Titus 1:2

in hope of eternal life The force of this phrase -in hope" in N.T. is seen best from 1 Corinthians 9:10, -to plow in hope to thresh in hope of partaking," or Romans 4:18, -who in hope believed against hope." It stands strongly by itself with a verb of some otherstrong feeling or action, equivalent to summa spe. The force of Acts 26:5-6 comes out far more clearly if we keep -in hope" there too, and understand St Paul to say -All the Jews know me; from a boy I have been a strict Pharisee; and today I am living in hopeof the promise to our fathers as I stand here on my trial the hope to which our twelve tribes look; and about this very hope I am called to account." Comparing the structure as well as the subject matter of that verse, we may well connect -in hope" here with -Paul the Apostle" before, and with -the message wherewith I was entrusted" after. St Paul is still magnifying his office, as the emphatic egoshews. -My commission is threefold, and ranges from (1) the first spiritual life and gifts of those who have been chosen by God, through (2) the growing life of the true man of God thoroughly furnished, to (3) all the hope of glory; how your people in Crete may be justified, sanctified, glorified, is in the message wherewith I was entrusted; against this no Judaic formalism, no Gnostic spiritualism can hold: Ihave taught you (1) of the Holy Catholic Church; (2) of the Communion of saints and the Forgiveness of sins; (3) of the Resurrection of the body and the Life everlasting: and you are my true child after this common faith."

God, that cannot lie See Titus 1:1; -God's promise, and mine as His messenger, is very different from the Cretan teachers" word" (Titus 1:12). The epithet is unique in N.T.

promised before the world began R.V. literally, -before times eternal"; A.V. from Vulg. -ante tempora saecularia." The parallel passages are 2 Timothy 1:9 -his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal," Romans 16:25 -the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal," 1 Corinthians 2:7 -which God foreordained before the worlds," Vulg. -ante saecula." The last passage shews the meaning of the Vulgate, -before the times of the world's history," which is definite and accepted by R.V. there, though rejected here and in 2 Timothy 1:9 in favour of a bare and indeed meaningless phrase. It is better to import no extraneous definiteness into aionios, and also to recognise the proper idiomatic use of the preposition as to times and dates, of which 2 Corinthians 12:2 is an instance, -fourteen years ago," not -before fourteen years." Render in eternal times gone by. There is no difficulty as to the fact here or in 2 Timothy 1:9; with God to purpose, to promise, to give, are all one.