Titus 2.1-10.
Throughout ancient literature, sages would put together a list of rules for how every person’s meant to fulfill their role in a family. Husbands act like this, wives act like that. Sons do this, daughters do that. Male slaves do this, female slaves do that. Scholars call them
The list in Titus likewise includes slaves, because
Popular American culture has their own household codes. Most of ’em have to do with authoritarian men trying to establish their own little despotic
Titus 2.1-10 KWL - 1 Speak out, Titus, about whatever comes up,
- with healthy teaching.
- 2 Elders ought to be in their right minds.
- Well respected. Self-controlled.
- They should have healthy faith,
- healthy love, healthy consistency.
- 3 Women elders likewise with devout behavior.
- Not backstabbing.
- Not enslaved to heavy drinking.
- Teachers of good things,
- 4 so they might train the new Christians
- to love their men, to love their children.
- 5 Self-disciplined. Clean.
- Good at running a household.
- Submitting to their own men,
- so God’s word won’t be slandered.
- 6 Teenagers likewise:
- Help them in self-discipline.
- 7 In everything present yourself,
- as an example of good works.
- In teaching, integrity and honesty,
- 8 a healthy, irrefutable word,
- so those from the opposition might respect it,
- having nothing evil to say about us.
- 9 Slaves are to obey their own wardens
- in every acceptable way.
- Not to argue.
- 10 Not to embezzle.
- Instead demonstrate all good faith
- so God our Savior’s teaching will decorate everything.
Now y’notice Paul’s list began with instructions to Titus about the sort of traits we oughta see in
So yeah, this passage didn’t begin as a household code. But it became one. Because every Christian oughta become an elder. All of us should aspire to Christian maturity. Therefore every man and woman should become an elder in our churches, and contribute to its leadership and upkeep.
The roles of the male and female elders.
The way Paul wrote his letters was usually through dictation; he’d simply tell someone else what to write. They’d write it on wax tablets, then they’d read it back and the two of them would make edits, and then the final version would be ink on papyrus, mailed to the individual or church Paul meant as recipient. Obviously the papyruses are all gone, but ancient Christians made loads of copies, and that’s why we have a copy of Titus and all the other books of the New Testament.
It’s because Paul was dictating, that his train of thought seems to wander here and there in all his letters. He talks about one thing; he goes off on a tangent; now he’s talking about another thing. He begins the second chapter of Titus speaking about elders, ’cause he told Titus he sent him to Crete to appoint elders.
Titus 2.2 KWL - Elders ought to be in their right minds.
- Honorable. Self-controlled.
- They should have healthy faith,
- healthy love, healthy consistency.
IN THEIR RIGHT MINDS (
νηφαλίους /nifalíus, “sober”). Not drunk; not stoned. Paul brought this up already, but he’s gonna again: No heavy drinkers nor alcoholics in leadership!WELL RESPECTED (
σεμνούς /semnús, “revered, august, holy, honorable, noble, majestic”). They’re gonna be the sort of people whom other people listen to. Don’t make leaders of silly people!SELF-CONTROLLED (
σώφρονας /sófronas, “moderate as to opinion or emotion”). Someone who’s gonna be thoughtful and prudent, and not just go with their gut or their knee-jerk reactions.HEALTHY (
ὑγιαίνοντας /ygiénontas, “sound and whole in health”) in FAITH (πίστει /pístei), LOVE (ἀγάπῃ /ayápi), and CONSISTENCY (ὑπομονῇ /ypomoní, “endurance”). Which I’m pretty sure means the same thing as when we talk about these things as growing, living, and active. Paul didn’t want casual believers in leadership—of course.
These are traits we should see in all Christian leaders, men and women alike, but Paul next spoke about how the women elders oughta be. Seems he saw certain issues specifically among the Cretan women, and in such cases it’s best to have women elders tackle it. Not that men can’t, but men can be really dense when it comes to women. And likewise there were certain traits Paul saw in the Cretan women which he didn’t wanna see among their elders!
Titus 2.3-5 KWL - 3 Women elders likewise with devout behavior.
- Not backstabbing.
- Not enslaved to heavy drinking.
- Teachers of good things,
- 4 so they might train the new Christians
- to love their men, to love their children.
- 5 Self-disciplined. Clean.
- Good at running a household.
- Submitting to their own men,
- so God’s word won’t be slandered.
DEVOUT BEHAVIOR (
καταστήματι ἱεροπρεπεῖς /katastímati yeroprepéis, “a condition as [done, seen] in a sacred place”). How would you behave in church? Well, Christians oughta behave that way all the time. Paul didn’t want women who were one way in the church buildings, another way in the marketplace or in private. He didn’t wanthypocrites. He wanted consistent women in leadership.NOT BACKSTABBING (
μὴ διαβόλους /mi diavólus, “not devilish”). Yep, Paul literally said “not devilish.” But the Greek concept of diavólus has to do with Satan’s traditional role of accusing people—same as it did Job, and often unfairly—of unworthiness or sin. And the last thing we Christians need in our churches are people who will do Satan’s work for it. Paul didn’t want people in leadership who’d slam or slander everyone else, but who’d encourage and support.NOT ENSLAVED TO HEAVY DRINKING (
μὴ οἴνῳ πολλῷ δεδουλωμένας /mi íno polló deduloménas, “not enslaved to much wine”). Seriously, how rampant was alcoholism in Crete back then?TEACHERS OF GOOD THINGS (
καλοδιδασκάλους /kalo-didaskálus, “teachers of good”). Or teachers of the right things to do. Good examples.Particularly good examples of how to be good wives. Paul wanted ’em to show the newbies how to love their husbands and children. ’Cause they might not; they might be awful wives and mothers. So the elders were to take ’em in hand and encourage them to be better people.
And male elders should likewise do this sort of thing with the male newbies in our churches: Encourage them to be better husbands and fathers. Show ’em how. Be good examples.
SELF-CONTROLLED (
σώφρονας /sófronas), same as the male elders.CLEAN. (
ἁγνὰς /agnás). Or “pure, chaste,” and all the other metaphors which go with moral cleanness; but let’s not rule out the likelihood Paul wanted ’em literally clean. There are a lot of untidy people out there who really ought not be life-coaching other people on how to put their lives in order when their own lives are a mess!GOOD AT RUNNING A HOUSEHOLD. (
οἰκουργοὺς ἀγαθάς /ikurgús ayathás, “good home-workers”). No, this doesn’t mean every Christian woman needs to be a homemaker. ReadProverbs 31 again, and noticehow that woman behaved. She was a merchant; she worked outside the house! But she knew how to deal with the people who did tend her house for her. She had her affairs in order. And again: Those who wanna lead other Christians into doing better with their personal lives, oughta have their own personal lives sorted out. None of this “those who can’t do, teach” mindset here.SUBMITTING. (
ὑποτασσομένας /ypotassoménas). Specifically, to their husbands. Yeah, despotic husbands are gonna insist this means obeying their husbands, and no it doesn’t:Submission to others means you run things by them. You don’t act unilaterally. Your spouse should know what you’re up to, and should have a say in it!Then, as now, people would do things or make decisions and not include their spouses in it. Wives wouldn’t tell their husbands they were gonna spend a hundred denarii on a new dress; husbands wouldn’t tell their wives they were gonna spend a hundred denarii on a new toy; consequently their treasury would be 200 denarii emptier and they’d both wonder where all the money was going. There are other, better examples of this lack of communication, but the general idea is spouses shouldn’t do this. You’re on the same team. You gotta share!
Paul says they gotta submit “so God’s word won’t be slandered”—as it will be whenever a woman tries to do things behind her husband’s back, yet claims she’s a good Christian. If that’s so, what’s with the secrecy? The deception? The lies of omission? The hypocrisy? And I’m not letting the men off the hook when they do the very same thing. It’s all evil, and shouldn’t be seen in any Christian, much less those in leadership.
Yes, female elders.
As you can see, when Paul brings up the women elders (
But sexists immediately balk at the idea of women elders. ’Cause to them, women can’t be elders; women have no place in Christian leadership. Couldn’t be priests in temple, in bible times; couldn’t sit up front in synagogue, but had to sit in the women’s section. And the ancient Christians didn’t fix this problem; they perpetuated it for centuries. So there must be something to that, right?—it’s not just the oversight of sexists who brought all their sexism into Christianity with them?
Now y’notice Paul used the word presvýtidas, which literally means “older woman”; it’s the feminine version of the
And you notice Paul treats them like synonyms in today’s passage. Both the men and the women are expected to have good character. Both are given duties. They’re to supervise people. They’re to train people. To lead. To lead Christians. To lead Christians as part of the church.
And of course sexists are gonna ignore all this. Plus pretty much everything the bible says about women in leadership. They’ll claim none of these things really apply to present-day Christianity, which is why in their churches, women are never put into formal positions of leadership;
Sexists are gonna argue presvýtidas only means “old women,” or “aged women” like the
Except… Paul did use the feminine form of presvýteros in 1 Timothy.
1 Timothy 5.2 KJV - The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity.
These are all synonyms to Paul. The only people who don’t consider ’em synonyms are sexists—who insist even the use of
I’ve written elsewhere about sexism in Christianity, and how it regularly defies scripture, as well as
But enough about them. Let’s look at the last bits of the household code.
Young people and slaves.
The lowest people on the ancient totem pole would be the young adults—who’d be in their teens, which is why I translated
So Paul’s instruction to Titus wasn’t so much, “Teenagers need to be this,” but more directly to Titus about what to do with ’em. “Help them in self-discipline.”
Slaves were also expected to be self-disciplined. Paul didn’t use that specific term, but note how that’s kinda what he means by being reasonably obedient, not argumentative, and not skimming from the slaveholders’ resources in order to quietly enrich themselves.
Titus 2.9-10 KWL - 9 Slaves are to obey their own wardens
- in every acceptable way.
- Not to argue.
- 10 Not to embezzle.
- Instead demonstrate all good faith
- so God our Savior’s teaching will decorate everything.
It’s advice which Christian employees can also follow. Obey your bosses’ reasonable orders. Don’t argue about every little thing. Don’t swipe office supplies, or waste time when you’re on the clock. Be like Jesus even in the workplace; bring
Of course slaveholders abused this passage, and tried to enforce it with their slaves, even while they themselves were hardly Christian when they dealt with them. And the bosses of “Christian businesses” likewise try to exploit their employees, and claim they’re just following “biblical principles” when really they’re taking advantage of their workers and putting a hypocritical Christian veneer over it. Paul didn’t deal with slaveholders in Titus, but he did in
