Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Titus 2:1-10, Older men, older women, young wives and slaves
Titus is to teach what fits sound doctrine to each group in the household of faith, older men, older women, younger women, younger men and slaves, so that outsiders have no cause to speak against God's message and the teaching about God is made attractive.
Titus 2:1-10, in every translation this tool compares.
Titus is to teach a way of life that fits sound teaching, with a word for each group in the church: older men, older women, younger women, younger men and slaves. The qualities are self-control, respect, faithfulness and kindness, and Titus is to model them himself. Again and again Paul gives the reason as how outsiders see the faith, so that no one can speak ill of God's message and the teaching about God becomes attractive. How far these instructions answer the setting of their day, and how far they stand as lasting teaching, is read differently.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/household-codes\/","n":"Household codes","s":"From Aristotle on, moral writers told the male head of a household how to rule his wife, his children and his slaves, in that order. Religions under suspicion used the same form to show Rome they were no threat to the family.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/the-household\/","n":"The household and its head","s":"A household gathered family, slaves, freed slaves and workers under one head, and it was expected to follow that head's religion. When the head turned to a new god, the house often came too.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/women-in-public\/","n":"Women in public","s":"Custom kept unrelated men and women apart in public. Teachers warned men against talking much with women, a stranger was not to speak with a woman alone, and a woman's word counted for little in court. Most women were also taught far less than men, so a call for women to learn stood out.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/slavery\/","n":"Slavery and slave managers","s":"Slaves were everywhere in the Roman world, from field hands to stewards who ran whole estates and handled their master's money. A master away and slaves left in charge was a familiar story.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/honor-and-shame\/","n":"Honor before a crowd","s":"Public standing was the currency of the ancient Mediterranean. People competed for honor and dreaded being shamed in front of others.","r":""}
Romans suspected Eastern religions of undermining family values, so such groups often followed the philosophers' household codes, which also covered duties to the state and the gods (Keener and his notes). Wright pictures a town watching its first Christians, who skip the sacrifices and festivals and are rumored to refuse the oath to the emperor. Some thought drunkenness on Crete worse than elsewhere (the cultural backgrounds notes; Keener); Wright notes that older women might mean women from thirty, in households of two or three generations. Self-control in a woman meant sexual modesty, and Paul says subject rather than obedient (Keener and his notes). Owners stereotyped slaves as lazy and thieving (Keener and his notes), and Wright writes, "You could no more abolish slavery overnight in the first century" than invent space travel. Carson, Moo and Morris read such instructions as showing that the Cretans were unpromising material. Three times the aim is outsiders' view of the gospel (2:5, 8, 10; Keener; the ESV Study Bible). Keener reads the passage as addressing the Roman values of the day for the sake of witness, while the ESV Study Bible presents the wife's role as standing teaching.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introduction to Titus 2:1-14, and on Titus 2:1, 2:3, 2:5 and 2:9-10
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Titus 2:1-9, 2:3, 2:5 and 2:9-10
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Titus 2:5, 8, 10
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters, comment on Titus 2:1-10
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 15, The Pastoral Epistles: The Contribution of Titus
