“overseer” the Greek name for the same office.
30. Willetts 1965: 152.
31. “After Cnossus, the city of the Gortynians seems to have ranked second in power; for when these two co-operated they held in subjection all the rest of the inhabitants, and when they had a quarrel there was dissension throughout the island” (Strabo, Geogr. 10.4 [478]).
32. Willetts 1965: 152–57.
33. Thayer, 668; LSJ, 1986. Acts 14:23, cheirotoneō, literally means “to vote by stretching out the hand.” According to John Calvin, Paul and Barnabas “suffer the matter to be decided by the consent of them all. Therefore, in ordaining pastors the people had their free election, but lest there should any tumult arise, Paul and Barnabas sit as chief moderators” (Calvin’s Commentaries John-Acts: 1168).
34. Among the Minoans in Crete, only the aristocrats (not the serfs) could carry arms and exercise in the gym. At “manhood,” after years of training, Cretan youths wore the mature citizen warrior’s dress (Willetts 1965: 87, 95–96, 117).
35. The political leadership in Greece was done by adult free male citizens (Willetts 1965: 149).
36. OCD,729, 976.
37. See 1 Tim 3:2 for further details (Spencer 2013). E.g., Xenophon, Oec. 10.12.
38. Willetts 1965:94.
39. 1 Tim 4:3, 10, 12; 5:16; 2 Tim 2:2, 13.
40. Titus 1:9; 3:8; 1 Tim 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; 2 Tim 2:11.
41. Ngewa (2009: 68) agrees: the “focus is not so much on what the children have chosen, as on what their father and mother have done” (referring to 1 Tim 3:4).
42. BDAG, 148; Thayer, 82.
43. BDAG, 91; Thayer, 52.
44. E.g., nēpios, Gal 4:1, 3, vs. huios, Gal 4:7. The Cretans defined a “runner” (dromeus) as over twenty as opposed to an apodromos (Willetts 1965: 113).
45. Willetts 1965: 113. m.’Abot 5:21 says at thirteen a child is responsible to fulfill the law.
46. Willetts 1965:117.
47. Matt 21:28; Luke 15:31; Phil 2:22; 2 Tim 1:2.
48. Witherington 2007: 336.
49. Deut 11:19; 31:12–13; Josh 8:35; Exod 12:26–27; 13:8, 14–15.
50. Lampe 1993: 20.
51. Lampe 1993: 27.
52. E.g., Stephana’s household chose to enter the “business” of ministry (1 Cor 16:15) (Spencer, 2005: 69–77).
53. Willetts 1965: 48.
54. Hawkes 1968: 52, 55, 58.
55. Gordon 1987: 334.
56. According to the Cretan Gortyn Code, the father had power over the children and the property. Strabo, Geogr. 10.4.16, 20; Plato, Leg. I.625C-626A; Aristotle, Pol. II.ii.10 (1264a); II. vi.21 (1271a); II. vii.3 (1272a); Willetts 1965: 86–87, 111, 113–14, 117, 119.
57. E.g., Matt 12:10; 27:12; John 18:29; Acts 22:30; 24:2, 8, 13, 19; 25:5, 11, 16.
58. LSJ, 926–27.
59. BDAG, 697; Thayer, 440–41; Luke 12:42–44; 16:1–7; Gal 4:2; Xenophon, Oec. I, V, IX.
60. Pistos, 1 Cor 4:1–2; Matt 25:21, 23.
61. Xenophon mentions the importance of loyalty for a steward (Oec. XII [5]).
62. God can express a just anger, with good cause (e.g., Rev 11:18; Matt 18:34; 22:7).
63. Matt 5:21–26; Luke 15:28–32; cf. 1 Tim 3:3, amachos.
64. See 1 Tim 3:2–3 for explanation of paroinos (“given to getting drunk”), plēktēs (“not pugnacious”), philoxenos (“hospitable”), and sōphrōn (“wise”) (Spencer 2013).
65 Literally, “not [a] loving [philos] silver [argyros].”
66. Literally, “shameful gain” (aischros + kerdos) or “sordidly greedy of gain.” The verb kerdainō can refer to financial profit (e.g., Jas 4:13).
67. A typical Minoan touch in harvest festival vases is “the celebrant who has had too much to drink and has fallen almost flat on his face” (Gordon 1987: 333). The Cretans claimed that Dionysus, the wine god, was born in Crete (Diodorys 5. 75. 4–5). Xenophon points out that drink makes estate managers “forget everything they ought to do” (Oec. 12.11).
68. Philo, Mos. 2.2 (9); Minos, the founder of Crete, imitated Rhadamanthys, “a man most just . . . who is reputed to have been the first to civilize the island by establishing laws . . . and by setting up constitutions.” In ancient times, according to Strabo, Crete had “good laws,” but later “it changed very much for the worse”
