Titus 2:10-15

2:10 not pilfering, but showing all good faith, ¹  in order to bring credit to ²  the teaching of God our Savior in everything.

2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. ³  2:12 It trains us ⁴  to reject godless ways ⁵  and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 2:13 as we wait for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing ⁶  of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. ⁷  2:14 He ⁸  gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, ⁹  who are eager to do good. ¹⁰  2:15 So communicate these things with the sort of exhortation or rebuke ¹¹  that carries full authority. ¹²  Don’t let anyone look down ¹³  on you.

[2:10]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Or “adorn,” “show the beauty of.”

[2:11]  ³ tn Grk “all men”; but ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpois) is generic here, referring to both men and women.

[2:12]  ⁴ tn Grk “training us” (as a continuation of the previous clause). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 12 by translating the participle παιδεύουσα (paideuousa) as a finite verb and supplying the pronoun “it” as subject.

[2:12]  ⁵ tn Grk “ungodliness.”

[2:13]  ⁶ tn Grk “the blessed hope and glorious appearing.”

[2:13]  ⁷ 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.

[2:14]  ⁸ tn Grk “who” (as a continuation of the previous clause).

[2:14]  ⁹ tn Or “a people who are his very own.”

[2:14]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “for good works.”

[2:15]  ¹¹ tn Or “reproof,” “censure.” The Greek word ἐλέγχω (elencw) implies exposing someone’s sin in order to bring correction.

[2:15]  ¹² tn Grk “speak these things and exhort and rebuke with all authority.”

[2:15]  ¹³ tn Or “let anyone despise you”; or “let anyone disregard you.”