The Theology of the Epistle to Titus

THE THEOLOGY OF THE EPISTLE TO TITUS Of the three epistles in the Pauline corpus collectively designated as the Pastoral Epistles, that to Titus is most blatantly a theological compo- sition1. Its epistolary salutation mentions God (‡eóv) five times, three times with a descriptive epithet, “who never lies” (âceudßv), “our Sav- ior” (ö swt®r ™m¬n), and “Father” (patßr). In addition there is the description of Paul as “a servant of God” (doÕlov ‡eoÕ) and a mention of “the faith of God’s elect” (pístiv êklekt¬n ‡eoÕ). In some respects it is not so much the quantity and quality of this explicitly theological language that is significant as it is the fact that these five references to God appear in an epistolary salutation. THE EPISTOLARY FORMAT These references to God are more numerous than one would expect. No other epistolary salutation in the New Testament contains as many occurrences of the word “God” as that of the epistle to Titus. Even the long epistolary salutation of the letter to the Romans contains but four references to God. The other letters and epistles in the Pauline corpus contain but one (Philippians; 1 Thessalonians; Philemon), two (Gala- tians; Ephesians; Colossians; 1 Timothy; 2 Timothy), or three (1 Corinthians; 2 Corinthians) such references. It is likewise sure that each of the five references to God in the salutation of the epistle to Titus is theologically significant. God is identified in terms of the attributes of truth, paternity, and salvation. An individual human and a human collec- tivity are respectively identified in terms of their service to God and their having been chosen by God. The dossier is impressive. What is more impressive is that this abun- dance of rich theological language is found in an epistolary salutation. Without arguing the case in this paper2, I would hold that the epistle to 1. Pace B.S. EASTON, The Pastoral Epistles, New York, Scribner’s, 1948, p. 22, who opined that “we can hardly speak of the ‘theology' of the Pastoral Epistles”. My paper takes “theology” in the narrow sense of the pastor’s understanding of “God” (‡eóv), as this is reflected in the epistle to Titus. It focuses primarily on those passages in which the word “‡eóv" appears. These are Titus 1,1bis.2.3.4.7.16; 2,5.10.11.13; 3,4.8. 2. My views on the pseudepigraphal nature of the Pastoral Epistles are summarized in Letters That Paul Did Not Write: The Epistle to the Hebrews and the Pauline Pseud- epigrapha (GNS, 28), Wilmington, DE, Glazier, 1988, pp. 88-131. My description of the epistle to Titus as an epistle reflects my judgment on its pseudepigraphal nature. With regard to the New Testament’s epistolary corpus, I use “letter” when dealing with an authentic letter and “epistle” when dealing with a pseudepigraphal composition. In Letters That Paul THE THEOLOGY OF THE EPISTLE TO TITUS 57 Titus is pseudepigraphal and that the author has self-consciously adopted the epistolary genre for his composition. The text begins with an epistolary salutation in classic tripartite form, with a designation of the author, the intended recipient, and a greeting (1,1-4). It concludes with a variety of closing conventions, including a personal note that resembles “the travelogue”, concluding paraenetic remarks, greetings in the second and third persons3, and a final salutation (3,12-15). The literary features of these two sections of the epistle clearly type it as belonging to the epistolary genre. On the working assumption that the text is pseudepigraphal, it is most likely that it is doubly pseudonymous4. Not only is the designation of the author of the epistle a literary fiction, so too is the designated recipient. In dealing with a pseudepigraphal letter that purports to locate the recipient in a given locale, the interpreter must question the historicity of the geographic reference5. Titus, the fictive recipient of this letter, is purported to have been left behind in Crete (1,5). Why Crete? Unlike Ephesus6, it was not a major site of Pauline evangelization7. Troy W. Martin has argued8 that the location of Titus in Crete is a fea- ture of the pseudepigraphal character of the epistle. On his analysis the geographic reference was prompted by the pseudonymous author’s intention to use a proverbial saying that characterized Cretans as a bunch of liars (cf. 1,12)9. The proverb seems to have arisen as a response to the Did Not Write, I used the term “pastor” to refer generically to the author of all three Pas- toral Epistles. So as to leave open the possibility of different authors for the Pastorals, the present essay uses “pastor” exclusively for the anonymous author of the Epistle to Titus. 3. On the distinction see J.A.D. WEIMA, The Significance of the Pauline Letter Closings (JSNT SS, 101), Sheffield, Academic Press, 1994, pp. 39-45. 4. See W. STENGER, Timotheus und Titus als literarische Gestalten. Beobachtungen zur Form und Funktion der Pastoralbriefe, in Kairos 16 (1974) 252-297, esp. p. 253; J. ZMI- JEWSKI, Die Pastoralbriefe als pseudepigraphische Schriften – Beschreibung, Erklärung, Bewertung, in SNTU 4 (1979) 97-118, esp. pp. 98-100; cf. F. SCHNIDER – W. STENGER, Stu- dien zum neutestamentlichen Briefformular (NTTS, 11) Leiden, Brill, 1987, pp. 24-25. Quinn describes both Paul and Titus as “a typical figure”. See J.D. QUINN, The Letter to Titus (AB, 35), New York, Doubleday, 1990, p. 14. 5. Cf. R.E. BROWN, An Introduction to the New Testament (ABRL), New York, Dou- bleday, 1997, p. 669. 6. Cf. 1 Tim 1,3; 2 Tim 1,18; 4,12; comp. Acts 18,18-21.24-28; 19,1–20,1; 20,16-38; 1 Cor 15,32; 16,8; Eph 1,1. 7. Cf. Acts 27,7-26. 8. Martin argued his point in the context of a provocative paper delivered during a meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature on November 19, 1994. 9. Clement of Alexandria attributed the proverb to a Cretan seer, Epimenides, who most likely lived in the sixth century b.c.e.; see Stromata 1,59,1-2 (PG 8, 757); cf. Euse- bius, Hist. Eccl. 3,65 (PG 67, 421). This attribution is often echoed in commentaries on the epistle to Titus and is reflected in the marginal notations of N-A27, which indicates that the hexameter comes from Epimenides’ “Oracles” (Perì xrjsm¬n). It may be that the author of the epistle is familiar with the proverb because of its popularity in oral tradition or because of its appearance in an anthology of proverbial sayings that the author may have been able to use. Cf. QUINN, Titus (n. 4), pp. 107-109. 58 R.F. COLLINS Cretan myth that Zeus was buried in Crete10. Because of the myth, conventional theists of the day characterized the Cretans as liars11. If, in fact, the thrust of the proverb cited in 1,12 is to characterize the Cretans as insular folk who have departed from conventional theological orthodoxy, its appearance in 1,12 would seem to confirm the pseudonymous author’s intention to present an orthodox Christian theology to the “Cretans”. The canons of traditional orthodoxy12 are something that the faithful “Titus” (1,4) is to make known to those to whom he ministers. A concern for orthodoxy is one thing; the function of orthodox formu- lations of faith in an epistolary composition whose paraenetic function is manifest is something else. In this regard it is useful to recall some of the many valuable insights derived from the application of rhetorical criticism to an analysis of the New Testament’s epistolary corpus. After all, the art of letter writing was taught in the rhetorical schools of the Greco- Roman world. The premiere letter writer of the New Testament was him- self a rhetor, that is, a preacher (as this rhetorical function is designated within the Christian tradition when the subject of the orator’s discourse is the gospel message). Paul was a preacher and a letter writer. Much is to be learned about his letters when they are studied with the help of insights gleaned from rhetorical criticism13. Paul’s letter writing influenced much of the epistolary corpus of the New Testament, certainly those pseudepigraphal compositions that bear his name, Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, and the Pastoral Epis- tles, but also 1 Peter and the letters of the Book of Revelation and perhaps other New Testament “letters” as well. The pseudepigraphal letters that bear the apostle’s name invoke his authority. In citing his name, they draw upon his prestige. The epistle to Titus, as the other Pauline pseudepigrapha in the New Testament, has adopted the epistolary genre. Use of this genre was Paul’s innovative mode of communication with the communities of the Christian diaspora when he was not able to be physically present with them14. 10. Cf. J.R. HARRIS, The Cretans Always Liars, in The Expositor 2 (1906) 305-317, p. 307. 11. Thus Callimachus wrote, “Cretans are always liars. For a tomb, O Lord, Cretans built for you; but you did not die, for you are forever” (Hymn to Zeus, 8-9). 12. The concern for orthodoxy, although not necessarily nor exclusively a specifically theistic orthodoxy, is evident in the pastor’s initial focus on “the knowledge of the truth” (1,1) and his concern for the didactic responsibilities of the bishop. In the epistle to Titus the teaching responsibilities of the bishop are explained at length (cf. 1,9-14), In 1 Tim 3,2 the didactic function of the êpískopov is succinctly alluded to as his being “an apt teacher”.

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