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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - Titus 2:8 - 2:8
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Ver. 8. And now comes the character of the instruction itself: sound discourse that cannot be condemned, in order that he who is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of us. ( ἡìῶí is the reading of à , C, D, E, F, G, K, L, Ital., Vulg., Syr., by much the best supported.) The same peculiar aspect is here given to true evangelical teaching, which is of such frequent occurrence in these Pastoral epistles; it was to be sound ( ὑãéῆ ), or healthy, as opposed to everything fitted to nourish a sickly and distempered pietism. Being such, it could not, of course, be condemned by any competent judge; and, what was more, those who had the will would find they lacked any proper ground to speak reproachfully against the doctrine taught, and for shame sake might be reduced to silence. Although the party contemplated as ready to assume a hostile position is spoken of in the singular, “he who is of the contrary part,” yet this is plainly but an individualizing mode of representing a class, and both the connection and the form of expression employed forbid us to suppose any other than human adversaries, heathen or Jewish, to have been in view. May have nothing bad or foul to say— ìçäὲí , having reference to the subjective condition of the adversary: however desirous, he could get hold of no ground of blame.