Titus 1:12

Ver. 12. The apostle now passes on to the Cretans generally. They had in a measure been referred to already; for while persons of the Jewish race had been more particularly noticed, it was only as forming the most troublesome and dangerous class of adversaries to the cause of Christ in Crete. But the Cretans at large were noted for characteristics akin to those charged upon the Jews; and he brings in proof an unimpeachable witness: One of them has said their own prophet The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies (Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί). This passage, which is a regular hexameter line, has been ascribed by some to Callimachus, a Cyrenaean, but improperly; the better informed of the Fathers (Jerome, Chrysostom, Epiphanius) associate the words with Epimenides, who was a native of Phaestus or Cnossus, in Crete, and who had the name and repute of a prophet (Diog. Laertius; Cicero, de Civ. i. 18; Plato also calls him θεῖος ἀνήρ, Legg. i. 642). He lived about 600 years before Christ. It was a dreadful testimony for him to bear against his countrymen, when he charged them with being addicted to falsehood, ferocity (κακὰ θηρία, wild, fierce like beasts), and gluttony (γαστέρες ἀργαί, lit. idle bellies, but used of persons given to luxurious living, and through that growing into a corpulent habit of body). The first characteristic was so notorious, that it was the subject of frequent remark; the very expression here used of it is also found in a hymn to Zeus by Callimachus; and Hesychius in his Lex. explains Κρητίζειν by the synonymous words, ψεύδεσθαι and ἀπατᾷν : to play the Cretan, was just to lie and deceive. (See in Wetstein an immense array of quotations on all the expressions, and on the first with special reference to the Cretans.) The description, of course, is to be understood as applying only in the general to the Cretan population, while admitting, doubtless, of many individual exceptions. But being so general, as to have become a kind of byword and reproach to the island, it was to be expected that the noxious qualities would not be long in making their appearance in the Christian church; on the side especially of these qualities danger was to be looked for to the cause of a pure and healthful Christianity.

Ver. 13. Hence in this verse the apostle calls for sharp reproofs against the prevailing evils: This testimony is true; wherefore reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith. It were wrong to infer from such words, though it is sometimes done, that the members of the church generally in Crete had already given way to the common vices, or had not abandoned them when they assumed the Christian profession; just as in regard to the early church at Corinth, the outbreak of licentious tendencies in one or two individuals by no means argued a general corruption. But happening where licentious practices so fearfully abounded, even a very partial appearance of the evil was sufficient to awaken apprehensions, and called for instant repression. It would naturally be the same in Crete in regard to the corrupt tendencies which had obtained such wide and continued prevalence there; and the purport of the exhortation given to Titus on the subject, was simply that he should maintain a firm protest against practices of such a nature, and in so far as they appeared among the members of the Christian church, subject the doers of them to admonition and rebuke. And when the apostle presents it as the object of such dealing, that the offending parties become sound or healthy in the faith, he as much as says, that faith, when in a state of health, fulness, and vigour, cannot ally itself to such corrupt practices as were prevalent in Crete: such practices betoken either the total absence of faith, or faith in a very feeble and sickly condition.