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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Titus 2:14 - 2:14
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14. δς ἕδωκεν ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, Who gave Himself for us. This is the phrase in which St Paul again and again describes the efficacy of the Lord’s Atonement; cp. Rom 8:32; Gal 1:4; Gal 2:20; Eph 5:25, and see on 1Ti 2:6.
ἵνα λυτρώσηται ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἀνομίας, in order that He might redeem us from all iniquity. The final cause of the Atonement is represented in Tit 2:14 as (a) negative (Redemption), (b) positive (Sanctification). In this clause we have its negative purpose described; it is to redeem us from all sin (all sin is ἀνομία, 1Jn 3:4, and ἀνομία here stands for violation of the moral law in general). The rationale of the Atoning Efficacy of the Lord’s Death is illustrated in the N.T. by various metaphors, such as Ransom, Reconciliation, Sacrifice. Here (as at 1Ti 2:6) the metaphor of emancipation from slavery, ransom from the bondage of sin, is adopted, the language used being taken from Psalms 129 (130):8 καὶ αὐτὸς (sc. ὁ κύριος) λυτρώσεται τὸν Ἰσπαὴλ ἐκ πασῶν τῶν ἀνομιῶν αὐτοῦ, where this ‘plenteous redemption’ is sung as the work of the Messiah who was to come (cp. also Eze 37:23). This was the metaphor which (possibly because of its adoption by our Lord Himself, Mat 20:28; Mar 10:45) was most frequently dwelt on by the early Church; and from Irenaeus to Anselm the one theory of the Atonement, which was popularly regarded as orthodox, was that which set forth the Lord’s Death as a ‘ransom’ paid to the devil, into whose bonds man had fallen. The metaphor of ‘redemption from evil’ was all too soon hardened into a theory of ‘ransom from the Evil One.’ See Westcott Hebrews, p. 295, and Abbott Ephesians, p. 11.
What has been said above (on 2Ti 4:17) as to the usage of ἀπό and ἐκ after verbs of deliverance suggests that the change of the ἐκ of the Psalm into ἀπό is not without significance; redemption ἐκ πάσης ἀνομίας would only indicate deliverance from all the acts of lawlessness of which man had been guilty; ἀπό indicates a complete deliverance from the neighbourhood and company of sin, whether original or actual.
καὶ καθαρίσῃ ἑαυτῷ λαὸν περιούσιον κ.τ.λ., and might purify to Himself a peculiar people, i.e. a people for His own possession. This is the positive purpose of the Atonement; not only ransom from sin (not to speak of deliverance from the pains of hell), but sanctification to a good life. The two things go together; cp. 2Co 7:1. In this clause St Paul again uses the language of the LXX. to express the sacred truths which have been committed to him to teach; λαὸς περιούσιος is the equivalent of עם סְנֻלָּה, ‘a people of possession’ (Exo 19:6; Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2; Deu 26:18), the phrase used by St Peter being λεὸς εἰς περιποίησιν (1Pe 2:9; cp. Mal 3:17). περιούσιος is usually represented in the Vulgate by peculiaris or in peculium, whence Tyndale’s rendering “peculiar people” is derived; but in this verse (Tit 2:14) curiously enough the Vulgate has acceptabilem. The original Hebrew shews that the word περιούσιος is almost identical with the classical ἐξαίρετος, ‘chosen out’ as it were for God’s purposes; and this is the proper sense of the adj. peculiar which has gained, from this and parallel passages, a permanent place in our language[514].
[514] See Lightfoot, Revision of the N.T. Appendix II., for a full discussion of the word περιούσιος.
ζηλωτὴν καλῶν ἔργων, zealous of good works. see on 1Ti 2:10 for the place which ‘good works’ occupy in the theology of the Pastoral Epistles. For the word ζηλωτής cp. Act 22:3; 1Co 14:12; Gal 1:14.