336 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. I.
renewed the treaty which his brother Judas had made with Rome. Josephus (Ant. xvii. 12,1; Bell. Jud. ii. T, 1) says that Herod’s pseudo-son Alexander imposed on the Cretan Jews on his way to Italy. Philo (Leg. ad Caz. § 36) makes the Jewish envoys say to Caligula that all the principal islands of the Mediterranean, including Crete, were full of Jews.
11. Whose mouths must be stopped (ods del émiotopit- ew). Lit. whom tt is necessary to silence. *Emiotopifev, N. T.°, °LXX. Originally, to put something into the mouth, as a bit into a horse’s mouth. "Emvordwov is the stop of a water-pipe or of a hydraulic organ. Comp. dipobv to muzzle, 1 Tim. v. 18.
Who subvert (ofrives avatpérovow). The double relative is explanatory of must; inasmuch as they, etc. For subvert rend. overthrow. See on 2 Tim. ii. 18.
Houses (oixovs). Families.
12. One of themselves (ts €€ at’rav). *Avréay refers to the gainsayers, vv. 9,10. Tus refers to Epimenides, contemp- orary with Solon, and born in Crete B.c. 659. A legend relates that, going by his father’s order in search of a sheep, he lay down in a cave, where he fell asleep and slept for fifty years. He then appeared with long hair and a flowing beard, and with an astonishing knowledge of medicine and natural history. It was said that he had the power of sending his. soul out of his body and recalling it at pleasure, and that he had familiar intercourse with the gods and possessed the power of prophecy. He was sent for to Athens at the request of the inhabitants, in order to pave the way for the legislation of Solon by purifications and propitiatory sacrifices, intended to allay the feuds and party-discussions which prevailed in the city. In return for his services he refused the Athenians’ otters of wealth and public honours, and asked only a branch of the sacred olive, and a decree of perpetual friendship
Cu. I] THE EPISTLE TO TITUS. 337
between Athens and his native city. He is said to have lived to the age of 157 years, and divine honours were paid him by the Cretans after his death. He composed a Theogony, and poems concerning religious mysteries. He wrote also a poem on the Argonautic Expedition, and other works. Jerome mentions his treatise On Oracles and Responses, from which the quotation in this verse is supposed to have been taken. According to Diogenes Laertius (i. 10) Epimenides, in order to remove a pestilence from Athens, turned some sheep loose at the Areopagus, and wherever they lay down sacrificed to the proper god: whence, he says, there are still to be found, in different demes of the Athenians, anonymous altars. Comp. Acts xvii. 22, 23.*
The Cretans, etc. The words Kpfres—dpyai form a hexameter line.
Always (dei). Habitually.
Liars (yretorat). In Pastorals hereand1Tim.i.10. Once in Paul, Rom. ui. 4. Mostly in John. The Cretan habit of lying passed into a verb, xpnrilew to speak like a Cretan = to lie: also into a noun, xpyticpds Cretan behaviour = lying. Similarly, the licentiousness of Corinth appeared in the verb kopwhialecBas to practise whoredom, and in the noun xopw6t- acorns a whoremonger. Comp. Ov. Artis Amat. i. 296.
‘tnon hoc, centum quae sustinet urbes Quamvis sit mendax, Creta negare potest.”’
‘Crete, which a hundred cities doth maintain, Cannot deny this, though to lying given.”’
A familiar saying was tpta Kama Kdkiora the three worst K’s, Kpjres, Kammddoxas, Kidixes Cretans, Cappadocians, Cilicians.
Evil beasts (xaxa @npia). Rude, cruel, and brutal.
* Readers of Goethe will recall his ‘‘ Festspiel,’’ Des Hpimenides Erwachen. Werke, Bd. XVIII. VOL. Iv. — 22
338 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. ([Cu..L
Slow-bellies (yaordpes apyal). Better, idle-bellies. Rev. gives the correct idea, idle gluttons. They are so given to gluttony that they are mere bellies. Comp. Philip. iii. 19. Tactip, elsewhere in N. T. always in connection with child- bearing. So mostly in LXX, but in a few instances as here. See Job xx. 23; Ps. xvi. 14; Sir. xxxvii. 5. In Job xx. 14 as the rendering of =p bowels. ’Apyds idle, °P. However such words may have befitted the pagan seer, it is not pleas- ant to regard them as taken up and indorsed by the great Christian apostle, who thus is made to stigmatise as liars, beasts, and gluttons a whole people, among whom he had himself so successfully laboured that several churches had been founded in a short time. ‘They are strange words from a venerable Christian minister to a younger minister to whom he had intrusted the care of those very souls; and, in any case, are superfluous, as addressed to one who must have known the characteristics of the Cretans quite as well as the writer himself.