“To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.”
To be self-controlled and pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled — the younger women's virtues (sophron = self-controlled, hagnas = pure, oikourous = domestic-minded, agathous = good, hypotassomenous = submissive) serve a missionary purpose: lest the word be blasphemed (blasphēmētai). The connection suggests that sexual and domestic ethics function as public testimony to gospel power, making Christian households visible advertisements of divine transformation.
Church Fathers on Titus 2:5
There are some failings which age has, that youth has not. Some indeed it has in common with youth, but in addition it has a slowness, a timidity, a forgetfulness, an insensibility, and an irritability. For this reason he exhorts old men concerning these matters, “to be vigilant.” For there are many things which at this period make men otherwise than vigilant, especially what I mentioned, their general insensibility, and the difficulty of stirring or exciting them. Wherefore…
Read all 2 entries in the readerNicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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