2 Timothy and Titus. Aída Besançon Spencer
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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 them the time to reach out to their children. The Old Testament has continual references to the importance of parents educating 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