TITUS 1:12 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.”
One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons' — Paul quotes Epimenides of Crete (sixth-century BCE), turning the Cretans' own testimony against the false teachers among them. The characterization (liars, beasts, gluttons) encapsulates moral failure: dishonesty in speech, brutishness in nature, excess in appetite. By citing a native witness, Paul validates the charge while maintaining rhetorical distance, a technique common in ancient polemic.
Church Fathers on Titus 1:12
There are several questions here. First, who it was that said this? Secondly, why Paul quoted it? Thirdly, why he brings forward a testimony that is not correct? Let us then offer a seasonable solution of these, having premised some other things. For when Paul was discoursing to the Athenians, in the course of his harangue he quoted these words, “To the Unknown God”: and again, “For we also are His offspring, as certain also of your own poets have said.” Acts 17:23-28 It was…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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