2 Timothy and Titus. Aída Besançon Spencer
Twenty-five times vs. nine times by Paul, eight times elsewhere in the NT.
12. Thayer, 18, 20.
13. John 12:25; Matt 25:46; Rom 6:22–23; 2 Cor 2:15.
14. Six of twenty-four NT instances, which comprise 25 percent of the NT references, although Titus is about 0.5 percent of the NT. In fact, ten or 41.6 percent of all NT references of sōtēr occur in the Pastoral Letters.
15. Hanson 1982: 186.
16. Once when Nero entered Rome, for example, he came in Augustus’s chariot wearing a purple robe and a Greek cloak adorned with golden stars with the Olympic crown on his head (Suetonius, 6. Nero 25.1). Gaius Caligula and Nero took their divine status seriously (Alan Richardson, “Salvation, Savior,” IDB 4:177).
17. Gal 2:1–3, which probably refers to the mission described in Acts 11:29–30, but could refer to the one mentioned in Acts 15:2–4.
18. Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosphers 1.10.112.
19. Josephus, whose wife was a Jew from Crete, Life 76 [427], mentions Cretan Jews during the time of Herod: J.W. 2.7 [103]; Ant. 17.12 [327].
20. 2 Sam 8:18; 15:18; 20:7, 23; 1 Kgs 1:38, 44.
21. For example, in Paul’s second missionary journey, Timothy joins Paul and Silas at Lystra (Acts 16:1–5), Luke joins them at Troas (Acts 16:8–10), then Luke stays behind to minister in Philippi (Acts 16:12–17; 20:5–6), while Timothy and Silas stay behind to minister in Beroea (Acts 17:14–16; 18:5).
22. Thayer, 152; Hippocrates Off. 16.
23. Matt 24:45–49; 25:21–23; Luke 12:42–44.
24. Luke 12:14; Acts 7:26–27, 35.
25. Matt 21:23; 26:3–4, 47, 57; 27:1, 12; John 9:22; 12:42; 16:2; Acts 4:5–9; 25:15; m. Sanh; Schürer, 1979: 2:431–35; Levine 2000: chap. 5.
26. Acts 13:15; Luke 13:14. Sometimes women were “rulers of the synagogue” and elders (Brooten 1982: chaps. 3, 4; Levine 2000: 482, 486).
27. E.g., Luke 7:2–4; 14:32; 19:14.
28. 2 Cor 5:19–20 katalassō.
29. Thayer, 242. Robertson (Word Pictures, 1930: 3:217) suggests “elder” was the Jewish name and “overseer” the Greek name for the same office.
30. Willetts 1965: 152.
31. “After Cnossus, the city of the Gortynians seems to have ranked second in power; for when these two co-operated they held in subjection all the rest of the inhabitants, and when they had a quarrel there was dissension throughout the island” (Strabo, Geogr. 10.4 [478]).
32. Willetts 1965: 152–57.
33. Thayer, 668; LSJ, 1986. Acts 14:23, cheirotoneō, literally means “to vote by stretching out the hand.” According to John Calvin, Paul and Barnabas “suffer the matter to be decided by the consent of them all. Therefore, in ordaining pastors the people had their free election, but lest there should any tumult arise, Paul and Barnabas sit as chief moderators” (Calvin’s Commentaries John-Acts: 1168).
34. Among the Minoans in Crete, only the aristocrats (not the serfs) could carry arms and exercise in the gym. At “manhood,” after years of training, Cretan youths wore the mature citizen warrior’s dress (Willetts 1965: 87, 95–96, 117).
35. The political leadership in Greece was done by adult free male citizens (Willetts 1965: 149).
36. OCD,729, 976.
37. See 1 Tim 3:2 for further details (Spencer 2013). E.g., Xenophon, Oec. 10.12.
38. Willetts 1965:94.
39. 1 Tim 4:3, 10, 12; 5:16; 2 Tim 2:2, 13.
40. Titus 1:9; 3:8; 1 Tim 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; 2 Tim 2:11.
41. Ngewa (2009: 68) agrees: the “focus is not so much on what the children have chosen, as on what their father and mother have done” (referring to 1 Tim 3:4).
42. BDAG, 148; Thayer, 82.
43. BDAG, 91; Thayer, 52.
44. E.g., nēpios, Gal 4:1, 3, vs. huios, Gal 4:7. The Cretans defined a “runner” (dromeus) as over twenty as opposed to an apodromos (Willetts 1965: 113).
45. Willetts 1965: 113. m.’Abot 5:21 says at thirteen a child is responsible to fulfill the law.
46. Willetts 1965:117.
47. Matt 21:28; Luke 15:31; Phil 2:22; 2 Tim 1:2.
48. Witherington 2007: 336.
49. Deut 11:19; 31:12–13; Josh 8:35; Exod 12:26–27; 13:8, 14–15.
50. Lampe 1993: 20.