north and Gortyn in the south, were repeatedly in conflict.31 But, finally, in 67 BC, Crete became a Roman province and Gortyn its capital.32 Thus, Paul, by directing Titus to set up elders in every city, was beginning where the people were, blending the Christian organization with the indigenous one.
Paul does not clarify how Titus was to go about the process of setting up elders, except to make specific their moral qualities. However, Moses certainly had encouraged the Hebrew tribes to select their own leaders (Deut 1:13), and Paul appears to allow the local Christians to select their elders.33 What Paul did not require is instructive. Paul did not require that the elders be Jewish, or circumcised, as the circumcision party might have required. Paul did not require that the elders be aristocrats, as the Minoans might have required.34 Paul did not require that the elders be free citizens, as the Romans or Greeks required.35 Paul did not require that the elders be wealthy, men of leisure, as the rabbis required (m. Meg. 1:3; 4:3). There is no mention of ethnic or class or political or economic status. The term elder probably implied a certain age. Some early rabbis said thirty was the age for authority, sixty was the age to be an elder (m. ’Abot 5:21). Sixty was also the age for a widow to enter the church’s order of prayer (1 Tim 5:9).
Paul now adds the first set of qualifications for “elders” (if any are not open to attack, a one-woman man, having faithful children, not in accusation of wildness or disobedience; 1:6), to be further developed in a second longer sentence (For it is necessary [for] the overseer to be not open to attack as God’s steward, not self-pleasing, not prone to anger, not given to getting drunk, not pugnacious, not fond of shameful gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, wise, righteous, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word according to the teaching . . . ; 1:7–9). Paul uses the same basic qualifications in 1 Timothy 3, but Titus has some different emphases.
Moral Qualities for an Elder Compared and Set in Sequence
| Titus 1:6–9 | 1 Timothy 3:2–7 |
| 1. and 4. not open to attack | 1. not open to attack |
| 2. one-woman man | 2. one-woman man |
| 3. faithful children | 13. children in submission |
| 5. not self-pleasing | |
| 6. not prone to anger | |
| 7. not given to getting drunk | 3. and 8. not given to getting drunk |
| 8. not pugnacious | 9. not pugnacious |
| 9. not fond of shameful gain | 12. not greedy |
| 10. hospitable | 6. hospitable |
| 11. loving what is good | |
| 12. wise | 4. wise |
| 13. righteous | |
| 14. holy | |
| 15. self-controlled | |
| 16. holding fast the faithful word | 7. able to teach |
| Qualities not in Titus | |
| 5. respectable/modest | |
| 10. gentle | |
| 11. peaceable | |
| 14. not newly converted | |
| 15. good witness from outside |
Despite the close initial similarity between Titus 1:7 and 1 Timothy 3:2, the characteristics for godly elders are set in different sequences. Each list has some moral qualities not in the other list (but certainly not contradictory to the other list). The first characteristic for leaders (elder and widow [1 Tim 3:2; 5:7; Titus 1:6]) is that someone be chosen who is not open to attack, who cannot be discredited, someone against whom a justifiable charge could not be brought (anenklētos) from within the church (e.g., circumcision party, 1:10) or from outside the church (e.g., 2:5, 8) or eventually from God (2:13). Even before overt Roman persecution (AD 61–64), Nero’s actions had become more violent than earlier in his reign. In AD 59, for example, Nero had his mother Agrippina murdered. In AD 62, senator Seneca retired and Burrus, the serious Prefect of the Praetorians, died. Both had been positive influences on Nero. Nero then divorced his wife Octavia and had her murdered. In AD 62, after the law of maiestas minuta was revived, wealthy nobles were executed simply on suspicion. In other words, before the fire in Rome in AD 64, changes in the Roman political situation were evident. Nero clearly became a volatile, vicious ruler.36
In Titus (1:6) as in 1 Timothy (3:2; 5:7) having an elder who is (or was) devoted to his spouse (a one-woman man) would be a dramatic contrast to many in the larger society.37 In Crete, as in the rest of the Roman and Greek society, sexual relations between a married free man and a slave or even the wife of a serf were not fined as “adultery.” According to the ancient Cretan Gortyn Code, even rape against a household slave received only a penalty of one to twenty-four obols depending on the circumstances (while against a free person was 1,200 obols).38
Elders are described as having faithful children, not in accusation of wildness or disobedience (1:6). Faithful children may refer either to children with belief in Jesus (in other words, “Christian” children)39 or to children who were trustworthy, for example, as the “trustworthy” word.40 But, how can a parent be held responsible for the faith of a child if every child has free choice?41 On the other hand, the modifying phrase “not in accusation of wildness or disobedience” (Titus 1:6) may very likely modify the “children” (wildness and disobedience being the antithesis of faithful or “trustworthy”). When children cannot be relied upon to obey the parent, they are “unfaithful.” They are incorrigible (asōtos, asōtia). These children are leading abandoned, dissolute lives.42 The same adjective is used for what happens as a result of drunkenness (Eph 5:18), the wild living of Gentiles (1 Pet 4:3–4), the Gentile immorality and disobedience of the law of followers of Bacchys in the temple of Jupiter (2 Macc 6:2–7). This is the life once led by the prodigal son (Luke 15:13). Children who live such a wild life dishonor their parents (Prov 28:7). They will not be subject to control of the parents (Heb 2:8). They are consistently disobedient, without any law (anypotakta; 1 Tim 1:9).43
To what age is a parent responsible for a child? Ancients, as many today, tended to classify people by whether they were minors44 or whether they had or had not yet reached puberty.45 Adulthood or mature citizenship was marked by new clothing in Crete.46 However, in the New Testament, children (teknon) is a generic term that can refer to the unborn (Rev 12:4–5), babies under two years of age (Matt 2:16–18), twelve year olds (Luke 2:48), those mature enough to work but are living with their parents (Matt 21:28; Luke 15:31), and as a term of endearment for an adult coworker.47 Thus, Paul uses a general term in Titus. In addition, adult “children” often continued to live within the household of the parents. The child was responsible to the paterfamilias even in adulthood.48
When the Christians are trying not to give opportunity for charges (kategoria) by the church or the larger society (1:6; 2:5, 8), for elders to have such wild children would be dangerous for the church. The impact would be especially harmful in such communal settings as Crete and other ancient Greek societies. Such wild living had already affected “whole households” (Titus 1:11).
An additional important reason for believers with wild children not to take on the responsibility of oversight of the church was to allow
