ACC ~ Titus 1 v12

THE PAGANS CRITICIZE THE ABSURDITY OF THEIR OWN GODS. ATHENAGORAS: What wonder, too, that others, such as Heracles and Perseus, should be called gods on the ground of their strength? And yet others, as Asclepius, on the ground of their skill? Either their subjects accorded them this honor or else the rulers themselves seized it. Some got the title from fear, others from reverence. … And those who lived later accepted these deifications uncritically.

The Cretans always lie; for they, O King,

Have built your tomb, and you are not yet dead.

While you, Callimachus, believe in the birth of Zeus, you disbelieve in his tomb. While you imagine you are hiding the truth, you actually proclaim, even to those who do not realize it, that Zeus is dead. A PLEA REGARDING CHRISTIANS 30.

WHO IS BEING QUOTED, AND WHY? CHRYSOSTOM: It was Epimenides who said this, himself a Cretan, and the reason he was moved to say it is necessary to mention. It is this. The Cretans have a tomb of Jupiter, with this inscription. “Here lieth Zan, whom they call Jove.” On account of this inscription, then, the poet ridiculing the Cretans as liars, as he proceeds, introduces, to increase the ridicule, this passage.

For even a tomb, O King, of thee

They made, who never diedst, but aye shalt be.

If then this testimony is true, observe what a difficulty! For if the poet is true who said that they spoke falsely, in asserting that Jupiter could die, as the apostle says, it is a fearful thing! Attend, beloved, with much exactness. The poet said that the Cretans were liars for saying that Jupiter was dead. The apostle confirmed his testimony: so, according to the apostle, Jupiter is immortal: For he says, “this witness is true”! What shall we say then? Or rather how shall we solve this? The apostle has not said this but simply and plainly applied this testimony to their habit of falsehood. … And as to the question, why does he cite the testimonies of the Greeks? It is because we put them most to confusion when we bring our testimonies and accusations from their own writers, when we make those their accusers, who are admired among themselves. … And from what writers should he address them? From the Prophets? They would not have believed them. Since with the Jews too he does not argue from the Gospels, but from the Prophets. HOMILIES ON TITUS 3.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Having criticized the dangers that arise from Christians of Jewish background, Paul now does the same with Gentile believers. “Of their own” does not refer to the Jews but to a poet or prophet of Gentile background, even one of the Cretans. He wished to criticize the Cretans because they believed they could show the tomb of Jove, even though Jove existed not as a man (as the poet thought) but as a god. COMMENTARY ON TITUS.

THEODORET OF CYR: The quote is from Callimachus, who is not a Jewish prophet but a pagan poet. He calls the Cretans liars on account of a tomb of Jove. Paul is not here offering fables but insisting on the inconsistency of the Cretans, for it is true that the one they call Jove is in another place dead and they have built him a tomb. INTERPRETATION OF THE LETTER TO TITUS.

JEROME: “One of their own prophets” refers to the “men of the circumcision” in the preceding verse. But since the saying is not found in Hebrew Scripture, it must be that the saying is spoken in a duplicitous way, that is, it is a Cretan prophet who speaks, but disguised as a Hebrew in order to be more believable. This is all part of the deceitful atmosphere created by these teachers. COMMENTARY ON TITUS.

JEROME: You ask me at the close of your letter why it is that sometimes in my writings I quote examples from secular literature and thus defile the purity of the church with the foulness of heathenism. … For who is there who does not know that both in Moses and the prophets there are passages cited from Gentile books and that Solomon proposed questions to the philosophers of Tyre and answered others put to him by them. … The apostle Paul also, in writing to Titus, has used a line of the poet Epimenides: “The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.” Half of this line was afterward adopted by Callimachus. LETTERS 70. 2.

THE HOLY USE OF THE UNHOLY. ATHANASIUS: But the heretic, though he use scriptural terms, yet, as being equally dangerous and depraved, shall be asked in the words of the Spirit, “Why do you preach my laws and take my covenant in your mouth?” Thus, the devil, though speaking from the Scriptures, is silenced by the Savior. The blessed Paul, though he speaks from profane writers, “The Cretans are always liars,” and ’We are his offspring,” and “Evil communications corrupt good manners,” yet has a religious meaning, as being holy—is “doctor of the nations, in faith and verity,” as having “the mind of Christ.”COUNCILS OF ARIMINUM AND SELEUCIA 3.39.

THE FALSE USE OF WHAT IS TRUE. AUGUSTINE: If you were to hear, even from one who was profane, the prayer of the priest couched in words suitable to the mysteries of the gospel, can you possibly say to him, “Your prayer is not true,” though he himself may be not only a false priest but not a priest at all? The apostle Paul said that certain testimony of a Cretan prophet (he knew not which) was true, though he was not reckoned among the prophets of God. … If, therefore, the apostle himself bore witness to the testimony of some obscure prophet of a foreign race because he found it to be true, why do not we, when we find in any one what belongs to Christ and is true even though the man with whom it may be found is deceitful and perverse? Why do we not in such a case make a distinction between the fault which is found in the man and the truth which he has not of his own but of God? THE LETTERS OF PETILIAN THE DONATIST 2.30.69.

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