Titus

Titus 1 – Skeptic's Annotated Bible answered

A response and reply to the notes on Titus 1 in the Skeptic's Annotated Bible (SAB).

King James Version

SAB comment

My comment

1 Paul, a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness;

"Paul"
Although Titus (1:1) claims to have been written by Paul, many scholars believe that it was written pseudonymously after his death.¹

See 1 Tim. 1:1.

2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

"God, that cannot lie"
God, like George Washington, cannot tell a lie. But somehow he managed to do so in 1 Kings (22:22-23) and Jeremiah (20:7).
Does God lie?

God cannot lie as this verse says. See 1 Kg. 22:22 and Jer. 20:7 where the author of the SAB reads something different.

3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;

4 To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

5 For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:

6 If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly.

(1:6-7) "The husband of one wife"
A bishop should have only one wife. I guess it's OK for laymen to have several.
Is polygamy OK?

See 1 Tim. 3:2.

7 For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;

8 But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;

(1:7-8) "A bishop must be ... just."
Has the ever been a just person?

See Matthew 1:18.

9 Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.

10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:

(1:10-11) "There are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped."
Jews are unruly liars "whose mouths must be stopped."

The conclusion of the author of the SAB is a non-sequitur. There are many vain talkers, and many of those are Jews, that is all the apostle Paul say. The reverse, all Jews are vain talkers, or even most of the Jews are vain talkers, does not follow from this. Else Paul would have to include himself as well, as he also was of the circumcision.

11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.

12 One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.

"The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies."

A quote from a Cretian, the poet Epimenides. It occurs in the poem Cretica. All works from Epimenides are lost, and it only survives in quotations by others. The author of the SAB finds this poet cruel? It might have been, and it might have been the truth.

13 This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;

14 Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth.

"Not giving heed to Jewish fables"
Paul says to disregard "Jewish fables and commandments of men, that turn from the truth." Like most of the bible, maybe?

In several other epistles Paul warns about fables, for example 1 Tim. 1:4 and 1 Tim. 4:7. John Gill adds some insight on those Jewish fables:

Concerning God himself, the angels, and the creation of man; concerning the giving of the law at Mount Sinai; concerning the Messiah and his earthly kingdom, and the feast that will be made for the righteous in his days, which will consist of flesh, fish, and fowl, Behemoth, Leviathan, and Zuz, and of wine kept in the grape from the foundation of the world; and concerning the rolling of the dead through the caverns of the earth at the resurrection, with a multitude of other things which were traditionally received.

On the contrary, the Bible is not a fable as Peter says (2 Pet. 1:16):

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

The commandments of men are those for which Jesus warns in for example Matthew 15:3. They are things not found in the word of God and for which people stil claim God's authority and wrath if you don't observe it.

15 Unto 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.

16 They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.