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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 686. Titus
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Literature
Farrar, F. W., The Life and Work of St. Paul (1897), 229.
Hervey, A. C., The Epistle to Titus (Pulpit Commentary) (1887).
Howatt, J. R., A Year's Addresses to the Young (1913), 180.
Howson, J. S., The Companions of St. Paul (1874), 101.
Howson, J. S., Scenes from the Life of St. Paul (1909), 122.
Moffatt, J., Reasons and Reasons (1911), 179.
Plummer, A., The Pastoral Epistles (Expositor's Bible) (1888), 199.
Seekings, H. S., The Men of the Pauline Circle (1914), 65.
Stock, E., Plain Talks on the Pastoral Epistles (1914), 6.
Wakinshaw, W., John's Ideal City (1915), 71.
Wilson, S. L., Helpful Words for Daily Life (1905), 240.
Dictionary of the Bible, iv. (1902) 782 (W. Lock).
Dictionary of the Bible (Single-volume, 1909), 940 (C. T. P. Grierson).
Expositor, 1st Ser., xi. (1881) 201 (A. B. Bruce); 2nd Ser., v. (1883) 177, 267 (J. O. Dykes).
Homiletic Review, xxxi. (1896) 443 (M. W. Jacobus).
Titus has been called “the most enigmatic figure in early Christian history” (Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller, 284). He is never mentioned in Acts. The only references to him are in 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and 2 Timothy, and his story must be re-constructed from these and the Epistle addressed to him by St. Paul. In 2 Corinthians he is mentioned nine times. His birthplace is unknown, but he was a Gentile, and he was living at Antioch when the controversy arose about the circumcision of the Gentiles. He was brought to Christ by St. Paul, who calls him “my true child after a common faith.” He may have been among the fruits of St. Paul's first great ministry in Antioch, when, with Barnabas, he followed up the preaching of the men of Cyprus and Cyrene “to the Greeks.” The first mention of him is in Gal_2:1, where St. Paul says, “I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me.” This journey was undertaken in order to settle the great question of making the Jewish law binding upon the Gentiles.
The Judaistic party within the Church wished to have Titus circumcised; but the Apostle and those representing Gentile Christianity strenuously resisted, and the decision of the Church was in their favour. The case of Titus seems thus to have been the test case in this controversy. From this time we may suppose that. Titus continued with St. Paul as one of his missionary companions and assistants, but we have no distinct reference to him until some ten years after the Council at Jerusalem.