Titus 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ¹  a slave ²  of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith ³  of God’s chosen ones and the knowledge of the truth that is in keeping with godliness,

Titus 2:11

2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. ⁴ 

Titus 3:4

3:4 ⁵  But “when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared,

Titus 1:4

1:4 To Titus, my genuine son in a common faith. Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior!

Titus 2:5

2:5 to be self-controlled, ⁶  pure, fulfilling their duties at home, ⁷  kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the message ⁸  of God may not be discredited. ⁹ 

Titus 2:13

2:13 as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing ¹⁰  of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. ¹¹ 

Titus 1:3

1:3 But now in his own time ¹²  he has made his message evident through the preaching I was entrusted with according to the command of God our Savior.

Titus 1:7

1:7 For the overseer ¹³  must be blameless as one entrusted with God’s work, ¹⁴  not arrogant, not prone to anger, not a drunkard, not violent, not greedy for gain.

Titus 2:10

2:10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, ¹⁵  in order to bring credit to ¹⁶  the teaching of God our Savior in everything.

[1:1]  ¹ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ² tn Traditionally, “servant” or “bondservant.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:1]  ³ tn Grk “for the faith,” possibly, “in accordance with the faith.”

[2:11]  ⁴ tn Grk “all men”; but ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpois) is generic here, referring to both men and women.

[3:4]  ⁷ tn Verses 4-7 are set as poetry in NA²⁶/NA²⁷. These verses probably constitute the referent of the expression “this saying” in v. 8.

[2:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “sensible.”

[2:5]  ¹¹ tn Grk “domestic,” “keeping house.”

[2:5]  ¹² tn Or “word.”

[2:5]  ¹³ tn Or “slandered.”

[2:13]  ¹³ tn Grk “the blessed hope and glorious appearing.”

[2:13]  ¹⁴ tn The terms “God and Savior” both refer to the same person, Jesus Christ. This is one of the clearest statements in the NT concerning the deity of Christ. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. The only issue is whether terms such as “God” and “Savior” could be considered common nouns as opposed to proper names. Sharp and others who followed (such as T. F. Middleton in his masterful The Doctrine of the Greek Article) demonstrated that a proper name in Greek was one that could not be pluralized. Since both “God” (θεός, qeos) and “savior” (σωτήρ, swthr) were occasionally found in the plural, they did not constitute proper names, and hence, do fit Sharp’s rule. Although there have been 200 years of attempts to dislodge Sharp’s rule, all attempts have been futile. Sharp’s rule stands vindicated after all the dust has settled. For more information on Sharp’s rule see ExSyn 270-78, esp. 276. See also 2 Pet 1:1 and Jude 4.

[1:3]  ¹⁶ tn The Greek text emphasizes the contrast between vv. 2b and 3a: God promised this long ago but now has revealed it in his own time.

[1:7]  ¹⁹ sn The overseer is another term for the same official position of leadership as the “elder.” This is seen in the interchange of the two terms in this passage and in Acts 20:17, 28, as well as in the parallels between these verses and 1 Tim 3:1-7.

[1:7]  ²⁰ tn Grk “as God’s steward.”

[2:10]  ²² tn Or “showing that genuine faith is productive.” At issue between these two translations is the force of ἀγαθήν (agaqhn): Is it attributive (as the text has it) or predicate (as in this note)? A number of considerations point in the direction of a predicate ἀγαθήν (e.g., separation from the noun πίστιν (pistin) by the verb, the possibility that the construction is an object-complement, etc.), though is not usually seen as an option in either translations or commentaries. Cf. ExSyn 188-89, 312-13, for a discussion. Contextually, it makes an intriguing statement, for it suggests a synthetic or synonymous parallel: “‘Slaves should be wholly subject to their masters…demonstrating that all [genuine] faith is productive, with the result [ecbatic ἵνα] that they will completely adorn the doctrine of God.’ The point of the text, then, if this understanding is correct, is an exhortation to slaves to demonstrate that their faith is sincere and results in holy behavior. If taken this way, the text seems to support the idea that saving faith does not fail, but even results in good works” (ExSyn 312-13). The translation of ἀγαθήν as an attributive adjective, however, also makes good sense.

[2:10]  ²³ tn Or “adorn,” “show the beauty of.”