Titus 1:10 Vain babblers

For many are insubordinate, vain praters and imposters, especially those of the Circumcision.

Here is given the reason why the supervisor should be able to expose the contradictors. “For many are not insubordinate…” insubordinate is one word in the Greek and the negative form of “submit,” a concept we will encounter three more times (in 2:5 and 9 and 3:1). “Submissive” indicates an attitude in which the other is recognized as superior. Here that superior is the one who stands for “the sound teaching” as it was entrusted to Paul.

For Paul, there was an acute need to appoint qualified supervisors “for many” in Crete did not submit to sound teaching. That is a disaster, because it means that in many places ambiguity arose about the teaching. Of course, Paul could not prevent the “vain praters and deceivers” who discredited Paul’s teaching from gaining a platform. Nor the supervisor. But in “the house of God” (1:7; 1Tim.3:15), that is “the ecclesia of the living God”, they do not belong. Period.

In Crete, as usual in Paul’s letters, the worst opposition to his teaching came from the Judaic quarter. Oh so religious… but vain babbling! That must be denounced.

Delen: