their children, for example, at Passover,49 reminding their children of what God did in their midst (Deut 4:9–10; Ps 78:3–8) and who God is (Deut 6:4–7). Similar exhortations can be found in the New Testament (e.g., Eph 6:4; 1 Thess 2:11–12). The church needed children who were cooperative members of a mini-nation, the household.
In ancient Greece and Rome, the household, with more of an extended family, is larger than in many contemporary North American and European households. A household would include all persons economically dependent on a master—children, even adult sons, slaves, freedpersons, clients, spouses of all these persons, including the master’s spouse.50 Aristotle explains that the household (oikia), the “partnership” for “everyday purposes,” in its “perfect form,” consists of slaves and free persons, “master and slave, husband and wife, father and children” (Politics I.1.6–7; I.2.1). The household might include twenty to thirty people.51 An ancient household would be an extended family with all the workers in the family business who lived in one housing complex.52
In the Cretan society the household was of considerable importance.53 One Minoan palace would sustain hundreds of people.54 The relatives and followers would construct their houses radiating out from the palace at the center.55 The Cretans were particularly communal. Meals and sleeping quarters were communal, one for the young men, another for the young women. Even mature men ate together. Contributions from the harvest were made by serfs toward worship of the gods, upkeep of public services, and to meals for citizens. Even marriage was collective: the young men were required to marry at the same age.56
An accusation (katēgoria, katēgoreō) then was a formal affair. For example, Paul refers to formal accusations against elders in 1 Timothy 5:19, reminding the church that two or three witnesses were needed, alluding to Deuteronomy 19:15. In the New Testament, such accusations before the Jewish religious leaders or Roman political leaders could lead to excommunication from the synagogue and death.57 Katēgorēo and katēgoria refer especially to an accusation before judges.58 Thus, an elder should not be recommended for leadership if that elder or a child living in the household is under a serious accusation process.
The overseer is God’s steward (1:7). A “steward” (oikonomos) was the manager of a household. The owner entrusted the management of affairs to the oikonomos: the oversight of the property, receiving and paying bills, planning expenditures, apportioning food, and overseeing minors.59 They had to be trustworthy.60 Erastus, for example, was a city “manager” (Rom 16:23). Overseers or elders were managers of church life. The owner of their property is “God” (Titus 1:7).
Paul enumerates five failings to avoid that would make God’s steward trustworthy (not self-pleasing, not prone to anger, not given to getting drunk, not pugnacious, not fond of shameful gain; 1:7) and seven qualities to cultivate to make God’s steward trustworthy (but be hospitable, loving what is good, wise, righteous, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word according to the teaching; 1:8–9). God’s manager must be willing to please God, not only oneself (not self-pleasing; authadēs).61 If a manager is prone to anger without cause,62 that will result in unnecessary conflict (Prov 29:22). Jesus spoke against anger without a good cause, as from envy, which can be a precondition to murder. Anger is a violent emotion that can lead to a violent action. It disparages the listener. The opposite is reconciliation or peacemaking.63 Anger is also infectious. Simply being a companion to a person given to anger can encourage one to be irascible too (Prov 22:24–25).64
The components of aischrokerdēs (1:7) occur later in Titus (1:11, aischros kerdos) to describe those of the circumcision party who overturn whole households because of shameful gain. Aischrokerdēs is also used for “deacons” in 1 Timothy 3:8. Aphilargyros (the quality for an overseer in 1 Tim 3:3 and any believer in Heb 13:5) clearly refers to “not loving money.”65 Aischrokerdēs is a broader term.66 Josephus uses aischrokerdeia for deceitful financial gain (Life 13 [75]). Polybius sees the love for “shameful gain” (aischrokerdeia) and lust for wealth to prevail among the Cretans. They are “the only people in the world in whose eyes no gain is disgraceful” (Hist. 6.46.3–4). Because the state allows them to acquire as much land as they want, he accuses them of having an “ingrained lust of wealth” that causes “constant broils both public and private, and in murders and civil wars” (Hist. 6.46.9; 47.5). Thus, Paul’s requirement for an elder/overseer not to desire “shameful gain” would especially be significant in Crete. In contrast, for God’s stewards to be trustworthy, they must not shamelessly and deceitfully seek their own gain or profit.
Sitting long drinking wine (not given to getting drunk; paroinos)67 and fighting (not pugnacious; plēktēs, 1:7) are related words, because sometimes excessive drinking can lessen inhibitions that cover more hidden aggressive emotions, especially if a person is prone to anger anyway (orgilos). If the overseer begins with a foundation of pleasing oneself, instead of God, and to this foundation is added a tendency to be angry without good cause, impelled by intoxication and readiness to fight, no wonder the end would be shameless self-gain (aischrokerdēs).
In contrast, the trustworthy household manager is hospitable (philoxenos), loving what is good (philagathos) (not intoxicants or self-gain), is wise (sōphrōn), righteous (dikaios, dikaia), holy (hosios, hosia), and certainly self-controlled (1:8). Some of these positive qualities for an overseer/elder also appear in other ancient literature. Philo concludes that the lawgiver should especially have four virtues: love of humanity (philanthrōpos), love of justice (philodikaios), love of good (philagathos), and hatred of evil (misoponēros).68
Two additional key characteristics of God are righteousness and holiness. As early as the Pentateuch, Moses summarizes God’s character as great: “God is trustworthy (pistos) and has no unrighteousness; righteous (dikaios) and holy (hosios) is the Lord” (Deut 32:4), and, as late as Revelation, an angel describes God as “righteous, the One who is and the One who was, the Holy One” (Rev 16:5). Jesus too is described as “holy and righteous” (Acts 3:14).69 In the first century, dikaios could refer to people who observe societal rules.70 In the Bible, it refers to people who observe God’s rules, like Noah, a “righteous human,” pleasing to God (Gen 6:10) or Zechariah and Elizabeth “righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and regulations of the Lord” (Luke 1:6).
The opposite of righteous (1:8) is lawless and disobedient, godless, sinful, and unholy (Titus 2:12; 1 Tim 1:9), as the wild and disobedient child (Titus 1:6). Righteousness is a characteristic people may have and yet will pursue but never perfect (1 Tim 6:11; 2 Tim 3:16). Human works of righteousness cannot save; only Jesus, the perfect Righteous
