Epistle to Titus in Easton's Bible Dictionary
was probably written about the same time as the first
epistle to
Timothy, with which it has many affinities. "Both
letters were
addressed to persons left by the writer to preside
in their
respective churches during his absence. Both letters
are
principally occupied in describing the
qualifications to be
sought for in those whom they should appoint to
offices in the
church; and the ingredients of this description are
in both
letters nearly the same. Timothy and Titus are
likewise
cautioned against the same prevailing corruptions,
and in
particular against the same misdirection of their
cares and
studies. This affinity obtains not only in the
subject of the
letters, which from the similarity of situation in
the persons
to whom they were addressed might be expected to be
somewhat
alike, but extends in a great variety of instances
to the
phrases and expressions. The writer accosts his two
friends with
the same salutation, and passes on to the business
of his letter
by the same transition (comp. 1 Tim. 1:2, 3 with
Titus 1:4, 5; 1
Tim.1:4 with Titus 1:13, 14; 3:9; 1 Tim. 4:12 with
Titus 2:7,
15).", Paley's Horae Paulinae.
The date of its composition may be concluded from
the
circumstance that it was written after Paul's visit
to Crete
(Titus 1:5). That visit could not be the one
referred to in Acts
27:7, when Paul was on his voyage to Rome as a
prisoner, and
where he continued a prisoner for two years. We may
warrantably
suppose that after his release Paul sailed from Rome
into Asia
and took Crete by the way, and that there he left
Titus "to set
in order the things that were wanting." Thence he
went to
Ephesus, where he left Timothy, and from Ephesus to
Macedonia,
where he wrote First Timothy, and thence to
Nicopolis in Epirus,
from which place he wrote to Titus, about A.D. 66 or
67.
In the subscription to the epistle it is said to
have been
written from "Nicopolis of Macedonia," but no such
place is
known. The subscriptions to the epistles are of no
authority, as
they are not authentic.
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