Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Titus 3:9

ἔρεις. So אcACKLP and all the versions (except the Aethiopic); but the rec. text has ἔριν with א*D2EG aeth. See critical note on 1 Timothy 6:4.

9. (b) AVOID CONTROVERSY

9. μωρὰς δὲ ζητήσεις καὶ γενεαλογίας καὶ ἔρεις καὶ μάχας νομικὰς περιίστασο, but shun foolish questions and genealogies and strifes and fightings about the law.

The corresponding advice in the Epistles to Timothy will be found 1 Timothy 1:4 ff; 1 Timothy 6:4, and 2 Timothy 2:23, where see the notes. The language descriptive of the forms of heresy to be avoided, and of the dangers resulting from idle and irrelevant speculations, is remarkably similar in all three Epistles. See Introd. chap. IV. For περιίστασο cp. 2 Timothy 2:16.

εἰσὶν γὰρ�, for they are unprofitable and vain. The word ἀνωφελής does not occur elsewhere in St Paul; cp. Hebrews 7:18. Ellicott notes that, although the adjective μάταιος is treated here and at James 1:26 as of two terminations, as in Attic Greek, yet the feminine form is found 1 Corinthians 15:17; 1 Peter 1:18. The simple adj. μάταιος does not occur again in the Pastorals, but the false teachers are called ματαιολόγοι (Titus 1:10) and their doctrine ματαιολογία (1 Timothy 1:6).

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Titus 3:9

Old Testament

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