction or deliverance from danger in this life rather than a salvation from God’s wrath and judgment as found in the Bible (e.g., Rom. 5:9; Heb. 9:27; see Apion’s letter given in the box). The Greek and Roman gods did not all act as judges, and the notion of a final judgment was not universally accepted in Greco-Roman religious conceptions. Many of the gods were known as “savior” gods and were given that title (e.g., Artemis Soteira, or “Savioress”), but Zeus in particular was given the title of “savior,” and local varieties of Zeus were often known as Zeus Soter (“savior”) or Zeus Soterios (“the Saving One”).

Avoid foolish controversies (3:9). As he had similarly warned Timothy (see esp. comments on 1 Tim. 1:4), Paul now warns Titus to avoid “foolish controversies” because they are “unprofitable and useless” (Titus 3:9). People who turn such nonessential issues into the center of our faith are merely being divisive and should be shunned (3:10–11). Note that “genealogies” and “quarrels about the law” point to issues that are not at the center of Christianity’s interests.

Final Remarks (3:12–15)

Zenas the lawyer (3:13). Zenas is otherwise unknown. The job title “lawyer” (Gk. nomikos) is somewhat analogous to a lawyer of today. A “lawyer” in the Jewish world was a “scribe” who was an expert in the Mosaic law and functioned as a teacher among the Jews (e.g., Matt. 22:35; Luke 10:25 for the same Greek word used of the scribes). In the Roman world, a “lawyer” would often have been an imperial Roman jurist attached to the staff of the emperor or to the staff of a provincial governor. The most famous Roman jurist is Justinian, whose collections and digest of Roman law in the sixth century A.D. form a major source of our knowledge of earlier Roman jurisprudence. Zenas was probably a Roman jurist in some capacity rather than what we would think of today as a trial lawyer.

GREECE

Nicopolis was on the western side of Greece in the territory of Epirus.

Apollos (3:13). Apollos is a colleague of Zenas and is undoubtedly the Alexandrian Jew known from Acts 18–19 and from 1 Corinthians. That he was still active at this later date shows just how sketchy is our knowledge of the exact movements of the apostles and their associates in the earliest church period.

Grace be with you all (3:15). As we find with most letters in antiquity, Paul ends this letter with greetings from others and from himself to Titus and the church in Crete (see the letter of Apion given in a box above). He puts the finishing touches on his greetings with the benediction: “Grace be with you all,” showing with the plural reference here that he expects others to profit from the reading of this letter besides Titus himself.

Annotated Bibliography

Dibelius, Martin, and Hans Conzelmann. The Pastoral Epistles. Hermeneia. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972.

This critical commentary relies on the typical reasons for rejecting Pauline authorship of the Pastorals, but helpfully gives detailed attention to the historical background and especially connections of the Pastoral Letters with the Hellenistic world.

Fee, Gordon D. 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus. GNC. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984.

This is a concise commentary by a well-regarded NT and text-critical scholar in a popular format.

Guthrie, Donald. The Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. TNTC. Leicester and Grand Rapids: InterVarsity and Eerdmans, 1990 (rev. ed.).

A solid though brief commentary by a senior evangelical NT scholar.

Kelly, J. N. D. A Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles. TC. London: A. & C. Black, 1963; reprinted Grand Rapids: Baker, 1981.

This brief commentary sticks closely to the text and is marked by Kelly’s characteristic sound judgment. Kelly is well versed in original sources and has produced a number of standard works in the later development of early Christianity, which add depth to his commentary.

Kidd, Reggie M. Wealth and Beneficence in the Pastoral Epistles: A “Bourgeois” Form of Early Christianity? Atlanta: Scholars, 1990.

This is the best of many such studies on the contemporary social and ethical background of the Pastoral Letters. Kidd surveys an extensive range of background material in this work.

Knight, George W. III. Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles. NIGTC. Grand Rapids and Carlisle: Eerdmans and Paternoster, 1992.

This detailed commentary on the Greek text of the Pastorals often gives illuminating historical insights as well as careful attention to the meaning of the grammar and language of the biblical text. The best technical commentary on the Pastorals in print today.

Lau, Andrew L. Manifest in Flesh: The Epiphany Christology of the Pastoral Epistles. WUNT 2/86. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1996.

This specialized study draws especially helpful connections between the epiphany material in the Pastorals with the OT and other Jewish literature.

Oden, Thomas C. First and Second Timothy and Titus. Interpretation. Louisville: John Knox, 1989.

Oden presents an elegant and sane defense of Pauline authorship in this topically arranged “commentary.” There are a few rough spots regarding historical background of the biblical world (e.g., sacred prostitution at Ephesus, p. 95), but Oden augments his own helpful insights with a sprinkling of quotations of church fathers and Reformers, which gives the reader a wider view of the interpretation of the Pastoral Letters.

Young, Frances. The Theology of the Pastoral Letters. NTT. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1994.

This volume in a promising series spends considerable time trying to establish pseudonymous authorship of the Pastorals. Nevertheless, Young usefully reports on historical backgrounds of the Pastorals in places—for instance, on “teaching and learning in the ancient world” (pp. 79–84), though it seems mostly secondary and derivative.

Chapter Notes

Main Text Notes

1. See Acts 20:4; Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7; 2 Tim. 4:12; Titus 3:12.

2. For instance, Clement of Alexandria’s Exhortation to the Greeks, 1–2.

3. Dio Chrysostom, Orations 15.8.

4. Cf. Lacy, Family, 108–9.

5. Juvenal, Satires 8.

6. Dio Chrysostom, Orations 15.5.

7. See Demosthenes’ speech Against Neaira. For an important recent study related to this issue see Jennifer A. Glancy, “Obstacles to Slaves’ Participation in the Corinthian Church,” JBL 117 (1998): 481–501.

8. Pliny, Ep. 3.14.

9. Callimachus, Hymn to Zeus 8.

10. The text and translation are from New Docs 4 (1987): 151–52; cf. New Docs 6 (1992): 18–22 for more on this topic and recent bibliography.

11. The ius trium liberorum. See Pliny, Ep. 10.2; cf. 2.13; Tacitus, Ann. 15.19.

12. Many other examples from Greek and Roman comedy could be adduced. The slave Sceparnio is a good instance from the Roman comic play The Rope (Rudens) by Plautus (ca. 211 B.C.).

13. E.g., Martin Dibelius and Hans Conzelmann, The Pastoral Epistles (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972), 143.

14. Romans 3.3; Polycarp 8.3; cf. Smyrnaeans 1.1 (and one ms. at 10.1); Romans 6.3; Magnesians 6.1; cf. John 1:1.

15. Pliny, Ep. 10.96.

16. See W. Foerster, “σῴζω,” TDNT, 7:965–1024.

Sidebar and Chart Notes

A-1. Translation by Robert K. Sherk, Rome and the Greek East to the Death of Augustus (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984), 125–26.

A-2. See S. R. F. Price, Rituals and Power: The Roman Imperial Cult in Asia Minor (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1984).

A-3. Suetonius, Vespasian 23.

A-4. Tacitus, Ann. 15.71.3.