Tito 2
Jerome · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Tito 2:1
But you speak what befits sound doctrine. The speaking of sound doctrine is one thing, the teaching of those things that are fitting for sound doctrine is another; in the one there is only the simplicity of instruction, while in the other there is also the correction of life in those who teach. For whoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:19). When the Lord commanded His disciples to labour not only in the meditation of the Scriptures, that they might repeat and lay them up in the treasure-house of their memory, but also that they should first do what was commanded, whoever shall do and teach shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For unless your justice surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5) Those who sit in the chair of Moses preach but do not practice. They burden the backs of others with loads that are heavy and difficult to carry, but they themselves will not lift a finger to lighten the load. Therefore, the Apostle now teaches his disciple Titus, a son in Christ, to speak the things that are in accord with sound doctrine, for then there will be spiritual health when the teaching of the doctor and his life agree. — Commentary on Titus
Tito 2:2
Older men should be sober, honorable, chaste, sound in faith, love, and patience. Titus, before directing him what he should say to everyone, in what he says, "But you speak what befits sound doctrine," he explains in detail what is appropriate for each age group. First what is appropriate for older men, then what is appropriate for older women, thirdly what is appropriate for young people, both men and women: although in the commandment of older women he included instructions regarding young women, so that he did not teach young children, but explained what they should be taught by older women. Finally, he fittingly established rules for servants, and for each age and condition, so that his speech becomes a guide to life and morals. Therefore, older men should be sober, or watchful, since "νηφάλιοι" means both in Greek: honorable, so that the gravity of age decorates the gravity of morals: chaste, lest they luxuriate in someone else's youth, lest they be an example for young people to ruin in their lusts after their own blood has already cooled. Healthy in faith, about which faith's health we have spoken above. However, not only healthy in faith, but also in charity and in patience, so that when they have obtained the first health of faith, they may hear from the Savior: Your faith has saved you (Mark 10:52). And elsewhere: For I have not found such great faith even in Israel (Matthew 8:10). And by means of the same health of faith, let them become the children of Abraham, concerning whom it is written: Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:8). And Habakkuk, referring to this health of faith, says: The just lives by my faith (Habakkuk 2:3). Read the Epistle to the Hebrews of the Apostle Paul (or whichever other you think it to be, because it is already recognized among the ecclesiastical), enumerate that whole list of faith, in which it is written: By faith Abel offered to God a greater sacrifice than Cain's (Hebrews 11:4 ff.). And: Enoch was translated so that he would not see death; and Noah, believing in God, built an ark for the things he had not yet seen. And Abraham went out into a land he did not know. And so that Scripture might not seem to give no example of faith to women, it is written in the same Epistle that Sarah also received strength to conceive seed, even beyond the time of her life, because she considered Him faithful who had promised. There, the faith of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and Rahab, and others who the reader of the Epistle can better know, are praised. So, how is faith the health of the soul? In the same way, this health is also found in charity. And who possesses the health of charity except the one who loves God first with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his strength? Then, hearing Christ's commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself (Matthew 5), he divides charity into two: because all the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments. Whoever possesses the health of charity does not envy, does not boast, does not act improperly, does not behave dishonorably, is not easily angered, does not think evil, does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth, endures all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and waits for all things (1 Corinthians 13). And because love never fails, whoever is in the health of love, he never fails. For neither tribulation, nor distress, nor hunger, nor persecution, nor nakedness, nor danger, nor sword can separate him from the health of love, which he has in Jesus Christ. What shall I say about the sword and other minor things that cannot divide him who possesses the love of health when neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can separate him who has the love of health in Jesus Christ? If we understand the health of love, let us take an example from the Scriptures of those who are in the weakness of love. The Savior says about the end times: Because iniquity hath abounded, the love of many shall wax cold (Matthew 24). For love is warm in those who are fervent in spirit, but cooling, freezing, and cold in those who have received the hardest blasts of the North Wind. "For from the north shall an evil break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land" (Jer. 1:14). Ammon too became hot in carnal desire for his sister Thamar because of this coldness of charity (2 Kings 13). Let us, then, fear lest we too are ever overcome by this infirmity of charity. Indeed, it sometimes happens that our first holy love is for a virgin or any other woman, and when our mind has been softened by affection, the healthy state of charity gradually fades away and begins to grow weak, and carries the loving soul to its last breath. Hence the Apostle rightly and prudently charges Timothy to encourage younger women to preserve their chastity in all things (1 Tim. 5). But all chastity is in flesh and spirit and soul, lest our eye be offended, lest we become enchained by the beauty of a woman's face, lest listening to sweet words delight us, lest our heart be first softened by counterfeit conversation. Therefore let them be careful, as we have said, both young and old, both girls and elderly women, and let them guard their hearts with all diligence: lest through the health of their love, the sickness of charity enters, and through holy love, unholiness becomes love, which draws them towards hell. Let him who is sound in faith, who is sound in charity, also be sound in patience: and patience, which is especially tested in temptations: because it is of no benefit to have the wealth and merchandise enumerated above, unless all the goods and merchandise with which the ship is laden are preserved in the storm, and, being blown hither and thither by winds, the things which have been well acquired are saved without shipwreck. For he who shall have persevered even to the end, he shall be saved (Matthew 24:13). — Commentary on Titus
Tito 2:3-5
Similarly, with holy habits, not inciting, not serving much wine; teaching well, that they may instruct young women towards chastity, that they may love their husbands, that they may love their children: modest, chaste, having diligence of the house, kind, submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Although the apostle Peter has commanded that husbands should give honor to their wives as to a weaker vessel, nevertheless it is not to be judged that a wife, who has a weak vessel of the body, is at once weaker also in soul. Hence they are now commanded that also in them that of the Apostle may be fulfilled: Virtue is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9), and it is said that they may have all things, which are commonly commanded to old men, in that namely which he says: Similarly the aged women, that is, as elderly men, in all things honorable, sober, modest, healthy in faith, and charity, and patience, and for their gender this may have as their own, that they may be with holy habits, or as it is read better in Greek, ἐν καταστήματι ἱεροπρεπεῖς, that even their own conduct and movement, expression, speech, silence, they may prefer a certain sacred dignity of decorum. And because this type of woman is usually talkative, in accordance with that: "And at the same time they also learn to be idle and wander around from house to house. Not only are they idle, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they shouldn't" (1 Tim. 5:13): therefore He wishes that they not be provocative, that is, not accusers, not such that they please others, and speak ill of others. Or certainly because they have already crossed adolescence themselves, they argue about the ages of young girls, and say: "She is adorned thus, she combs her hair thus, she walks like this: she loves him, she is loved by him": and even if these things are true, they should not accuse others so openly, but rather correct themselves in secret with the love of Christ, and teach more to not do rather than publicly accuse them of what they did. These ages usually indulge in bodily lust (although there are many who are not shy about their gray hairs, and trembling young girls are composed before a flock of grandchildren), giving themselves up to wine for pleasure; and when they have appeared wise and eloquent to themselves between cups, they assume a kind of morality, speaking this which they see in themselves, and not remembering what they were. And let old women be prohibited from too much drinking of wine, because what in young women is desire, in old women it is drunkenness. And how can an old woman teach young girls chastity, when if she herself has imitated the drunkenness of an old woman, she cannot be chaste? And he expressed emphatically: Do not be enslaved to much wine. For it is a kind of slavery and a miserable condition for a person's senses to be occupied by wine, and not to be one's own, but that of the wine. Therefore, because he taught what kind of old women they should be at first, and after those things which are common with old men, he also exposed their own particularities, that they may be full of honest and holy decorum: neither accusers, nor detractors of others, nor having their senses occupied by wine. Now, following his doctrine, he allows them the reins, so that when they are such, they may have the freedom to teach the good things. For although he said elsewhere, "But I do not allow women to teach" (1 Tim. 2:12), it is to be understood that for them the doctrine should be removed. However, they should teach young girls as if they were their own daughters. First, chastity: because the enemy fights more fiercely against it in the flourishing age, and all its virtue is directed against women in the womb; then that they may love their husbands, care for their children. Which doctrine is to love their husbands; is it not established in the heart of the lover rather than in the speech of the teacher? She wants to love her husband chastely: she wants a chaste love between man and woman, so that, with modesty, and reverence, and as if compelled by the sex, she may rather give her due to her husband than demand it of him, and she believes that she must perform the work of her children before the eyes of God and the angels: thus she will not even be ashamed of her secret bedroom, and the darkness of the night, and her closed bedroom, when she has considered that all things are open to the eyes of God. But they love their children thus, if they educate them in God's discipline. Moreover, not wanting to sadden them by teaching what is good, and granting them the freedom to sin ((or of sinning)), is not loving one's children, but hating them. Young girls, too, are to be educated to have diligence in the house. And because it could happen that the diligence of the house is governed with severity, and thus by this precept of the Apostle, the matron becomes severe towards her servants: therefore, he coupled kindness: so that then she would believe that her husband was ruling the house well if he commanded the servants with kindness, not in fear. And also [women] subject to their own husbands: lest perhaps they remember not God's sentence, and by occasion of riches or nobility, despise the divine ordinance, whereby they are subject to their husbands. For he saith: 'Thy will be to thy husband, and he shall have dominion over thee' (Gen. 3:16). The prudence to be observed in the Holy Scriptures is that the Lord did not speak to the man, saying, "You shall rule over your wife," but to the woman herself, that she might leave to her obedience the reward, since it is in her power, if she desires to obey the precepts of God, to serve her husband and to be subject to him as to a husband, so that it might be in some way a free servitude, full of love, serving her husband while she fears offending him. For indeed, man was not created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. And while the head of the woman is the man, the head of the man is Christ. Whatever wife does not submit herself to her husband, that is, to her head, is guilty of the same offense as the husband who does not submit himself to Christ, his head. But the word of the Lord is blasphemed, either when the first sentence of God is despised and considered of no account, or when the Gospel of Christ is defamed, while it desires, contrary to the law and faith of nature, that which is Christian and subject to the law of God, to command the husband. Even pagan women serve their husbands according to the common law of nature. — Commentary on Titus
Tito 2:6-8
Similarly, exhort the youth to be pure in all things, setting yourself as an example of good works in teaching, integrity and chastity, in sound and irreproachable speech, so that the outsider may respect us, having nothing bad to say about us. Just as what he had said previously, "Similarly, with elderly women dressed in a sacred manner," we said the similitude of elderly women should be referred to as the elderly; and so now with what he introduced: Similarly, exhort the youth to be pure, we think this similitude applies to the youth in relation to the elderly, and through the elderly to the elderly, so that they may have the sobriety of the elderly, and be honorable and pure, and sound in faith, and charity, and patience. But with regard to the elderly, he places them in the sanctity of their attire so that they may not be accusers, not slavishly devoted to much wine, teaching well, and so forth. But this has particular bearing on young men, that they should be pure in all things, namely in mind as well as body, as much in action as in thought, so that there might be no suspicion of indecency in the young man. And although some among the Latins think that it should be read thus: "Likewise exhort young men to be of honourable character, and afterwards to bring forth, in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works", nevertheless, let us know that, in all things, reference must be made to the higher, that is, to exhort them to be of honourable character in all things. It must also be known that continence is not only necessary in physical works and in the desire of the soul, but in all things, so that we do not seek undue honors, we are not inflamed by avarice, and we are not overcome by any passion. "Showing thyself," he says, "a pattern of good works." It is of no use for someone to be practised in speaking and to have learned the language for speaking, if he has more instructed by his example than by his word. Finally, whoever is shameless, although he be eloquent, if he exhorts those who hear him to chastity, his speech is feeble, and he does not have authority to exhort. And, vice versa, although he may be rustic and slow in speaking, if he is chaste, he can impel men to a likeness of life by his example. That which it says, "in incorruption," must be accepted as meaning that incorruption properly signifies virginity. Finally, those who are virgins are commonly called incorrupt; and those who have ceased to be virgins are called corrupt; and we say, she who was once a virgin, is corrupted. Wherefore I think that Titus, before he was occupied with the work of the flesh, received baptism as a believer of the Gospel, and remained a virgin, and is now reminded by the Apostle to show the form of incorruption; but we do not see this incorruption in Timothy. For when he said to him, Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in chastity (1 Timothy 4:12), he was silent about incorruption and only mentioned chastity. However, purity even in celibacy can be understood without virginity. Unless we take purity in the mind and incorruption in the body as it is written elsewhere in the definition of a virgin: That she may be holy both in body and in spirit (1 Corinthians 7). He himself then added: in doctrine, in incorruption, in chastity. We might even interpret chastity and incorruption in the integrity of doctrine, but what particularly follows, "with wholesome speech that cannot be condemned," should have its own precept regarding the instruction of doctrine. However, when he says "speech cannot be condemned," he does not mean that anyone is so eloquent and wise that no one ever criticizes him (for both apostles and evangelists are criticized by heretics and pagans), but that he does not say or do anything worthy of criticism, though his opponents are ready to condemn him. And since there are many who are disobedient, vain talkers and deceivers of minds, who hate the one admonishing at the gates, and abominate holy discourse, therefore in all things let us set an example of doctrine, in integrity, in chastity, in sound and irreprehensible speech: that the adversaries of our life and doctrine, terrified by our soundness, may not dare to accuse, that is, to fabricate anything likely in accusation. And indeed we see some such today in churches (although this is a rare thing), of such gravity and continence that even from adversaries they have testimony, and it is said, that is a great man, and of holy conversation, and of good and proper behavior, if he were not a heretic. For there is no one of such unrestrained impudence that he can accuse the bright rays of the sun of darkness, and cast the clear light of night into obscurity. Hence also the Apostle, aware of this, says: To take away occasion from them that desire occasion (2 Cor. 11:12). Yet he can be understood to mean he who is an adversary, and that is the devil, who is the accuser of our brethren, as John the Evangelist preaches: who when he has nothing evil to accuse us of, is put to shame, and the accuser cannot accuse. But in the Latin language, devil signifies accuser. — Commentary on Titus
Tito 2:9-10
Slaves should be subject to their masters in all things: pleasing, not contradicting, not stealing; but showing all good faith, so as to adorn the doctrine of our Savior God in all things. For our Lord and Savior, who says in the Gospel: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you (Matt. 11:28), considers no condition, age, sex, or beatitude to be foreign. Therefore, now the apostle establishes precepts for the servants and members of the body of Christ as part of the Church. And just as he taught Titus how he should instruct the old men, old ladies, young girls, and young men above, he now establishes appropriate precepts for the servants. First, that they should be subject to their masters in all things. But in all these things which are not contrary to God: so that if the master commands something which is not adverse to the holy Scriptures, then the servant should be subject to the master. But if he commands something contrary, then the spirit should obey the master rather than the body. Pay careful attention to how he decrees precepts suitable for people. Servants, he says, should be subject to their masters in all things (Ephesians 6:5). In another place, discussing sons, he says: "Children obey your parents" (Colossians 3:20). For it is right for sons to obey their parents, just as servants are subject to their master. Nor should we consider it contradictory that in another letter he says, "Women, be subject to your husbands" (Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18), and in this one he asserts that wives are subject to their husbands, as if he uses the same word for both servants and wives. For in a sense, a husband is the lord of his wife. "He will rule over you," he says (Genesis 3:16). The Savior himself was subject to his parents (Luke 2), but this was when he was still only twelve years old and not yet of an age to inherit his kingdom. And it is also written elsewhere of him: "When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28). And all things will be subject to him when he says, "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool '" (Psalm 110:1). In subordinate servants the Lord is subject. And just as it is said to be a curse for us when it is not a curse but a true blessing, so it is written for us, either subject or not subject: whether we are subject to God or not. Some read this passage as follows: Let servants be subject to their masters, and after they have distinguished this, they infer, please in all things: whereas in Greek there is a different order of reading, that is, let servants be subject to their masters in all things; so that it follows, to be pleasing: which, though not fully, can still be interpreted in part, as pleasing to themselves: so that the divine sentence does not seem unjust to them on their own terms. But how can a poor person be saved according to their own measure; and a woman in her sexual weakness is not excluded from the kingdom of God, and every condition can receive happiness according to its own order: Thus let slaves be pleased with themselves that they are slaves, and not think that they cannot serve God because they are subject to men; but they will please the will of God more, if they are also subject to their masters in all things, and are content with their condition; and what the Apostle commands to do thereafter, that they should not be contradicted, not stealing. Or the greatest vice of servants is to contradict their masters, and when they have ordered something, to whisper among themselves. Therefore, he admonishes Titus, so that through sound doctrine he may remove such passion from those who are Christian slaves. For if a master commands things, a servant must fulfill: why should he not do this willingly, with goodwill; but also offend the lord, and yet do what is ordered: especially when God is offended by contradiction? And in another place he speaks of grumbling people: Let their murmur cease from me, and they shall not die (Num. XIV). After the contradiction and other vice of the servants let the doctrine of Christ correct them, lest they be thieves. A thief, however, is judged not only in great things, but also in small things. For not only what is taken away by theft is considered, but also the intention of the thief. Likewise in fornication and adultery, fornication or adultery is not different if it is done with a beautiful or wealthy, ugly or poor, prostitute or adulteress: but whatever it is, it is one fornication or adultery. Thus, in theft, however much a servant takes away, he incurs the crime of theft. Therefore, in the law of Moses, thieves are sometimes forced to pay back sevenfold, sometimes fourfold, and sometimes they are put to death, or the thief himself is sold for theft, about which recently I remember having explained to you in Leviticus. But if this is forbidden in regard to a slave, how much more in regard to a free person, so that neither a judge should seize, nor a soldier who is not content with his wages should destroy what belongs to another? A certain very honorable man spoke excellently when the integrity of a certain judge was praised to him, and he who was praising him said, "He is not a thief." He responded, "He would make an excellent slave if he were not also a fugitive, for suspicion of theft should be far removed from every free person." Therefore, let slaves be subject to their masters in all things, let them be compliant with their condition, so that they do not bear their servitude bitterly, do not contradict their masters, do not act extravagantly, and after these things show good faith in all things, so that they might adorn the teaching of our God and Savior in all things. For if they have been faithful with earthly masters, they will begin to be entrusted with greater things by God. But the doctrine of the Lord adorns, who does those things which are fitting for his condition. And he confounds from the opposite, who is not subject in all, whose condition displeases him, who shows no good faith as a contradictor and defrauder in nothing. For how can one be faithful in the substance of God, who could not exhibit faith to an earthly master? — Commentary on Titus
Tito 2:11
For the grace of God our Savior hath appeared to all men, instructing us, that denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world, looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works. After enumerating what he should teach to Titus - the old men, and old women, and young women and young men, and, lastly, servants, he now accurately declares. For the grace of God our Savior hath appeared to all men. For there is no difference between free and slave, Greek and barbarian, circumcised and uncircumcised, woman and man: but we are all one in Christ, we are all called to the kingdom of God, we are all reconciled to our Father after the offense; not by our merits, but by the grace of the Savior: whether it be that the living and subsisting grace of God the Father himself is Christ or that this is the grace of Christ the God and Savior, and that we are saved not by our own merit, according to what is said in another place: You will save them for nothing (Ps. 55: 8). — Commentary on Titus
Tito 2:12
This grace has shone upon all men in order to instruct us to renounce impiety and worldly desires and to live chastely, justly, and piously in this world. However, to deny impiety and worldly desires, as we have explained above, they confess to knowing God, but deny it by their deeds. I believe that this can be understood through opposing arguments. Therefore, worldly desires are those that are suggested by the prince of this world, and since they belong to this world, they pass through it like a cloud. But we, living in Christ in a chaste and just manner, not only avoid sin with our body and mind, but also live piously in this world. — Commentary on Titus
Tito 2:13
But we, living in Christ in a chaste and just manner, not only avoid sin with our body and mind, but also live piously in this world. This piety expects a blessed hope and the advent of the glory of the great God, and of our Savior Jesus Christ. Just as impiety fears the advent of the great God, so does piety confidently await it, secure in its works and faith. Where is the snake Arius? Where is the serpent Eunomius? The great God Jesus Christ, is called Savior, not the firstborn of every creature, not the Word of God and wisdom; but Jesus Christ: which words are of a human assumed. Nor indeed do we speak of one Jesus Christ and another Word, as a new heresy calumniates: but the same both before ages, and after ages, and before the world, and after Mary: nay, from Mary, we call Him Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior... — Commentary on Titus
Tito 2:14
who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse for Himself a people pleasing (for so it is held in Greek), and might make us zealous of good works. Often considering with myself what the word "pleasing" might mean, and asking of the wise of this world if they had perchance read it anywhere, I have never been able to find anyone who could tell me what it signified. Therefore, compelled, I have returned to the old testament, from which I thought that even the Apostle had taken what he had said; for, as a Hebrew among Hebrews, and as a Pharisee according to the law, he certainly placed in his letter what he knew he had read in the old testament. So in Deuteronomy I found this: "For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord your God chose you to be his own possession out of all the nations on the face of the earth." (Deut. 7:6) And in the 134th Psalm, where we have, "Praise his name, for it is pleasant, for the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself; he has chosen Israel as his own possession" (Ps. 134:3-4): the words "his own possession" are in the Greek text εἰς περιουσιασμὸν, which Aquila and the fifth edition translate as "his own possession," while the Septuagint and Theodotion translate ἐξουσίασμα as "possession," changing only the syllable, not the sense. Symmachus therefore, for what is in Greek περιούσιον, in Hebrew, Sgolla, expressed ἐξαίρετον, that is, excellent or outstanding: for which word in another Latin book, he interpreted it as 'peculiar'. Therefore Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior, rightfully redeemed us with His Blood, so that He would make us a peculiar Christian people to Himself, which could then be peculiar if they were to exist as emulators of good works. Hence that which is written in the Latin Gospel, Give us this day our daily bread (Matt. 6:11), is better expressed in Greek asἐπιούσιον bread, that is, excellent, outstanding, and peculiar, which indeed descending from heaven, says, I am the bread which came down from heaven (John 6:41). For it is inappropriate that we who are forbidden to think about tomorrow, should be commanded to pray to the Lord about that bread which is to be slightly prepared and thrown away. There is little difference between "ἐπιούσιον" and "περιούσιον"; for only the preposition is changed, not the word. Indeed, some think that in the Lord's Prayer, "ἐπιούσιον" means bread that is above all substances, that is, above all material things. And if this meaning is adopted, it does not differ greatly from the sense we have explained. For whatever is outstanding and exceptional, is outside everything and above everything. — Commentary on Titus
Tito 2:15
Speak these things, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. He has set out three things: speak, exhort, and rebuke. And indeed, in what he says, "speak," it seems to refer to teaching. But what he introduced, "exhort," that is, παρακάλει, means something else in Greek than in Latin: for παράκλησις sounds more like comfort than exhortation. This word was also spoken of earlier concerning young people: Likewise, comfort the young, be modest in everything. About this we have expressed it in its place as it is read in Latin, as if it was written to exhort. Therefore, he comforts the listener who says: "For Christ, we beseech you, be reconciled to God" (1 Cor. 5:20), and humbles and submits himself, in order to gain whom he comforts. But as for the third, rebuke, it seems to me contrary to consolation, so that whoever despises consolation is worthy of rebuke and deserves to hear, 'You have forgotten the consolation that speaks to you as sons.' To Timothy we also read of one consolation and another rebuke, as the Apostle says, 'Be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort' [2 Tim. 4:2]. And there rebuke is taken up beforehand, and afterward severity is tempered by consolation. Here, however, he wants to console his disciples beforehand, and if they do not profit by consoling, then to rebuke them, and to rebuke them with all authority. For I interpret this to mean, 'Rebuke with all authority,' so that it is referred specially to rebuke, and not to the two preceding points in general. For it is not fitting to say, 'Console with all authority,' or 'Speak with all authority,' but only 'rebuke with all authority.' Let no one despise you. Someone might think that this now written to Titus is the same as what was said to Timothy: Let no one despise your youth (1 Tim. IV, 14). But we, according to the differences of the Greek language, think that one thing signifies περιφρονείτω, which is written here, and another thing καταφρονείτω, which was said to Timothy, and the prepositions περὶ or κατὰ make a different meaning. And that it is not by chance or as he pleases that the Apostle Paul uses not only different names and words, but also different prepositions for the variety of causes, can be made clear from what he says: For the woman is of the man, and man by the woman (2 Cor. XI, 12). Elsewhere: For from him and through him and in him are all things (Rom. XI, 36). Also that, Paul an apostle not of men, neither by man (Galat. I, 1). Therefore, we consider καταφρόνησιν to properly pertain to contempt or when someone, stretched out between a horse and a rack, disregards pain and is not afraid of the judge's threat or the people's outcry, but for the confession of martyrdom, despises and disregards all punishments. On the other hand, there is a bad contempt which Habakkuk also testifies, speaking in the Holy Spirit: Look at the contemptuous, and behold, and wonder and perish (Hab. I, 5). According to what we have also written to Timothy: Let no man despise thy youth (1 Tim. IV, 12), that is, I do not want you to be seen such that you could be despised by anyone for merit. However, contempt as it is expressed, as the Stoics assert, who distinguish words subtly, wherein one who trusts himself, thinking himself better than another, despises someone whom he considers inferior and determines that he, that is, more knowledgeable, should be held in contempt. Such a thing, swelling with the vanity of pride and despising even the sky and sun, some Greeks have said in jest: Ἀεροβατῶ καὶ περιφρονῶ τὸν ἥλιον, which can be translated in Latin as, "I walk on air, and I am worth more than the sun." Therefore, contempt, which is now placed before Titus, has this meaning: No one among those who are in the churches should live this way while you are being idle, thinking that they are better. For what kind of disciple-building will exist if one considers oneself greater than the teacher? Hence, bishops, presbyters, and deacons should not only take great care that they should precede all the people to whom they preside in conduct and speech: indeed, lower ranks, exorcists, readers, doorkeepers, and all in general who serve the House of God. For the idea that the laypeople should be better than the clergy greatly destroys the Church of Christ. — Commentary on Titus