Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He asserts, in verse 1, that he is an Apostle of Christ for this purpose: to teach the true faith and the hope of eternal life, which God promised from eternity, but has now manifested through Paul's preaching.
Secondly, in verse 5, he teaches Titus what kind of presbyters and bishops he ought to ordain in each town.
Thirdly, in verse 10, he teaches that the Judaizers and heretics must be sharply restrained.
Fourthly, in verse 14, he warns that their fables and observances in the choice of foods are to be avoided. For all things are clean to the clean: but to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean.
Vulgate Text: Titus 1:1-16
1. Paul, a servant of God, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is according to godliness: 2. in hope of eternal life, which God, who lieth not, hath promised before the times of the world: 3. but hath in due times manifested His word in preaching, which is committed to me according to the commandment of God our Saviour: 4. To Titus my beloved son according to the common faith, grace and peace, from God the Father, and from Christ Jesus our Saviour. 5. For this cause I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are wanting, and should ordain priests in every city, as I also appointed you. 6. If any be without crime, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot, or unruly. 7. For a bishop must be without crime, as the steward of God: not proud, not subject to anger, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre: 8. but given to hospitality, gentle, sober, just, holy, continent, 9. embracing that faithful word which is according to doctrine, that he may be able to exhort in sound doctrine, and to convince the gainsayers. 10. For there are also many disobedient, vain talkers, and seducers: especially they who are of the circumcision: 11. who must be reproved, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. 12. One of them a prophet of their own, said: The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slothful bellies. 13. This testimony is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14. not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, who turn themselves away from the truth. 15. All things are clean to the clean: but to them that are defiled, and to unbelievers, nothing is clean: but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16. They profess that they know God: but in their works they deny Him: being abominable, and incredulous, and to every good work reprobate.
Verses 1 and 2: Paul, a Servant of God, an Apostle of Jesus Christ According to the Faith of God's Elect, in Hope of Eternal Life
Verses 1 and 2. Paul, a servant of God, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is according to godliness, in hope of eternal life. — Note: With a new and special title of honor, Paul here designates himself as a "servant of God," not merely a servant by creation, by which every creature is a servant of God; nor merely by faith, through which all the faithful are servants of God: but through legation and apostolate, by which, just as ambassadors are called servants of the king, so Apostles are called servants of God. See what is said on Philippians I, 1. Thus the Blessed Virgin called Herself by a humble indeed, but glorious title, the "handmaid of the Lord," when She became the Mother of God, because She subserved God in the mystery of the Incarnation as a handmaid: "Behold," She said, "the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto Me according to thy word."
Note secondly: The preposition "according to" (secundum) here signifies the matter or object about which the servant of God and Apostle, namely Paul himself, was occupied, and through which he served God and Christ. "According to," therefore, is the same as "about" — as if to say: I am God's servant and Apostle concerning the faith of God's elect, that is, I am occupied with the faith, in order that I may teach all the faithful, especially the saints and the elect, the true, sincere, and holy faith, by which they may know the truth — not a speculative, dry, and philosophical truth, but that truth which "according to," that is, concerns piety, namely, that truth which teaches and persuades that we live holily and piously "in," that is, toward, the kindling within us of the hope of eternal life, namely that we may conceive the best possible hope, which we shall attain through a pious life in this world, and eternal life in the future. As if to say: I am God's servant and Apostle, that I may preach the true faith which nourishes piety, in which we have the hope of eternal life, and which sharpens and kindles this hope within us.
Note third: "Faith" here does not mean the commission entrusted to Paul, as Chrysostom would have it, as if Paul wished to say: I am a servant and Apostle in regard to the elect, whom God has entrusted to my faith, that is, to my care, and whom He has committed to me; but it means the faith by which we believe in God and Christ, by which namely we acknowledge the truth and true piety, as the Apostle here adds. Furthermore, "the acknowledgment and knowledge of piety," says Jerome, "is to know the law, to understand the Prophets, to believe the Gospel, not to be ignorant of the Apostles, so that from these you may learn the worship of God," so that you may by faith attain the hope of eternal life, and at last eternal life itself.
Note fourth: Here the Apostle designates four causes of his servitude and apostolate. First, the material, when he says he is engaged "according to," that is, concerning, faith and the knowledge of the truth. Second, the final, when he says: "In the hope of eternal life." Third, the efficient, when he adds: "Of God, and Jesus Christ," as if to say: I have been created an Apostle and servant by God and Jesus Christ. Fourth, the formal, when he subjoins: "In the preaching which has been entrusted to me." For the servitude of the Apostles, by which they served God and Christ, was nothing other than the preaching and propagation of the Gospel.
Note fifth: Here Paul tacitly contrasts himself and the Apostles with Moses and the Prophets: for Moses, in Deuteronomy chapter 34 and elsewhere, is called a servant and minister of God, as if to say: Moses was a servant of God, but according to, that is, concerning, the law and ceremonies and shadows, which he taught and handed down to the people of the Jews, that by observing them they might lead here a comfortable life flowing with earthly goods: but I and the Apostles are servants of God in regard to faith and piety, that we may lead men to eternal life. So Theophylact. For this is the truth according to the piety and knowledge of the Saints; for there are many truths and sciences which do not pertain to piety, such as Arithmetic, Grammar, Rhetoric, and very many others.
Verse 2 (continued): Which God, Who Does Not Lie, Promised Before the Worldly Ages
2. Which (eternal life) He who does not lie, God, promised before the worldly ages. — For "promised" the Greek is ἐπηγγείλατο, that is, by His free liberality, of His own accord, freely and willingly He promised. You will ask: To whom did God promise this life from eternity? St. Jerome answers that He promised it to His Son, or, as others say, to His own wisdom and goodness. But Chrysostom better: "He promised," he says, "that is, decreed to give, purposed, predestined within Himself in His divine mind, to give His faithful eternal life." For he says the same thing here as in 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 9, where he says: "Which (namely grace) was given us in Christ Jesus before the worldly ages." "Given," that is, decreed to be given, or predestined: for what has been decreed to be given to us is as it were promised to us, by a promise not personal, but real, or as far as concerns the thing which is decreed to be given.
You will ask second: What are here called worldly ages? I reply: in Greek it is αἰώνιοι, which St. Jerome here and Augustine in the place soon to be cited render "eternal ages": nor did the Latins, says St. Augustine, dare to translate it "worldly," because "worldly" sometimes means that which quickly passes. By "eternal ages" St. Jerome understands the ages and eternities which preceded the creation of the world, in which the angels lived and praised God. "Six thousand years of our time," he says, "are not yet completed, and how many previous eternities, how many origins of ages must we suppose there to have been, in which the angels, Thrones, Dominions, and the other Virtues served God, and at God's command stood firm without the changes and measures of times?" Here Jerome insinuates that the angels were created before the world, and had before the world their own eternity, that is, age (aevum).
But Jerome says this not so much from his own as from Origen's opinion, as he is wont. For Origen so understood among many, and after him many Greek and Latin Fathers. But the contrary is certain, namely that the angels were created not before, but together with the corporeal world, and consequently there was no age or epoch of angels before this world. For so the Lateran Council under Innocent III defined, chapter 1: "The Creator," it says, "of all invisible spiritual and corporeal things, by His omnipotent power, from the beginning of time founded both creatures from nothing simultaneously, the spiritual and the corporeal, namely the angelic and the worldly." Note here: Although the mind of the Council was by these words to condemn the opinion of Origen, who said that the angels and souls were first created by God, then on account of their sins bodies were created, in which they were enclosed as in prisons: nevertheless it also clearly teaches that the angels were created together with the corporeal world; for it could not be said or taught in clearer words. For this dogma plainly overthrows the foundation of Origen's opinion, and is established and proposed by the Council to overthrow it. Wherefore as to what some, following St. Thomas, part 1, Question 61, art. 3, answer — that not the words but the mind of this Council, as already explained, must be considered, as though equally after the Council as before it, one may without note of error opine that the angels were created before the world — I do not see how this can sanely and safely be said. Hence second, better St. Augustine, book 16 of the City of God, chapter 17, Anselm, and others understand the "eternal ages" as those which preceded the creation of the world and of the angels, which nevertheless were not coeternal with God.
You will say: No such ages exist or existed, because before the world there was no time, and so there was nothing except God and God's eternity. I reply: in reality, or as a matter of fact, there was nothing except God; nevertheless there was an imaginary time which we conceive and feign with the mind to have coexisted with God before the world, in which God could have created both this world and infinite others much sooner than He in fact created. You will press: We conceive this time as it were coeternal with God; but St. Augustine and the Apostle here deny this, who says that God promised eternal life before these eternal ages; if before, therefore they are not coeternal with God. I reply: These imaginary ages, which we conceive to have coexisted with God before the world, we indeed confusedly conceive as coeternal with God, but not distinctly and particularly, because we so conceive them as posterior to God: for we distinctly conceive the defined parts of this time, so that one of those parts has another prior to it, and this again another and another prior to it, and so on to infinity; nor can we by our mind and conception arrive through these parts of time, gradually ascending always, at the beginning or at the very first origins of eternity, since just as it is infinite at the end, so also at its beginning, and so as it lacks an end, so it lacks a beginning: and in this way before these eternal partial ages, which we conceive separately and distinctly with the mind, God's own eternity always precedes; as if the Apostle were saying: Before all time, before any part of time which we can definitely conceive to have coexisted with God in eternity, God promised, that is, decreed, eternal life to His faithful, namely from all eternity. This sense seems to be from the mind and meaning of the Apostle, as I shall presently say; but it is not full and adequate.
Third, others understand "eternal ages" as ancient ages, as in Acts 15:7 it is said, "from the ancient days," and S. Thomas teaches that some read here "ancient ages" for "eternal" or "worldly"; that is, these read in the Greek ἀρχαῖα for αἰώνια. But our Translator best renders "before the worldly ages," as I said on 2 Timothy 1:9. By "saeculum" however he does not understand a space of one hundred or one thousand years (as we call them "saecular games"), but "saeculum" properly so called, or age and time, both that which really began with the world and has flowed down to the present, and that which, as I said, we imagine to have coexisted with God before the world. Hence the Syriac renders "before the time of the age," as if to say: Before every series of ages, before every origin of the world and of time, whether real or imaginary, God promised that He would give us eternal life through Christ.
St. Jerome notes that "the ages are called worldly," because all time is in flux, and each through its own age runs in this course and wheel of the world. "Hence," Jerome says, "some Philosophers think that present time does not exist, but only past or future; because, namely, everything we speak, do, or think, while it is being done, passes away; or, if it has not yet been done, we await it as future." Others on the contrary said that time does not exist, but only the now, or the instant of time, and so it is falsely said: "At this time I study, run, eat," because of time nothing exists, nothing is present, or now, or instant; whatever else there is of time, does not exist; but either it is past, or future, that is, it has existed or it will exist. Behold, this is the point in which we live.
Verse 3: But He Has Manifested in His Own Times His Word in Preaching, Which Has Been Entrusted to Me According to the Commandment of God Our Saviour
3. But He has manifested in His own times His word in preaching (that is, through preaching), which has been entrusted to me according to the commandment of God our Saviour. — Note: "His Word," namely God's, here He calls God's promise already mentioned of eternal life. Whence more clearly you might render the Greek, τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ, that Word of His, or that promise of His, formerly hidden and stored up in God, He has now manifested through my preaching. For the article τὸ has the force of recalling and repeating what preceded; and the adversative conjunction "but" requires this, which connects these things with the preceding. So in Luke 1:72 it is said: "To remember (that He might remember) His holy testament (that is, covenant), the oath which He swore to Abraham," as if to say: This testament, or covenant, of God is that great oath which He swore to our father Abraham: for although in the Greek the oath is in the accusative case, yet the Greeks use it for the nominative, namely when the relative of the accusative case is placed before it. For so they speak ὅρκον ὅν, for ὅρκον ὅς ὤμοσε.
Note second: Jerome by "word" understands the Son. For so the Son is called λόγος, John chapter 1, verse 1, that is, the Word by whom God said all things, and by speaking made and produced them; and again by whom now incarnate, and manifested in the flesh, He promised us grace and glory, and all good things. But more simply with Chrysostom we shall understand by "word" the Gospel, or more clearly the promise of eternal life set forth in the Gospel, as I said.
Note third: God manifested this "word," that is, the promise, in His own times, in Greek καιροῖς ἰδίοις, that is, in opportune, congruent, and proper times: which in Galatians 4:4, He says in other words: "When the fullness of time was come," namely when the law of nature and of Moses had preceded, as a preparation and pedagogue leading men to Christ, and when the times prescribed by Moses and the Prophets had unfolded, namely after four thousand years, during which the world languishing and groaning under sins, vices, death, and hell, was sighing for Christ the Redeemer and Saviour.
Note fourth: "According to," that is, by, "the commandment," and, as Vatablus renders, by delegation. Hence Chrysostom rightly gathers that the preaching of the Apostles was not a matter of counsel, but of commandment: namely that Paul and the Apostles, by divine command, under pain of mortal sin and hell, were bound and tied by God to preach the Gospel. Hence Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9:16, says: "Woe is me, if I do not preach the Gospel."
Note fifth: The Apostle prefixes here so long an exordium as a kind of salutation, both because he was by nature of a fertile, copious, and eloquent disposition, and because in proclaiming the grace of Christ and His apostolate he is wont to pour himself out, and finally because here in the exordium he proposes as it were the theme and argument of the whole epistle, namely that it is his and Titus's office, and indeed of all Bishops and Pastors, to preach not the ceremonies of the law, but the grace of Christ, and to teach not the fables of the Jews, Gentiles, or heretics, but Christian and holy morals, in which lies true piety and the worship of God.
Verse 4: To Titus, Beloved Son According to the Common Faith, Grace and Peace From God the Father and Christ Jesus Our Saviour
4. To Titus, beloved (γνησίῳ, that is, true, genuine) son according to the common faith, grace (the Greek adds ἔλεος, that is, mercy) and peace (understand, be) from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour. — As if to say: I greet you, O Titus, who are not degenerate, but a true son of mine; not according to the flesh, but according to the common faith and spirit, by which I begot you in Christ. Therefore you are my son, begotten by me according to the faith, that is, in the faith.
Note: He calls "the common faith" the Catholic faith, as Chrysostom would have it; or rather and more significantly, as Jerome, that which was common to Titus with Paul. Here observe the modesty of Paul, who calls himself the father of Titus in such a way as to acknowledge himself his brother, as if to say: In faith, O Titus, I am your father, because I begot you; and brother, because you have the same faith with me: my faith is your faith, and common to you, and you do not adulterate it as the heretics do, but hold and guard the genuine one, equally as I, as a true son to me in the faith, indeed a brother. So Theophylact.
Note second: Here he aptly asks for grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus. For if God is He from whom every good flows as from a most copious fountain, and to whom it is proper to communicate and pour out Himself and His goods: He will not deny this grace and peace to those praying and asking for it. If He is a most loving Father, will He suffer anything useful or fitting to be lacking to His sons? If He is Christ, that is, anointed with the oil of grace and mercy, surely He will pour the same out upon us. "For Your name is oil poured out," says the Bride in Canticles 1:2. If He is Jesus, that is, Saviour, He will surely bestow the grace by which we can be saved.
Verse 5: For This Cause I Left You in Crete, That You Might Set in Order the Things That Are Wanting, and Ordain Priests in Every City, as I Also Appointed You
5. For this reason I left you in Crete (ἐν Κρήτῃ, that is, in Crete, namely the island), that you might correct those things that are lacking. — In Greek ἵνα τὰ λείποντα ἐπιδιορθώσῃ, that is, that you may proceed to correct what remains, namely what still remains to be corrected, and could not be so quickly corrected by me.
Chrysostom notes the spirit of Paul as wholly intent on labor and the Gospel, far from ambition, looking everywhere not to his own honor but to the public benefit of souls. Hence he demands labors for himself, that he himself may first break through the hardness of the Gentiles as if it were ice; then once the way is made, he yields the labor to others along with the honor, and so the things which are more honorable, like establishing bishops everywhere, he commends to Titus: meanwhile he himself seeks other new lands to be subdued to the Gospel by his own immense labor. This is truly Apostolic. Let Prelates learn to share with their subjects not only laborious tasks but also honorable ones; to seek and grasp not honors but labors, and to imitate the spirit of the Apostle, and to imprint the same on their subjects.
And that you might appoint in every city (κατὰ πόλεις, that is, town by town) presbyters, — that is, Bishops and properly so-called presbyters, or priests and pastors. For "presbyter" was a name common both to Bishops and to ordinary priests, as I said on Philippians 1:1. Therefore Paul commands that Titus appoint presbyters in each town, namely Bishops in the larger towns, priests or pastors in the smaller: for so Leo I, epistle 87 to the Bishops of Africa, chapter 11, and the Council of Sardica, canon 6, explains and sanctions, where it is said: "Let there be no license for ordaining a Bishop everywhere, either in a village or in a small city for which one presbyter could be enough; for it is not necessary that a Bishop be made there, lest the name of Bishop be cheapened, and the authority of supreme honor."
Note first: The Apostle commands Titus to appoint many Bishops in Crete. For Crete, although an island, was astonishingly populous in peoples and cities; for it had a hundred cities. Hence the Poet sings thus of Crete:
She inhabits a hundred great cities, richest in realms.
And therefore by Homer, in Iliad II, Crete is called Hecatompolis (city of a hundred).
Note second, that S. Jerome must here be read cautiously; for he says: "Once a presbyter was the same as a Bishop, and on account of schisms it was done by custom rather than by the Lord's institution that Bishops should preside over presbyters." Similar things are held by Sedulius and Anselm. Hence Aerius and Wycliffe taught that presbyters were equal to Bishops. But S. Jerome and Anselm and Sedulius following him want to say that formerly by common consent, by spirit and zeal more than by hierarchical order and command, presbyters governed the Church, with the Bishops conniving; but a little after, in that very time, namely of the Apostles, when dissensions arose, as is clear from 1 Corinthians 1:12 and 1 Timothy 5:19, then because of the pride and schisms of the presbyters, the Bishops resumed their primacy. For it is certain that not only by custom but also by divine right Bishops are greater than presbyters, both by power of order and by power of jurisdiction. S. Jerome teaches this very thing in his epistle to Heliodorus and to Marcella: "Among us," he says, "the Bishops hold the place of the Apostles." But the Apostles were greater by Christ's calling and institution than the 70 disciples: therefore likewise the Bishops are greater than the presbyters by Christ's institution. So what Jerome says here: "Bishops are greater than presbyters more by custom than by divine institution," understand not of the Bishops' own power and authority, but of the use and exercise of power. For Christ did not in fact institute the distinction of hierarchical order and jurisdiction in such a way as to bring it into act and exercise; but He permitted that, as long as that first zeal lasted, the Churches should be governed by the common labor and spirit of all; but with that cooling, He willed that the Apostles should reduce to practice and use this distinction and jurisdiction given by Him to the Bishops. This exposition is confirmed by what Jerome adds: "Imitating," he says, "Moses, who, although he could rule alone over the people of Israel, chose seventy with whom to judge the people." But it is certain that Moses was greater than these 70; therefore it is certain that the Bishop is greater than the presbyter: who however, if he wishes to imitate Moses, should not ambitiously command them, but mildly admit them into communion of his power and jurisdiction. See what is said on Philippians 1:1.
As I also have appointed you. — In Greek διεταξάμην, that is, I ordained, constituted, disposed: hence διατάξεις are called the canons, constitutions, and ordinations of the Apostles and Pontiffs, as if to say: Appoint such proven and select presbyters, in such number, manner, sequence, and subordination, as I prescribed and ordained to you by living voice.
From this it is clear that Christ did not ordain all things, but committed to the Apostles and their successors many things concerning the government of the Church to be ordered according to the requirement of future times. For this is what the prudent institution of any state demands. Thus what the Apostle commands in the next verse, that the Bishop be the husband of one wife, that he have faithful children, that he be hospitable and benign, is nowhere read to have been instituted or commanded by Christ. But, as the Apostle says, these things "I have appointed for you," these are my precepts, my ordinances. So afterwards, through new canons received throughout the whole world, many things were sanctioned by the Fathers of the Councils of Nicaea, Ephesus, Chalcedon, Constantinople, and other councils, concerning which neither Christ nor the Apostles sanctioned or ordained anything. Hence it is clear that these canons must be venerated and observed by all the faithful: for so the Apostle here commands concerning his own.
Verse 6: If Any Be Without Crime, the Husband of One Wife, Having Faithful Children, Not Accused of Riot, or Unruly
6. If any man is without crime, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not in accusation of luxury, or disobedient. — Here the Apostle prescribes what kind of presbyter and Bishop he wants. First, that he be "without crime," not as if he wished only that man to be chosen Bishop who has not sinned mortally since baptism, but who is not noted for infamous crime or worthy of accusation, as D. Thomas says. "Many," says Augustine, book 1 Against the Two Epistles of the Pelagians, chapter 14, "are without crime, and live without complaint, but no one is without sin." For the Apostle requires the same thing here as in 1 Timothy chapter 3, when he says: "A Bishop must be blameless." I have explained this and the following endowments of Bishops on 1 Timothy III.
Note: The third endowment of the Bishop here required by the Apostle is that, if he is a father "and has children," they should be "faithful." For if he could not make his own children faithful, how, made a Bishop, will he lead other and outside infidels to the faith?
Second, that the children "be not in accusation of luxury," that is, that they not be accused of luxury in feastings and drinkings, that is, that they not be feasters and drinkers. For these would extort from a parent made a Bishop the goods of the Church and the poor, and would squander them as if they were their own, since they are gluttons and gulfs of wealth. "Luxury" therefore here is taken for excess: for this is what the Greek ἀσωτία means, of which I spoke on Ephesians 5:18. It could again with Lyranus be taken for lust: for the Greek ἀσωτία also signifies this, as I said in the place already cited: for the excess of gluttony, and "the belly seething with wine froths over into lust," as S. Jerome says here on verse 7. Therefore Paul wishes the Bishop to have brought up his children so chastely that they cannot be noted or accused of luxury, as the sons of Eli the high priest were noted, and therefore both they and their father Eli were deprived of both the priesthood and life, 1 Samuel 2. In a similar manner in 1 Timothy 3 he writes that he is to be chosen Bishop who has "children subject in all chastity." For the Cretans were dissolute in venery, and so, as Strabo relates in book 10, it was a custom in Crete that they raved over boys, whom however noble it was permitted to seize there, and to keep with themselves for two months, and thus to send them home laden with gifts. Doubtless their king Jupiter taught them this, when he seized his Ganymede: and yet (O unspeakable blindness!) both were reckoned among the gods by their wise men. And for this reason, as Strabo teaches in the same place, by the ancient laws of the Cretans it was decreed that all Cretans should immediately upon puberty enter marriage, in order to extinguish this infamous pederasty, of which they at length began to be ashamed, and adulteries and other wandering lusts.
Third, the Apostle requires that the future Bishop have his children subject: for if the father could not rule them and subject them to his discipline, how, made a Bishop, will he be able to rule all the faithful, and to make them obedient to himself and to the Church?
Verse 7: For a Bishop Must Be Without Crime, as the Steward of God, Not Proud
7. For a Bishop must be without crime, as the steward of God, not proud. — For "steward" the Greek is οἰκονόμον, as if to say: A Bishop must be without crime, that is, without graver wickedness, because he is not the lord but the steward and administrator of God's house, which is the Church: he therefore should shine before the whole Church by the integrity of his life, as a sun; for upon him the eyes of all are intent.
Second, for "proud" the Greek is αὐθάδη, that is, tenacious of His own opinion, and, as the Syriac says, one who is led by his own will, that is, headstrong, hard, harsh, inflexible, who pleases himself in such a way that others displease. So Chrysostom and Theophylact. S. Jerome translates "insolent"; others, "obstinate." King Antigonus seeing his son treating his subjects too fiercely said: "Do you not know, son, that our kingdom is a splendid servitude?" Let Bishops and Prelates say the same to themselves.
Verse 7 (continued): Not Greedy of Filthy Gain
Not greedy of filthy gain, — namely, who is not eager to enrich himself and his offspring from the fines which he imposes on transgressors of the canons; and who does not greedily store up grain and tithes, awaiting the dearness of provisions, that he may sell at a higher price; finally, who does not seek gain from the exchange or trafficking of goods and other indecent and sordid things. Thus the Fathers of the Council of Antioch in Eusebius, book 7 of the History, chapters 23 and 24, gravely accuse Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch, that, although previously he was lowly and poor, he extorted money from litigants by frauds and tricks, and enriched himself thereby. How shameful this gain is in clerics, the sacred Canons teach in Cause 3, Question 2, chapter Si quis, and Cause 17, Question 4, chapter Alias.
Verse 8: Kind, Sober, Holy, Continent
Kind. — In Greek φιλάγαθον, that is, literally, loving the good, or a lover of good things. So Jerome; but it can also be rendered "kind."
Sober. — The Greek σώφρονα can also be rendered with Jerome "chaste" or "modest," and with Ambrose "prudent": for a dry (that is, sober) soul is most wise and most prudent, and, as the Greeks say, ῥώμη ψυχῆς σωφροσύνη, that is, the strength of the soul is sobriety.
Holy, — ὅσιον, which with Vatablus and others can be rendered "pious toward God"; for, as S. Jerome says, whom we call "holy," the Greeks call ἅγιον; and whom they call ὅσιον, we can call "pious toward God."
Continent, — both from gluttony and luxury, and from all vices of the soul. "Let the Bishop be," says Jerome, "abstinent, not only, as some think, from lust and from the wife's embrace, but from all perturbations of the soul, that he be not stirred to wrath, that sadness not cast him down, that terror not agitate him, that immoderate joy not lift him up."
Such was S. Martin, Bishop of Tours, of whom hear Severus Sulpitius, dialogue 1: "No one ever saw Martin angry, no one mournful, no one laughing: one and the same always, in some way bearing celestial joy on his face, he seemed beyond human nature. He had taken on such patience against all injuries that, although he was the supreme priest, he was harmed with impunity even by the lowest clerics, nor on that account did he ever remove them from their place, or repel them from his charity. Never in his mouth was anything but Christ; never in his heart but piety, peace, mercy. Most often even for the sins of those who seemed to be his detractors he was wont to weep." Hence not only living, but also dying he did not relax the unconquered spirit of his soul. And when he was praying for a swift death, the disciples said to him: "Why, father, do you forsake us? to whom do you leave us desolate? Then he: Lord, if I am still necessary to Your people, I refuse not the labor, Your will be done. But when, burning with a hot fever and praying lying on his back, the disciples asked him to rest face down. To them he said: Let me look at heaven rather than earth, that my spirit, now about to set out on its journey, may be directed to the Lord. Now with death pressing upon him, having seen the enemy of the human race: What, he said, do you stand by, bloody beast? You will find nothing in me deadly. With these words he gave up his soul to God, which a chorus of angels received, and many heard them singing divine praises, and especially Severinus, Bishop of Cologne."
Verse 9: Embracing the Faithful Word, Which Is According to Doctrine
9. Embracing the faithful word, which is according to doctrine, — for "embracing" the Greek is ἀντεχόμενον, that is, as Ambrose says, holding fast and retaining with the teeth, "the faithful," that is, the true and indubitable (as I said on 1 Timothy 1:15) "word, which is according to doctrine," that is, which is consistent with sound doctrine and faith, or which sound doctrine befits. "He does not lay down," says Theodoret, "that the Bishop be eloquent, but that he be skilled in the divine oracles."
Verse 10: For There Are Also Many Disobedient, Vain-Talkers and Seducers, Especially Those of the Circumcision
10. For there are also many disobedient, vain-talkers and seducers (in Greek φρεναπάται, that is, deceivers of minds), especially those who are of the circumcision. — For "also" the Greek is καί, that is "and"; this conjunction depends on what follows, and connects it with what precedes, as if to say: "There are many both disobedient, and vain-talkers, and seducers." Hence Vatablus and others omit the τὸ "also" in their version, and then the sense is the same, but plainer and clearer. For "to be rebuked" the Greek is ἐπιστομίζειν, that is, to stop their mouth, and as it were to close it with a stopper, namely by enjoining silence on them, as Jerome translates. He notes the Judaizers, who taught that with Christianity must be joined circumcision and the ceremonies of the law, and Jewish fables, and from these they were chasing gain.
Verses 12 and 13: Cretans Are Always Liars, Evil Beasts, Slothful Bellies — This Testimony Is True
12. One of them, their own prophet, said: Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies. — 13. This testimony is true. — S. Jerome refers these words partly to verse 5, where he said: "For this reason I left you in Crete, that you might correct what is lacking," namely that you might correct the morals of the Cretans, prone to lies, gluttony of the belly, and laziness; partly to the immediately preceding, namely that he might mark these Judaizing pseudo-teachers, that Titus might perceive their character, and might know how and concerning what he should rebuke them.
Note: "Their own prophet" is Callimachus, or rather Epimenides, a Cretan poet and Philosopher, and priest of the temple of Mēris, that is, of the sun. So Jerome. But why is the poet here called "prophet"? I reply: First, because he was held by his own people to be a prophet, as Laertius and Cicero attest in book 1 of On Divination. Second, because poets are called "vates," that is, prophets, on account of poetic fury, and the Sibyls and Apollo rendered their oracles in verse; whence the same, and many others as well, were at once poets and prophets. And for this reason Plato, in book 2 of the Republic, calls poets the sons of the gods, and asserts that some of them were prophets. Hence the poets themselves boasted of a spirit communicated to them from heaven, saying:
There is a God in us, there are commerces of heaven, / This spirit comes from ethereal seats.
Third, because Epimenides here wrote a book περὶ τῶν χρησμῶν, that is, On Oracles.
Fourth, "prophet," that is, teacher and moralist, who describes the native vices of the people, which is the same as predicting the morals of posterity, because the native vices of parents are generally transmitted to their descendants. See what is said on 1 Corinthians 14, at the beginning of the chapter.
Note second: The opinion and verse of Epimenides which the Apostle here cites, sounds thus in Greek:
Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεύσται, κακὰ θηρία, γαστέρες ἀργαί.
That is, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies. Which Faber Stapulensis rendered in equivalent Latin verse:
Gnossius usque loquax, mala bestia, viscera pigra. (The Gnossian forever talkative, an evil beast, sluggish bowels.)
But, as Erasmus rightly observes, "talkative" is not the same as "liar"; nor are "bowels" the same as "bellies," that is, gluttons, devoted to the one belly. Therefore better and more briefly you may render verse with verse thus:
Cres semper mendax, mala bestia, venter iners est. (The Cretan is always a liar, an evil beast, an idle belly.)
Note third: He brands here three vices of the Cretans. First, that they are liars, whence they have passed into a proverb, so that it is commonly said, "To Cretize with a Cretan," that is, to lie to a liar, to deceive a deceiver, to trick a tricker. And, "He is a Cretan, he Cretizes," that is, he is a liar, he lies.
Here observe from S. Jerome and Chrysostom that the occasion which moved Epimenides and Callimachus to call the Cretans liars was that the Cretans believed that Jupiter did not live in heaven, but in Crete where he had been king, and was dead and buried, and had inscribed on his sepulcher: Here lies Jupiter. Hence Epimenides and Callimachus reproach them for not perceiving the gods and divine things: "The Cretans," they say, "have made your sepulcher, O Jupiter, but they lie: for you have not at all died, but in heaven, as an immortal god, you always live."
You will say: these poets err and lie, so how does the Apostle say of their saying: "This testimony is true?" S. Jerome and Chrysostom answer that the Apostle does not approve that opinion about Jupiter's divinity, on the occasion of which Epimenides said this; but only the thing itself, namely that the Cretans are liars, that is, on account of an inborn proclivity to lying and deceiving: and this is true. Hence Erasmus at the beginning of his Chiliades, assigning to each nation its own vices in a proverb, says: "More treacherous than the Carthaginian, harsher than the Scythian, more inhospitable than the Scythotaurians, vainer than the Parthians, more bibulous than the Thracians, more haughty than the Sybarite, more effeminate than the Milesians, richer than the Arab, more stupid than the Arcadian, baser than the Carian, more lying than the Cretan."
Second, he calls the Cretans evil beasts, in Greek θηρία, that is, wild beasts, such as are wolves, boars, tigers; because they were of bestial morals, and after the manner of beasts they thirsted for the blood of the deceived, says Jerome and Anselm; and much more they raged as it were against souls, while for gain they taught and persuaded them falsely, and so dragged them to ruin and perdition, as is clear from verse 11. Hence that Greek adage τρία κάππα κάκιστα, that is, the three worst kappas, namely the three worst nations beginning with kappa, namely Cilicians, Cretans, Cappadocians. For the Cappadocians, because they are descended from the Gibeonites, are taught to be liars and perverse by Isidore of Pelusium, epistle 282.
Third, he calls the Cretans lazy bellies, that is, those who study nothing else but ballasting the belly and stuffing their fat paunch, after their own fashion, and as a lazy progeny of pigs, of whom Lucilius:
Live, you guzzlers, gourmands, live, you bellies.
Plato, in book 4 of the Laws, shrewdly observes and notes that maritime cities and regions (such as is the island of Crete) tend to have bad morals, and gives the cause: "For when," he says, "such a city is filled with goods and money through trading, it begets cunning minds and unstable and faithless morals: hence it itself cultivates little faith and stable friendship toward itself, and less toward other nations." Hence that commonly bandied saying: "All islanders are bad, but the S. are the worst." But through Christ, with grace correcting nature and taming, forming, and directing this fierce nature, so that it might be a whetstone of virtue for heroic works of virtues, we see fulfilled that oracle of Isaiah chapter 60, verse 9: "The islands wait for Me, and the ships of the sea in the beginning, that I may bring your sons from afar: their silver and their gold with them, to the name of the Lord your God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because He has glorified you." And chapter 24, verse 15: "In doctrines glorify the Lord: in the islands of the sea the name of the Lord God of Israel." And that of Psalm 71:10: "The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer gifts." Truly, how many and how great doctors of the Church, how many athletes of the faith, how many Saints illustrious in every virtue did Crete, Cyprus, and the other islands give to Christ?
Verse 13: For Which Cause Rebuke Them Sharply
13. For which cause rebuke them sharply. — In Greek ἀποτόμως, that is, precisely, to the quick, severely, rigidly. Again ἀποτόμως, that is, by cutting off and casting them out of the Church, if when admonished they refuse to correct their vices, says Turrianus, in book 2 of the Apostolic Constitutions of Clement, chapter 42, in the index.
Verse 14: That They May Be Sound in the Faith, Not Giving Heed to Jewish Fables and the Commandments of Men Who Turn Themselves Away From the Truth
14. That they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, who turn themselves away from the truth. — In Greek αποστρεφομένων, that is, of those turning away from the truth. Note: The Apostle here censures the commandments of men, not of all (for thus he would nullify the commandments of all kings and princes), but of those who turn away from the truth and substitute fables for the truth, especially Jewish ones, namely concerning the observance of the legal ceremonies, and particularly concerning the observance of dietary distinctions, lest anyone eat pork, hare, or any other meat which the law of Leviticus 11 forbids as unclean. For the Apostle indicates this in the following words, when he adds: "All things are clean to the clean." So S. Jerome, Chrysostom, and others.
Note secondly, it is not surprising that these Jewish fables and observances of foods and Judaism flourished in Crete, because through the proximity of the sea there was great communion of the Jews with the Cretans; and accordingly Josephus in his Life testifies that noble Jews were accustomed to dwell in Crete, where he relates that he received his wife from Crete for this reason. Moreover, from this Cornelius Tacitus, book XXI, is mistaken when he asserts that the Jews descended from Crete, and were called Jews as if Idaeans from Mount Ida, which is in Crete.
Verse 15: All Things Are Clean to the Clean; But to the Defiled and Unbelievers Nothing Is Clean
15. All things are clean to the clean. — Luther infers: Therefore fornication also is clean to the clean, namely to the faithful. For just as, he says, nothing justifies except faith, so nothing defiles except unbelief. But away with this monstrosity! Let fornication, theft, sacrilege, homicide, and every iniquity be clean to you, just as to the pig dung, filth, and every uncleanness are clean and even delicacies.
I say therefore that the Apostle is speaking of the dietary distinction which the Judaizers were introducing. For that he is dealing with these things and their fables here is clear from verses 10, 11, and 14; for some of the Judaizers said that certain foods were unclean by their nature, as the Manichaeans and Marcionites afterwards taught following them; but others held that certain foods were unclean and to be avoided by Christians, not in themselves, but on account of the Mosaic law, Leviticus 11, which forbids them. The Apostle here refutes these, saying: "All things are clean to the clean," that is: To Christians, who have been cleansed in baptism by the blood of Christ, no food, no animal, no thing is to be considered unclean either by its nature or on account of the Mosaic law; but all things are clean to them, so that they may eat and use all things without scruple. That this is the sense is clear first because, as I said, he is acting against the Judaizers; secondly, because he so explains himself in 1 Timothy 4:3, of which this epistle to Titus is as it were a compendium; thirdly, because Chrysostom, Jerome, Theodoret, Ambrose, Vatablus, Erasmus, and others everywhere so interpret it. Whence S. Augustine, book XXXI Contra Faustum, chapter IV: "All things," he says, "are clean to the clean, because the servants of God, in that they abstain from meats and wine, do not flee them as unclean things, but follow the institutes of a purer life."
This passage of the Apostle therefore does nothing against the fasts enjoined by the Church, which are appointed not on account of the uncleanness of foods, but for temperance, the chastisement of the flesh, the exercise of obedience, the appeasement of the wrath of God, the better attendance to prayer, and other holy ends. For thus the Apostles in Acts 15 commanded abstinence from blood and what is strangled. And Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:21 forbids the eating of meat offered to idols. Thus God forbade Adam to eat of the apple for no other reason than to test and exercise his obedience.
This judgment of the Apostle, that great Spiridion, Bishop of Trimithus in Cyprus, a man exceedingly hospitable and kind, fittingly applied to one of his guests, as Sozomen relates, book I of his History, chapter 11: "When," he says, "Lent was already at hand, on a journey by chance someone came to him (Spiridion) on those very days in which he was accustomed together with his household to keep fasts and to taste food on the appointed day, having on the intervening days remained altogether without food; and when Spiridion saw the guest very weary from the road, and had not in his house bread or anything else, having sought pardon from God, he ordered the pork meats which alone he had at home to be cooked, and to be set before the guest, and he himself first began to eat of the meats, exhorting the guest to imitate him; who, when he refused to do it and said he was a Christian: For this very cause, said Spiridion, you ought less to refuse. For all things are clean to the clean, the sacred Scriptures pronounce." Here observe that this example does not act against the fasts of the Church, as if upon the arrival of a guest it were lawful to break and violate them. For in the first place there was no fast at that time enjoined by the Church; for he does not say: When it was, but: When Lent was at hand; therefore this fast was not enjoined, but voluntary. The same is suggested when he says there were days on which he was accustomed to fast with his household, and even up to a certain day to taste nothing at all. This fast therefore was not of precept, but of his own custom: for the ecclesiastical fast does not enjoin such an abstinence in which nothing at all is permitted to be tasted.
You will say: Why then, when about to eat meats, did he ask pardon from God, and why did the guest refuse meats, saying he was a Christian? I reply: Because at that time there seems to have been a custom among Christians that before Lent, from Quinquagesima Sunday, they would abstain from meats. For thus Pope Telesphorus established that the fast should begin from Quinquagesima Sunday; but his constitution was not received as law, yet was nevertheless brought into custom by many; just as even now many Religious from that Sunday begin either fasting or abstinence from meats; this pious custom that guest did not wish to break, nor did even Spiridion, except after asking pardon from God.
Add secondly, even if this custom had had some force of binding, and had been received as law, nevertheless that guest was greatly weary, nor did Spiridion have anything other than meats, which he might set before him. Spiridion therefore, wholly poured out in charity and toward guests, thought that in such necessity that custom did not bind, and that it was better, if instead of the fast, he should satisfy charity and hospitality and set meats before the guest, and to entice him, he himself first tasted them, thinking that out of charity it was permitted to him to omit it in such a case, as Cardinal Hosius also thought in the Polish Confession, chapter 91, page 188. Perhaps too he held what Cassian held, conference 21, chapter 29, namely that perfect men, and those who fast so often of their own accord, are not bound so strictly to the fasts enjoined by the Church, because otherwise they abundantly fulfill them. Finally, the examples of the Saints are to be admired, but not always to be imitated. For it is certain that enjoined fasts are to be preferred to voluntary ones, and observed in preference to them.
Mystically and spiritually Abbot Pimenius takes the clean as the humble. For when a certain one asked him: "What is it, father, that the Apostle says, All things are clean to the clean?" He replied: "If anyone can attain to this saying so as to understand it, he will see himself less than the whole of creation." To whom the brother: And how can I see myself less than him who is a murderer? The elder replied: "If a man can attain to this word of the Apostle, and sees a man who perhaps has killed another, he says in himself: He indeed has done only this one sin, but I commit murder every hour, killing myself." And when the brother asked how this could be, the elder replied: "This is the sole justice of man, that he always reprehend himself: and then he will be justified, when he condemns his own sins." So it is contained in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chapter 15.
But to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean, but their mind and conscience are defiled. — Some hence infer that all the works of unbelievers are sins; but this is an error, and it will soon appear that the Apostle did not mean this.
Secondly, S. Thomas and Cajetan explain these words in the formal sense, in this way: To unbelievers, as such, or insofar as they eat or do anything out of unbelief, nothing is clean. But this sense, unless it is further explained and applied, contributes nothing to the matter and the mind of the Apostle.
I say therefore thirdly, the genuine sense is this: Just as to the clean, that is to Christians, all things, that is all foods forbidden by the law, are clean; so on the contrary to the Judaizers and the unbelieving nothing, that is no food, is clean; because these superstitiously and with a Jewish or heretical mind and conscience either abstain from all foods or eat them. For they superstitiously think that the old law still binds even Christians, and that foods are to be distinguished according to it, so that they are bound to abstain from those forbidden by the law, but may eat those permitted by the law. So all the Fathers cited, and S. Augustine, book XXXI Contra Faustum, chapter IV: "The unbeliever," he says, "whether he eats or abstains, does not eat or abstain holily or justly, because he does both with a perverse opinion."
It could fourthly be a Hebraism, so that a neuter verb in qal is taken for an active in hiphil, that is: To the unbelieving nothing is clean, that is, no food cleanses them from their unbelief and crimes; just as on the contrary to others clean, who are of good conscience, nothing, that is, no food, either by its nature or by the old law, is unclean which would soil or contaminate them; there is nothing which would sprinkle on them any uncleanness either bodily or legal, as formerly the foods forbidden by the law of Moses sprinkled a kind of legal uncleanness on the Jews. The antithesis which the Apostle adds favors this exposition when he says: "But their mind and conscience are defiled," that is: Therefore no food is clean to them, that is can cleanse them, because their mind and conscience are and remain defiled, to which bodily food cannot penetrate, nor expiate it. Although this antithesis can also be conveniently expounded according to the prior sense, as if it gives the cause why no food is clean to the unbelieving, but rather every food is unclean to them: namely because they use or abstain from every food out of an unbelieving and perverse conscience, by which they wish to subject themselves equally to the law of Moses and of Christ, and to embrace both: and so they act against the law of Christ, and against evangelical liberty, which teaches that the law of Moses has been abolished, and is in no way to be mixed with Christianity; and consequently as long as they persevere in this mind, and from it eat or do not eat foods, they always sin in every act, and contaminate themselves with unbelief and Judaism.
Verse 16: They Profess That They Know God, But in Deeds They Deny Him
16. They profess (that is, they declare) that they know God, but in deeds they deny Him: since they are abominable, and unbelieving, and reprobate to every good work. — For "abominable" the Greek is βδελυκτοί, that is abominable, and, as Jerome translates, execrable, namely in life and morals.
Secondly, for "unbelieving" the Greek is ἀπειθεῖς, that is unbelieving; Jerome translates, disobedient; others, intractable; the Syriac, unpersuadable, those, that is, to whom by no reasoning can the truth, purity, and liberty of Christianity be persuaded. For this is what ἀπειθεῖς properly signifies, as I said on Ephesians 2:2.
Thirdly, "reprobate," that is wicked, averse, unfit for good work, and that on account of their malice, by which by their free and wicked will, obstinate in their unbelief and impious life, they repudiate and reprobate every good work, that is most good works. It is a hyperbole, as if to say: These Judaizers are cast into every crime. For heresy, Judaism, and unbelief bring these things with themselves: hence, however, it does not follow that heretics and unbelievers cannot do some at least morally good works, and from time to time do them: for they confess God: this is a good work; for it is the work of faith and of its profession.
Note: The Apostle alludes to Job 15:16, where it is said: "How much more is man abominable and unprofitable, who drinks iniquity like water?" For "unprofitable" the Hebrew is נאלח neelach, that is reprobate. And on Psalm 13:3, which has thus: "All have declined, together they have become unprofitable: there is none that does good, no not one." Where again, for "have become unprofitable," the Hebrew is נאלחו neelachu, that is, they have become reprobate, that is, they have become infirm and useless for every good: for this is the very thing which the Apostle here says. Whence it appears that reprobate is the same as infirm, unfit, useless for good work.
Morally, S. Jerome here teaches that in every sin God is denied, not in word, but in deed: "Christ," he says, "is wisdom, justice, truth, holiness. Wisdom is denied through foolishness, justice through iniquity, truth through lying, holiness through baseness, fortitude through weakness of soul; and as often as we are conquered by vices, we deny God; on the contrary, as often as we do something good, not with the mouth but with the deed itself, we confess God."