Titus 1:10,11

Vers. 10, 11. The apostle now, taking occasion from the last clause in the preceding verse, proceeds to discourse of the peculiar character of the adversaries whom the infant church in Crete had to contend against: For there are many unruly vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. It would appear, from various incidental notices, that many Jews had settled in Crete; but it is sad to learn that the most noted for troublesome wranglings and practices of deceit were of that class. Perhaps it is not meant that they were absolutely the worst in Crete, but the worst only of those with whom the Christian church came into contact; for, the most depraved portions of the people would as yet be but little touched by the apostolic movements around them. I should, however, hesitate to say that “those of the circumcision” were (as many expositors hold) not simply Jews, but rather Jewish Christians. They must have been, one would suppose, more or less favourably disposed toward the Christian cause; but as yet scarcely won over to its side. It is by no means probable, considering what Jewish converts had everywhere to encounter, that at so early a period after the introduction of Christianity into the island of Crete there should have been great numbers of the more reprobate class of Jews, who were ready to brave the risk, and, for any considerations likely to be appreciated by them, should have actually pressed into the Christian fold. Some better evidence would be required for this than the present passage affords. For the characters here described are introduced simply as a specific portion of the opponents or gainsayers mentioned in Titus 1:9, and the most insidious and pestilent section of them. The more probable supposition regarding them is, that they did, indeed, somehow place themselves alongside the Christian communities, feigned, perhaps, a measure of sympathy and goodwill toward them, but mainly for the purpose of insinuating their objections to the truth of the gospel, ventilating their own frivolous and fanciful conceits, and prosecuting with advantage their selfish aims. Their whole spirit and conduct, as depicted by the apostle, ran counter to a genuine, or even credible, profession of Christianity: instead of children of peace, they were sowers of strife and discord; sedulous pliers of the arts of seduction, not lovers of truth and righteousness; and so intent on worldly pelf, that for the sake of base gain they subverted whole houses, teaching things which they ought not. As it was by word of mouth that they sought to compass their ungodly ends by teaching things which they ought not the subverting ascribed to them must be taken in a spiritual sense: they perverted the views, overthrew the faith and that of whole houses or families (comp. 2 Timothy 2:18). The precise form of representation differs from what we find in 1 Timothy 1:4 sq.; but the relation in which the respective parties stood to the law on the one side, and to the gospel on the other, appears to have been much the same; and so, in both places alike, the apostle charges his evangelists to see that an uncompromising opposition be given to them: there, they were to be testified against and shunned; here, where the evil apparently was more rampant, their mouths must be stopt they must be reduced to silence.