Elders: appointed town by town, qualified by character and the word

Titus is one of the three Pastoral Letters, with 1 and 2 Timothy. It names Paul as its author (1:1). The traditional view, held by the early church and by most conservative scholars, is that Paul wrote it after the period covered in Acts, probably about AD 62-65, between his release from Roman custody and his last imprisonment. Many critical scholars think a follower of Paul wrote the Pastorals in his name some decades later, pointing to their vocabulary and to a church order they judge more developed than the earlier letters show. This class follows the traditional view and notes the dispute.

Titus was a Gentile Christian and a trusted co-worker of Paul (Galatians 2:1-3; 2 Corinthians 8:16-17, 23; 12:18). He is never named in Acts. Paul left him on Crete, a large island south of Greece, to finish setting the churches in order (1:5). Acts does not record a Pauline mission on Crete. It records only a voyage along its coast with Paul as a prisoner (Acts 27:7-13) and Cretans among the Pentecost crowd (Acts 2:11). The churches were young and scattered in separate towns.

The occasion is a threat. Opponents, 'especially those of the circumcision' (1:10), were teaching 'Jewish myths' and 'commands of men' (1:14) for profit and were upsetting whole households (1:11). Paul also quotes a saying about Cretans (1:12), a line usually traced to the Cretan poet Epimenides (about 600 BC). The letter therefore asks for leaders who can hold the church to the apostolic word. Chapter 1 supplies the leaders; chapters 2 and 3 describe the conduct of every group in the church and ground it in the grace of God.

Titus is a letter of instruction from an apostle to his delegate. It opens with a theological greeting (1:1-4), gives a task (1:5), lists the qualities of those who will do it (1:6-9), and describes the people they must deal with (1:10-16). The list must be read beside its opposite. The word for 'rebellious' (anypotaktos) is used of the children an elder must not have (1:6) and of the false teachers (1:10). The phrase for shameful gain lies behind both 'greedy for money' (1:7) and the motive of the opponents (1:11). Paul draws the elder as the opposite of the men who are wrecking households.

The qualifications are a virtue list, a form common in Greek moral writing and used by Paul elsewhere (Galatians 5:19-23). Such a list describes a recognizable character; it is not a legal checklist, and the same items recur with variations in 1 Timothy 3:1-7. The class reads Titus 1 together with 1 Timothy 3, Acts 14 and 20, Philippians 1:1 and 1 Peter 5, because no single passage gives the whole picture.

The word 'for' at the start of verse 7 is the key to the passage. Verse 5 speaks of 'elders' and verse 7 of 'the overseer', and the second is given as the reason for the first. The class reads the two words as naming one group of leaders, as most traditions do, and takes later developments up in the tradition note and in classes 9 and 11.

Verses 1–4

The greeting is one long sentence. Paul calls himself 'a servant of God' (doulos, a slave) and 'an apostle of Jesus Christ' for the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth 'that leads to godliness.' Godliness (eusebeia) is a favorite word of the Pastoral Letters for a life shaped by right knowledge of God. The hope of eternal life was promised by God 'who cannot lie' and is now made evident in the proclamation entrusted to Paul. 'Savior' is used of God the Father and then of Christ Jesus. Titus is Paul's 'true child in our common faith,' a Gentile who shares the same faith.

Verse 5

'The reason I left you in Crete was that you would set in order what was unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.' Two tasks are given.

• The first verb (epidiorthoo) means to straighten out further what is lacking.
• The second (kathistemi) means to put in position, to appoint, the verb used of the Seven in Acts 6:3. Paul does not say how the choosing was done. In Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in the churches they had planted, with prayer and fasting. 'In every town' (kata polin) means one church in each place, led by elders in the plural. The text does not say how many.

The word presbyteros means an older man (1 Timothy 5:1) and then a recognized leader. In the Old Testament the elders of Israel are the heads of families and communities who act for the people (Exodus 3:16; 24:1, 9-11; Numbers 11:16-17; Deuteronomy 21:19), and synagogues had elders (Luke 7:3). In the church the word is used of the Jerusalem elders who receive the famine gift (Acts 11:30), who with the apostles consider the Gentile question (Acts 15:2, 6, 22-23) and who with James receive Paul (21:18); of the elders appointed in the churches (14:23; Titus 1:5); of the Ephesian elders (Acts 20:17); of elders who pray over the sick (James 5:14); of the 'council of elders' who laid hands on Timothy (1 Timothy 4:14); and of Peter, who calls himself a fellow elder (1 Peter 5:1). The writer of 2 John and 3 John calls himself simply 'the elder.'

Verse 6

Character comes first: 'blameless' (anenkletos), with no ground for accusation. Then 'the husband of but one wife' (literally a man of one woman, mias gynaikos aner). The children are 'believers' (pista, which can mean believing or faithful), 'not open to accusation of indiscretion or insubordination.' The family is the proof, as 1 Timothy 3:5 explains: a man who cannot lead his household has not shown he can care for the church of God.

Verses 7–8

The leader is now called an 'overseer' (episkopos) and 'God's steward' (oikonomos), who manages a household that belongs to another. He must not be self-absorbed (authades), quick-tempered, given to drunkenness, violent or greedy for shameful gain. He must be hospitable (philoxenos, a lover of strangers, vital when travelers and the poor depended on Christian homes), a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

Verse 9

The one skill in the list is a relationship to the word. He is to 'hold firmly to the faithful word as it was taught' (the word he has received, not his own invention) 'so that he can encourage others by sound teaching and refute those who contradict it.' 'Sound' (hygiainousa) is literally 'healthy.' First Timothy 3:2 states the same requirement as 'able to teach' (didaktikos). The list says nothing of age, wealth or education.

Verses 10–16

The opponents are many, rebellious, full of empty talk and deception, and they are overturning households 'for the sake of dishonorable gain.' Titus is to silence them and 'rebuke them sternly.' Their myths and human rules are the kind of teaching Jesus condemned in Isaiah 29:13 (Mark 7:6-8). 'To the pure, all things are pure' is said against rules about food and ritual cleanness (compare Mark 7:19; Romans 14:14). Paul's verdict is that they claim to know God but deny him by their deeds.

Support and accountability appear in 1 Timothy 5:17-19. Elders who lead well are 'worthy of double honor,' especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. The honor probably includes pay, since Paul backs it with Deuteronomy 25:4 (the ox treading grain) and the saying that the worker deserves his wages (compare Luke 10:7). Accusations against an elder need two or three witnesses (5:19; compare Deuteronomy 19:15).

The New Testament teaches that each local church was led by a plurality of elders, chosen and recognized for character, responsible to teach and guard the word, and accountable to the church. These points are explicit. Elders were appointed in each church (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). They were also called overseers and told to shepherd (Acts 20:17, 28; 1 Peter 5:1-2). They were expected to teach (Titus 1:9; 1 Timothy 3:2; 5:17), could be supported (1 Timothy 5:17-18) and could be rebuked (5:19-20). The Spirit is said to make elders overseers (Acts 20:28), so the office is God's gift whether the human means are apostolic appointment or the church's recognition.

Several things are not explicit. The New Testament does not say how many elders a church should have, whether one among them held a permanent presiding role, how long a man served, or what ceremony marked his appointment beyond prayer and the laying on of hands (Acts 14:23; 1 Timothy 4:14; 5:22). It does not give a separate title for a single leader in a local church. First Timothy 5:17 mentions elders who 'lead well' and some who labor 'in preaching and teaching,' and Reformed and other traditions have read this as a difference of function among elders; others say it describes degrees of effort among men who all teach.

The canon places the elder in a long story. Israel's elders shared the load of Moses' leadership (Numbers 11:16-25; compare Exodus 18:13-26). Both Israel's pattern and the church's put leadership in plural hands and tie it to God's own gift. The elder's task of holding the faithful word anticipates 2 Timothy 2:2, where truth entrusted to Timothy is to be given to faithful men who will teach others.

The greeting names both God the Father and Christ Jesus as 'Savior' (1:3-4). In the Old Testament the title belongs to the LORD (Isaiah 43:11), and the New Testament shows that God's saving work is carried out in Christ. Titus 2:13 speaks of 'our great God and Savior Jesus Christ'; most translators and many scholars read both titles of Jesus on the Greek grammar, though some translations make two persons. The promise of eternal life 'before time began' (1:2) is fulfilled in the appearing of Christ, described in 2:11 and 3:4 as the grace and kindness of God made visible.

The elders serve under Christ. In 1 Peter 5:4 he is the Chief Shepherd to whom they answer, and in 1 Peter 2:25 he is the Shepherd and Overseer of souls, so the name 'overseer' is first his. The elder is a steward (1:7) in a household that belongs to God and to the Son: Hebrews 3:5-6 speaks of Moses as a faithful servant in God's house and Christ as the Son over it. Christ gave the ministry of the word to his church (Ephesians 4:11-12), and the 'faithful word' the elder holds is the gospel of the one who appeared. The blamelessness asked of the elder is never complete in a human being. It is complete in Christ, who is holy, innocent and undefiled (Hebrews 7:26).

The Old Testament links are echoes. Moses' elders who received a share of the Spirit (Numbers 11:25) anticipate the Spirit's making of overseers in Acts 20:28, and Jethro's counsel to choose men who hate bribes (Exodus 18:21) is echoed in the demand that an overseer be free of greed. The New Testament does not state either link.