Titus 1 — Greek text and reception
Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.
Chapter 1
The entrusted word and faithful care of the Church
Verse 1:1
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of God’s chosen ones and the knowledge of the truth that accords with godliness,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: δοῦλος is retained as slave, a metaphor of belonging to God here. The first κατὰ phrase is taken as expressing the service of the apostleship to faith; its precise relation can also be rendered in accordance with. The second links truth and godliness. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 1 on Titus, on 1:1, relates apostleship to service for the elect, not personal achievement. [P1]
Verse 1:2
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
in hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the ages,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: ἀψευδής describes God as truthful, without falsehood. Before the ages renders πρὸ χρόνων αἰωνίων; the promise precedes the appointed manifestation of 1:3. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 1 on Titus, on 1:2, grounds confidence in the promise in God’s truthfulness. [P1] Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress, Part One, Christian’s reply to Pliable (Gutenberg §27), explicitly reuses God’s inability to lie to defend the book’s promise of eternal life. This is allegorical reception. [B]
Verse 1:3
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
and in His own appointed times He revealed His word through proclamation, with which I was entrusted by the command of God our Savior,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The revealed object is His word. The proclamation, κήρυγμα, is what the following relative clause says was entrusted to Paul. The sentence continues into the addressee. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 1 on Titus, on 1:3, compares proclamation to a herald faithfully announcing an entrusted message. [P1]
Verse 1:4
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
to Titus, a genuine child in a shared faith: grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The selected Greek has grace and peace and Christ Jesus, without mercy or Lord. The opening English quotation in P1 includes mercy and Lord; this is a difference in the accessed translation, not proof of the Father’s exact Greek. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 1 on Titus, on 1:4, treats shared faith as limiting any spiritual superiority implied by fatherhood. [P1]
Verse 1:5
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For this reason I left you in Crete: that you might put in order what remained unfinished and appoint elders in each town, as I directed you—
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: κατὰ πόλιν distributes the appointments town by town. Elders renders πρεσβυτέρους; the overseer description follows in 1:7. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Titus, on 1:5, reads town-by-town appointments as providing particular pastoral care. [P2] Jerome, Letter 146.1 to Evangelus, quotes 1:5–7 to argue that the apostolic designations presbyter and bishop refer to the same ministers; he then discusses later presidency and ordination. [J]
Verse 1:6
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
if anyone is beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, having faithful children who are not accused of reckless living or insubordinate.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: πιστά can mean faithful or believing; faithful preserves the question of whether conduct or explicit belief is foremost. The phrase one wife is retained without inserting a later ruling about remarriage or celibacy. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Titus, on 1:6, permits married bishops but excludes remarried candidates: an attributed disciplinary interpretation. [P2] Jerome’s use of the whole 1:5–7 passage is discussed at 1:5. [J]
Verse 1:7
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For the overseer must be beyond reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for shameful gain,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The singular ἐπίσκοπος (overseer) continues the qualifications of the elders in 1:5. God’s steward denotes entrusted responsibility; five distinct negative qualifications follow. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Titus, on 1:7, opposes self-willed leadership and likens the teacher to a healing physician. [P2] See 1:5 for Jerome’s explicit reuse of 1:5–7. [J]
Verse 1:8
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
but hospitable, loving what is good, self-controlled, just, devout, disciplined,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The six positive qualifications remain distinct. φιλάγαθος can express love of goodness or good people; loving what is good retains the broader sense. ὅσιος is devout and ἐγκρατής disciplined. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Titus, on 1:8–9, extends restraint to passions, speech, and bodily actions, beyond fasting. [P2]
Verse 1:9
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
holding firmly to the trustworthy word in accordance with the teaching, so that he may be able both to encourage through sound teaching and to refute those who contradict it.
Verse 1:10
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
For there are also many insubordinate people, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The selected text includes καί, also. Empty talkers and deceivers specify the activity of the insubordinate people; especially identifies a subgroup among them, not every circumcised person. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Titus, on 1:10–11, connects insubordination with opponents’ desire to rule. [P2]
Verse 1:11
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
whose mouths must be stopped. They overturn whole households, teaching what they ought not to teach for the sake of shameful gain.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: ἐπιστομίζειν literally concerns stopping mouths; teaching and household disruption explain the image. A physical means is not specified. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 2 on Titus, on 1:10–11, understands stopping harmful teaching as protection for other hearers. [P2]
Verse 1:12
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
One of their own, a prophet of theirs, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies.”
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The harsh ethnic generalization is presented as the letter’s quotation, with its animal and belly images preserved. The source does not name this speaker here; an identification is not inserted into the translation. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 3 on Titus, on 1:12–13, names Epimenides and distinguishes reuse of a saying from endorsement of pagan theology. [P3]
Verse 1:13
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
This testimony is true. For that reason, rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith,
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The writer affirms the quoted testimony; sharply renders ἀποτόμως, and the purpose clause specifies sound faith as the aim of rebuke. The ethnic rhetoric is retained as the letter’s rhetoric. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 3 on Titus, on 1:13, argues that correction should vary with the hearers’ dispositions. [P3]
Verse 1:14
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
not attending to Jewish myths and commands of people who turn away from the truth.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: Jewish modifies myths; the following people are specified as turning away from truth. No particular rabbinic work or practice is identified by the Greek sentence. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 3 on Titus, on 1:14, extends the criticism to Jewish observances; that polemical application exceeds the verse’s named detail. [P3]
Verse 1:15
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
To the pure, everything is pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Both their mind and their conscience are defiled.
Textual & Reception Notes
Text: The contrast concerns pure and defiled persons and explicitly names mind and conscience. It should not be expanded into an assertion that every possible action is morally permissible. [G] Reception: Chrysostom, Homily 3 on Titus, on 1:15–16, locates defilement in sinful disposition, not created foods themselves. [P3]
Verse 1:16
Greek–English: Literal-Smooth (Saints Priority)
They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and unfit for every good work.