Epistle to Titus
The Epistle to Titus, often written as simply, Titus, is the seventeenth book in the New Testament. It is a letter written in ancient Greek around 80-190 CE to a man named Titus. The author identifies himself as Paul, but most historians don't think the author is Paul.
Authorship
According to Christian tradition, this letter was written by Paul the Apostle to his disciple Titus around 67 CE. However, like much of the New Testament, both the authorship and date are in dispute and many scholars suggest an unknown author writing from 80 CE to as late as 190 CE.
Content
The author tells the recipient to avoid evil, do good, and be extremely obedient, and also greatly disparages women.
Status
This letter is in the public domain. I have several translations of this book from various bibles, and have read the NIV translation.
Review
Good
- Nothing.
Bad
- More of the same. Like most of the epistles, the author writes the obvious: do good things and avoid doing bad things. He puts forth a black and white dichotomy where everything that is bad is horribly evil, and everything that is good, is pure and divine. This is an unrealistic outlook on life.
- Humorously, the author describes genealogies as unprofitable and useless (3:9), but old testament books are peppered with long genealogies, and even the gospels of Matthew and Luke begin with them.
Ugly
- The author doesn't seem to know what "good" means. To him, it's "good" if women are chaste, busy at home, and subject to their husbands (2:3) and that slaves are obedient and faithful to their masters (2:9).
Links
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epistle_to_Titus - Wikipedia.
- librivox.org/group/360 - LibriVox - King James Version.
- librivox.org/group/220 - LibriVox - American Standard Version.
- librivox.org/group/383 - LibriVox - World English Translation.
- librivox.org/group/364 - LibriVox - Weymouth New Testament.