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Tit_1:15. The apostle, bearing in mind the prohibitions of the heretics, opposes to them a general principle which shows their worthlessness.
πάντα καθαρὰ τοῖς καθαροῖς ] πάντα quite generally: all things in themselves, with which a man may simply have to do, but not a man’s actions, nor, as Heydenreich thinks, the errors of the heretics. The usual explanation which limits the bearing of the words to the arbitrary rules of the heretics regarding food and other things, is only so far right that Paul lays down his general principle with special reference to these rules; but πάντα itself should be taken quite generally. Even the exposition of Matthies: “all that falls into the sphere of the individual wants of life,” places an unsuitable limitation on the meaning. Chrysostom rightly: οὐδὲν ὁ Θεὸς ἀκάθαρτον ἐποίησεν .
καθαρά as the predicate of πάντα is to be connected with it by supplying ἐστί : “all is pure,” viz. τοῖς καθαροῖς . Bengel: omnia externa iis, qui intus sunt mundi, munda sunt. Many expositors wrongly refer the conception of καθαροί to knowledge, as Jerome: qui sciunt omnem creaturam bonam esse, or as Beza: quibus notum est libertatis per Christum partae beneficium. It should rather be taken as referring to disposition: to those who have a pure heart everything is pure (not: “to them everything passes for pure”), i.e. as to the pure, things outside of them have no power to render them impure. From the same point of view we have in the Testam. XII. Patriarch. test. Benjam. chap. viii.: ὁ ἔχων διάνοιαν καθαρὰν ἐν ἀγάπῃ , οὐχ ὁρᾷ γυναῖκα εἰς πορνείαν · οὐ γὰρ ἔχει μιασμὸν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ . Kindred thoughts are found in Mat_23:26; Luk_11:41; comp. also the similar expression in Rom_14:20. On καθαροῖς , van Oosterzee remarks: “By nature no one is pure; those here called καθαροί are those who have purified their heart by faith, Act_15:9.” This is right, except that Paul is not thinking here of the means by which the man becomes καθαρός ; the indication of this point is given afterwards in ἀπίστοις . The apostle purposely makes the sentence very emphatic, because it was with the distinction between pure and impure that the heretics occupied themselves so much.
The contrast to the first sentence is given in the words: τοῖς δὲ μεμιαμμένοις καὶ ἀπίστοις οὐδὲν καθαρόν . Regarding the form μεμιαμμένος , see Winer, p. 84 [E. T. p. 108] [also Veitch, Irregular Greek Verbs, s.v.]. The verb forms a simple contrast with καθαροῖς , and stands here not in a Levitical (Joh_18:28), but in an ethical sense, as in Heb_12:15; Jud_1:8. Καὶ ἀπίστοις is not an epexegesis of μεμιαμμ ., but adds a new point to it, viz. the attitude of the heretics towards the saving truths of the gospel. The two words do not denote two different classes of men, as the article τοῖς is only used once. To these impure men nothing is pure, i.e. every external thing serves only to awaken within them impure lust
ἀλλὰ μεμίανται αὐτῶν καὶ ὁ νοῦς καὶ ἡ συνείδησις ] This sentence expresses positively what οὐδὲν καθαρόν expressed negatively, at the same time furnishing the reason for the preceding thought. De Wette’s opinion therefore is not correct, that “for ἀλλά there should properly have been γάρ ; the author, however, makes moral character equivalent to moral action.” The relation of the two sentences is pretty much the same as if, e.g., we were to say: he is not rich, but his father has disinherited him. If Paul had used γάρ , the sentence would simply have furnished the reason for what preceded; ἀλλά , on the other hand, indicates the contrast. Still we must not conclude, with Hofmann, that the second sentence merely says the same thing as the first. It should be interpreted: “but to them everything is impure, because their νοῦς and their συνείδησις are defiled.”
Νοῦς and συνείδησις do not here denote the inner nature of man on the two sides of knowledge and will (so Hofmann). Νοῦς is the spiritual faculty of man acting in both directions; in N. T. usage the reference to action prevails, νοῦς being equivalent to the practical reason. Συνείδησις , on the other hand, is the human consciousness connected with action, and expressing itself regarding the moral value of action; it corresponds to “conscience” (see on 1Ti_1:3). The two conceptions are distinguished from each other by καὶ … καί , and at the same time closely connected. By this, however, no special emphasis is laid on the second word (formerly in this commentary). In Tit_3:11 ( αὐτοκατάκριτος ) and 1Ti_4:2, the apostle again says as much as that the conscience of the heretics was defiled. Though the thought contained in this verse is quite general in character, Paul wrote it with special reference to the heretics, and is therefore able to attach to it a further description of them.