Titus 1:12

προφήτης : It is possible that St. Paul applies this title to the author of the following hexameter line because the Cretan false teachers were self-styled prophets. There was a Cretan prophet once who told plain truths to his countrymen. The whole line occurs, according to Jerome, in the περὶ χρησμῶν of Epimenides, a native of Cnossus in Crete. The first three words are also found in the Hymn to Zeus by Callimachus, who is the prophet meant according to Theodoret; and the rest has a parallel in Hesiod, Theogon. 26, ποιμένες ἄγραυλοι, κάκʼ ἐλέγχεα, γαστέρες οἶον. It is generally agreed that St. Paul was referring to Epimenides. This is the view of Chrys. and Epiph., as well as of Jerome. It was Epimenides at whose suggestion the Athenians are said to have erected the “anonymous altars,” i.e., Ἀγνώστῳ Θεῷ (Acts 17:23), in the course of the purification of their city from the pollution caused by Cylon, 596 B.C. He is reckoned a prophet, or predictor of the future, by Cicero, de Divin. i. 18, and Apuleius, Florid. ii. 15, 4. Plato calls him θεῖος ἀνήρ (Legg. i. p. 642 D).

ψεῦσται : The particular lie which provoked the poet's ire was the claim made by the Cretans that the tomb of Zeus was on their island. Here, the term has reference to ματαιολόγοι, etc.

γαστέρες ἀργαί : The R.V., idle gluttons, is more intelligible English than the A.V., slow bellies, but does not so adequately represent the poet's meaning. He has in his mind the belly, as it obtrudes itself on the beholder and is a burden to the possessor, not as a receptacle for food. Alf. quotes aptly Juvenal, Sat. iv. 107, “Montani quoque venter adest, abdomine tardus”.