TITUS: INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERARY STRUCTURE

The following is a condensed version of a chapter in my unpublished book entitled The Structure of Scripture. The complete chapter will be sent to anyone requesting it. Contact me at elmerphd21@hotmail.com.

There is almost complete agreement among scholars regarding the subdivision of this letter for at least its first half, with individual literary units at 1:1-4; 1:5-9; 1:10-16 and 2:1-10. There is disagreement regarding the sections in the second part of Titus although the conclusion of the epistle is generally considered to be the last four verses, sometimes further subdivided into 3:12-14 and 3:15.

There has been little attempt to formulate an overall scheme that orders these individual units, however they may be defined, other that the rather negative assessment of Hanson, who states that the author imitates the style of a letter by arbitrarily alternating between his original sources even though this results in a thoroughly disjointed composition crudely strung together by transitional sentences.  As examples of verses containing common themes but separated by unrelated material, he cites Titus 2:11-14 with 3:3-7; 1:10-16 with 3:9-11; and 3:8 with 3:14. However, if one recognizes the parallel style of composition employed throughout the Bible, these paired passages can actually be used as the basis for reconstructing the overall symmetrical architecture for Titus diagrammed in Fig. 1.

Figure 1: The Structure of Titus

I. Opening Greeting (1:1-4)

II. Specific Instructions to Titus: Church Leaders and Corrupt Influences (1:5-16)

A. Church Leaders (1:5-9)

B. Warnings (1:10-16)

III. Teach! (2:1-14)

A. Introductory Charge (2:1)

B. Submission (2:2-10)

C. Turning from the Past and

                                                                                         Becoming Purified (2:11-14)

III'. Exhort and Reprove! (2:15-3:8a)

A. Introductory Charge (2:15)

B. Submission (3:1-2)

C. Turning from the Past and

                                                                                         Being Regenerated (3:3-8a)

II'. Specific Instructions to Titus: Corrupt Influences and Church Leaders (3:8b-14)

B. Warnings (3:8b-11)

A. Church Leaders (3:12-14)

I'. Closing Greetings (3:15)

Sections I and I'

These two greetings work in several directions: they begin in 1:1 from Paul to Titus and conclude the letter with regards from Paul’s companions to Titus, Paul to the church by way of Titus, and finally from Paul directly to “all.”

As short as these two sections are, they have in common two words of uncommon power, “faith” and “grace,” the dual poles around which this letter revolves. In commenting on the first and last verses in Titus, Ward says, “Faith is prominent in the epistle...Even the elect must have faith.”  If the Cretan Christians are to demonstrate their faith by following the instructions given to them through Paul and Titus, “the doctrinal basis for these instructions is the grace of God.” (Gundry)

Sections II and II'

The major parallelism between these sections is the mirror image relationship between its two subsections portrayed in Fig. 1, especially between IIB and II'B. For example, “know” occurs in the letter only at 1:16 and 3:11, both in the context of descriptions of the false leaders. Karris has noted in those same two units (at 1:10 and 3:9) the characterization of the false teachers as engaging in “verbal quibbles.”  Similarly, the Jewish elements in the dissidents’ teaching are alluded to in 1:10,14 and 3:9, and the false teachers are said to speak out against sound doctrine in 1:14 and 3:10 (6).

The “A” sections are also parallel in thought if not in verbal similarities. Thus, the appointment of elders outlined in IIA is not due, in Gundry’s words, “to advanced hierarchical Church government, but to the starting of new churches under missionary conditions.”  In the parallel context of IIA', continuity of church leadership is also addressed. Titus is to aid various companions of Paul who will be coming to Crete, perhaps in the role of traveling evangelists or teachers to help the fledgling church after Titus himself departs. The word translated “be wanting” (1:5; 3:13) appears as a sort of inclusio to the whole body of the epistle.

Sections III and III'

There are many parallels between these two cycles, which comprise the bulk of the epistle. Concerning the climatic “C” units:

1. Lea and Griffin note that these sections contain some of the rare occurrences of the gospel message found in the Pastoral Epistles. They treat these verses, along with the opening words 1:1-4 as the three “outstanding theological statement[s]” in Titus.

2. Both of these units begin with “for” (gar) and share vocabulary such as “appear,” “grace,” “salvation,” “passions,” “hope” and “works.” Knight notes that only in Titus, among the Pauline letters, is Jesus referred to as Savior. He finds special significance in the fact that Jesus Christ appears as Savior at 2:13 and 3:6, which he treats as the centers of their respective literary units. In fact, this repeated designation has even more significance in that it appears at the end of two parallel cycles, according to the scheme of Fig. 1.

            3. It is also in these two climactic units that the believers are described as having the hope of eternal life (the same phrase introducing the epistle in 1:2) and that the word of God is said to be in them.

            4. Knight comments on 2:11 and 3:3-6: “Both passages speak of God’s saving actions as the basis for what Christians are told to do, and both do so by saying that a characteristic of God has ‘appeared’..., bringing salvation or causing people to be saved.”

Overall Architecture

The most elaborate inclusio involving the first half of the letter is formed from the titles given Jesus:

Christ Jesus our Savior (1:4)                     our Savior Jesus Christ (2:13)

The complete phrase in 2:13 has been variously understood as “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” or “the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” If the latter translation is taken, it yields perfect mirrored symmetry in the three elements shown above.

The presence of verbal parallels between the start and end of the first half of the epistle may perhaps explain why Paul applied the rare designation “slave” to himself in the first verse. Rather than being an indication of the pseudonymous nature of the letter, the word may have been purposefully employed in order to correspond to the slaves mentioned in 2:9. (Hanson)

Viewing the letter as the two-part composition described in Fig. 1 may answer another one of Hanson’s problems with the Epistle to Titus. He is critical of the appropriateness of v. 2:15 as a link passage since it has little association with the previous verses. In fact, a glance at Fig. 1 will show that this verse not only starts a brand new cycle, it also serves as the introduction to the second half of the letter. Therefore there is no real reason to expect that it should be closely tied with what precedes it.

Since the literary composition outlined in Fig. 1 contains no true center, the intended emphasis of the letter should fall on the first and last elements (namely, I and I'). The surprising amount of doctrinal information crammed into the introductory Section I has been noted by Ward.

At the same time, the parallel cycles III and III' move toward their respective climaxes in their third subunits. It is thus no accident that Nute identifies “three short, but most valuable doctrinal statements” in the letter, which are practically synonymous with the verses labeled sections I, IIIC and III'C.  Similarly, Towner states that the presentations of God and Christ reach “high points” at 2:11-14 and 3:4-7. The verses, corresponding to Section IIIC, have been called “one of the richest passages of Holy Writ.” (Hendricksen)