Titus 1:12-14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

One of themselves That is, one of their own countrymen, who could not be unacquainted with their conduct, or disposed to belie them; even a prophet of their own This was the poet Epimenides, who, among the Romans, was reputed to have foretold future events. Cicero, speaking of him, ( De Divinat., lib. 1.,) says he was futura præsciens, et vaticinans per furorem; one who foreknew and foretold things future by ecstasy. Besides, as all poets pretended to a kind of inspiration, the names prophet and poet were used as synonymous, both by the Greeks and Romans. The Cretians are always liars, &c. Epimenides said this in his book concerning oracles, a passage which Glassius hath quoted entire, p. 2075. According to Bishop Warburton, ( Div. Legat., vol. 1. p. 159,) the Cretians were universally hated, and branded as liars, by the other Greeks, because, by showing in their island the tomb of Jupiter, the father of gods and men, they published what the rest of the Greeks concealed in their mysteries, namely, that their gods were dead men. Evil beasts Or wild beasts, rather, as θηρια signifies, fierce, savage; slow bellies Lazy gluttons, as averse to action as wild beasts are after gorging themselves with their prey. So that in these words the poet suggests “a remarkable contrast, to show what a mixture there was of fierceness and luxury in the characters of the Cretians. Savage beasts are generally active and nimble, but these men, while they had the fury of lions and tigers, indulged themselves so much in the most sordid idleness and intemperance that they grew, as it were, all belly. As for their proneness to falsehood, it is well known that κρητιζειν, to talk like a Cretian, was a proverb for lying; (as κορινθιαζειν, to live like a Corinthian, was for a luxurious and debauched life;) and it is remarkable that Polybius scarce ever mentions this nation without some severe censure.” This witness is true Namely, in the general, though some particular persons may be found of a different character. Wherefore rebuke them sharply Αποτομως, with a cutting severity. From this Blackwall infers, “that it is a vain pretence that only gentle and soft expressions are to be applied to people that renounce good principles, and corrupt the gospel.” But it ought to be observed, that St. Paul speaks of reproving vice, not error. Besides, though Titus was to reprove the Cretians sharply, “the sharpness of his reproofs was not to consist in the bitterness of the language which he used, nor in the passion with which he spake. Reproofs of that sort have little influence to make a person sound, either in faith or practice. It was to consist in the strength of the reasons with which he enforced his reproofs, and in the earnestness and affection with which he delivered them; whereby the consciences of the offenders being awakened, would sting them bitterly.” Not giving heed to Jewish fables See 1 Timothy 1:4; and commandments of men Of Jewish and other teachers; that turn from the truth Forsake the true doctrine of the gospel. “It appears, from the following verse, that the apostle, in saying this, had in view the precepts of the Judaizers concerning meats, clean and unclean, which, although originally the precepts of God, were now abolished under the gospel. Therefore, if these things were any longer enjoined as obligatory, they were not enjoined by God, but by the precepts of men.” See Doddridge and Macknight.