NOTES. Orthodox readings.

Other notes

For Tit 2:1

¹But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

Paul sets against the strict religious formalism on which some church "teachers" insisted something that can look like simple rules... Read more

Paul sets against the strict religious formalism on which some church "teachers" insisted something that can look like simple rules of morality. Yet in these simple rules lies the essence of the Torah, and above all of the external Torah. The issue is the most ordinary keeping of the commandments, without any special religiosity, without the many norms and rules of ritual purity that lose their relevance for a resident of the Kingdom: in the Kingdom even the traditional Yahwistic and Jewish division into clean and unclean turns out to be irrelevant - everything there is clean.

But if we go further, it turns out that keeping the commandments, even purely externally, presupposes a certain dynamic of relationships with very different people, and these relationships must be built consciously, not merely by following socially conditioned automatic patterns. It is no accident that the apostle goes on to mention not only the most problematic church communities, the "older men" and "older women," but also slaves in their relationship to their masters. What they have in common is a kind of "naturalness" in the status of both the church "older men" and "older women" and the slaves. Indeed, many of those "older men" and "older women" whom Paul mentions treated their position in the Church not as a consciously chosen service, but as a situation that had taken shape by itself.

Many of them became "older men" and "older women" not because they had recognized their calling to the corresponding ministries, but because in old age there was nowhere else to go, and their whole life had become bound up with the Church - so let it be; the direct path was into the ranks of the "older men" or "older women." Much as in the Middle Ages people, especially girls and women, went to a monastery not because they had recognized a monastic calling, but because life had not worked out and no other alternative was visible.

Such automatism spiritually destroys a person: the place where he has found himself presupposes precisely conscious service, and when awareness, and therefore full service, is absent, the inevitable spiritual degradation of such a "servant" begins. But in the same way, though more slowly, a person also degrades in society if he is not aware of himself and of his relationships with the people with whom he has to interact. Social automatism is no better than "spiritual" automatism, though at first glance it looks less dangerous. It is against such automatisms that Paul warns Titus, considering them a much greater problem than the absence of religiosity among church members.

For Tit 1:15

¹⁵Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.

As is known, one of the main questions in the yahvisme, quite as the Judaism was the question of the ritual purity. And it is not surprising: because, particularly the ritual purity defined the possibility (or the impossibility) for man to approach the altar and be sanctified. However over time the real sense of the norms and rules of the ritual purity was if not completely, then very thoroughly forgotten. In the time of Paul for many they were already something self-value, requiring a rigorous execution just because the observation of these norms and rules became a religious duty. And their violation began to be considered almost as a crime, not because the relation to the sacred became more feverish, but because religiosity itself (at least, in certain Pharisees circles) became considerably rigorous.

However in the Kingdom the traditional notions of purity and impurity become irrelevant: because the Kingdom is entirely sanctified, sanctified by this breath of God, which penetrates into it to the very end. And for the inhabitants of the Kingdom the division between the pure and the impure is already irrelevant: because there can be by definition nothing impure, i.e. not subjected to sanctification in the Kingdom. And however the religious inertia also penetrated into the communities of church composed of the Jews, as well as the recent gentiles. And it was difficult for the profoundly religious (generally) Jews to accept the fact that the norms and rules of the ritual purity forming the core of their religious tradition, were suddenly irrelevant. And they continued to insist on the observation of rules, in a new context losing all sense.

Continued to ask their observation to every member of the Church, insisting that without such an observation, one cannot enter the Kingdom. And didn’t want at all to accept the fact that for the Church, their religiosity is their purely private affair. And Paul, of course perfectly understands that it is exactly like that, that for the Kingdom the question of purity and impurity is exclusively resolved at the level of the human heart: if it is pure, there cannot be any impurity in the life of such person, and if it is impure, then should be afraid of no other impurity: the worst has already happened. So the Apostle solves the problem of purity and impurity in relation to the Kingdom, and thus, in relation also to the Church.

For Tit 2:1-15

¹But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

²That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

³The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

⁴That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

⁵To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.

⁶Young men likewise exhort to be sober minded.

⁷In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,

⁸Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you.

⁹Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again;

¹⁰Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.

¹¹For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

¹²Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

¹³Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

¹⁴Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

¹⁵These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

Reading in Paul's letters about the life he proposes Christians should lead, one cannot help recalling wisdom writings... Read more

Reading in Paul's letters about the life he proposes Christians should lead, one cannot help recalling wisdom writings, examples of which are easy to find, for instance, in the Book of Proverbs. The call to chastity, to responsibility in household matters, and to respect for elders (vv. 1-6) was by no means something new. In a certain sense, the call for slaves to obey their masters not out of fear but for conscience's sake (vv. 9-10), which in the letter to Titus is not heard for the first time, could be considered new. This, however, is not surprising: ancient Israel never knew the mass slaveholding that characterized Egypt, Greece, or Rome. But the apostle, it is clear, applies the principles of social relations reflected in the tradition of wisdom writing to the realities of the Greco-Roman world. He evidently considers, if not the recommendations of the ancient sages themselves, then at least the logic that produced them to be universal enough.

Of course, such calls and exhortations were connected not least with political messianism, which at that time was widely spread in the Synagogue and was probably also entering church circles, above all, of course, the Judeo-Christian milieu, which then largely determined the life of the Church as a whole. Paul was a determined opponent of such ideas and views. And, as is clear, not only because political messianism was for him an obviously false messianism that could lead to nothing but senseless uprisings and subsequent reprisals. The main point was elsewhere: the apostle never forgot the Savior's words that His Kingdom is "not of this world." Social reforms, political struggle, or uprisings by themselves could not bring the triumph of the Kingdom nearer, as the apostle knew perfectly well. For Paul, society was only a means and an environment: a means for witness to the Kingdom and an environment in which witnesses must live temporarily, until the complete transfiguration of the world. And he wants this environment to hinder as little as possible the main task for Christians: their own spiritual formation and witness (vv. 11-14), in which the meaning of the Christian life consists.