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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - Titus 2:3 - 2:3
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Ver. 3. In like manner the aged women, that they demean themselves as becomes holiness (lit. that in demeanour they be holy, beseeming, ἐí êáôáóôÞìáôé ἱåñïðñåðåῖò ). The expression êáôáóô . is of comprehensive import, and has respect to everything in appearance and bearing which is indicative of the state of feeling within; and the design of the exhortation is, as Jerome explains, that “their very walk and motion, their countenance, speech, silence, may present a certain dignity of holy propriety.” We get the exact idea when, assuming them to be possessed of a devout and reverent frame of mind, their entire manner and deportment are in suitable keeping therewith, the appropriate aspect and clothing of a mind rightly attempered toward things sacred and divine. The passage 1Ti_2:10 is nearly parallel, only that the exhortation there has a more specific reference to becoming fitness and modesty of dress. Not slanderers— ìὴ äéáâüëïõò —given to do the work of him who is emphatically the accuser of the brethren. Old women, who usually have little to do, and with the garrulity, are not unfrequently visited with the querulousness, of advanced age, have special need to be warned against this tendency; it is a fine exhibition of Christian love and contentment when they can rise above it, even though there may be many things in their circumstances which are fitted to nourish it. Not enslaved to much wine— ìὴ ïἴíῳ ðïëëῷ äåäïõëùìÝíïéò —a very moderate demand in this respect certainly, but probably indicating by that very moderation, that a slavish addictedness to the evil was not uncommon among the female population of Crete, and that even a rational freedom from such slavery would be no small or unimportant testimony to the power of the gospel. Both of these exhortations are in substance pressed, though in different terms, at 1Ti_3:8, 1Ti_3:11, the first on females, the second on deacons. Teachers of what is good, not, of course, in public, but by private converse, and personal example in their proper sphere.