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Tit_1:12. Paul quotes the saying of a Cretan poet as a testimony regarding the Cretans.
εἶπέ τις ἐξ αὐτῶν ἴδιος αὐτῶν προφήτης ] ἐξ αὐτῶν is by most expositors referred to the preceding πολλοί or to οἱ ἐκ περιτομῆς ; but such a reference is unsuitable; the apostle is rather thinking of Cretans in general.
The ἴδιος αὐτῶν declares still more strongly that the saying proceeds from a Cretan and not from a stranger, see Winer, p. 139 [E. T. p. 192].
προφήτης ] According to Chrysostom, Theophylact, Epiphanius, Jerome, it is Epimenides who is meant. This Epimenides was a contemporary of the seven wise men, and by some was even reckoned as one of them in place of Periander; he was born in the sixth century B.C. The saying quoted by Paul, which forms a complete hexameter, is said to have been in his lost work περὶ χρησμῶν . Theodoret, on the other hand, ascribes the saying to Callimachus, who, however, was a Cyrenian in the third century B.C.; besides, it is only the first words that occur in his Hymn. ad Jov. Tit_1:8. Epiphanius and Jerome think that Callimachus took the words from Epimenides. Paul does not call Epimenides a προφήτης because poets and philosophers were often called prophets in ancient times, but because the saying of Epimenides described beforehand the character of the Cretans as it was in the apostle’s time. Still it is to be noted that this very Epimenides was famed among the Greeks for his gift of wisdom, so that even Cicero (De Divinat. xviii.) places him among those vaticinantes per furorem. Comp. Diogenes Laertius, Vita Philos. p. 81, ed. Henr. Steph.
Κρῆτες ἀεὶ ψεῦσται ] Chrysostom refers these words chiefly to the pretence of the Cretans that Jupiter lay buried among them; to this, at any rate, the verse of Callimachus refers; but the Cretans in ancient times were notorious for falsehood, so that, according to Hesychius, ΚΡΗΤΊΖΕΙΝ is synonymous with ΨΕΎΔΕΣΘΑΙ ΚΑῚ ἈΠΑΤᾷΝ ; for proofs of this, see in Wetstein.
ΚΑΚᾺ ΘΗΡΊΑ ] denoting their wild, unruly character; some expositors refer this name specially to the greed of the Cretans, as Polybius, book vi., specially mentions their ΑἸΣΧΡΟΚΕΡΔΊΑ ΚΑῚ ΠΛΕΟΝΕΞΊΑ ; but it is more than improbable that Epimenides had this meaning in his words.
ΓΑΣΤΈΡΕς ἈΡΓΑΊ ] synonymous with Php_3:19 : ὯΝ Ὁ ΘΕῸς Ἡ ΚΟΙΛΊΑ (comp. Rom_16:18; 2Pe_2:13-14); this denotes the Cretans as men given to sensuality. Plato, too (De Legg. i.), reproaches them with lust and immodesty.
The apostle’s purpose in quoting this saying of Epimenides is indicated in the next verse. The national character of the Cretans was such that they were easily persuaded to listen to the heretics, and hence it was all the more necessary to oppose the latter firmly.