The implied destination of the letter to Titus has long puzzled scholars. ‘Why Crete is chosen here’, Houlden confesses, ‘is a mystery to us’.Footnote 1 Dibelius and Conzelmann speculate that ‘a known situation—in this case Acts 20.3—was used as a point of departure by the Pastorals’ author'.Footnote 2 For Quinn the churches on Crete, like the Ephesian church envisaged in the letters to Timothy, have a typological function,Footnote 3 and readers should recognise in them ‘the more archaic, Jewish–Christian congregations of the Christian movement being updated according to a Pauline model’.Footnote 4 Oberlinner asks whether the purpose of locating the addressee on Crete might be to indicate the geographical spread of Pauline influence.Footnote 5 In any event, if, as is generally held, ‘the artificiality of the occasion for the letter is obvious’,Footnote 6 an investigation of actual conditions on the island of Crete could hardly be expected to contribute much to an understanding of the letter's content.
There are, however, a number of features of the letter to Titus that have proved difficult to explain. These include the description of God as ἀψϵυδής (1.2), the association of saving with the training effect of grace (
πϵϕάνη γὰρ ἡ χάρις τοῦ Θϵοῦ σωτήριος…παιδϵύουσα ἡμᾶς, 2.11–12), and the specifying of the ‘washing of rebirth’ as the means of God's saving (
σωσϵν ἡμᾶς διὰ λουτροῦ παλιγγϵνϵσίας καὶ ἀνακαινώσϵως, 3.5), all unique within the NT literature. The form of the domestic instruction given in 2.1–10, where subjects are categorised according to age and sex rather than in the more standard pairs of domestic relationships, is another peculiarity.
At the same time historians of Crete stress that island's distinctive character within the Mediterranean world. Speaking of ‘the idiosyncratic nature of its development’, archaeologist M. Prent comments, ‘Whereas the later history of the island is broadly comparable to that of other regions in the Aegean, it also displays distinct peculiarities. In addition to the relative strength of Bronze Age traditions, these concern certain aspects of Cretan socio-political organisation and the continuity of contact with the Near East’.Footnote 7 Recent archaeological studies seem to confirm that this distinctiveness continued well into the Roman period. Whereas the Roman geographer Strabo (63/64 bce–24 ce) remarks that some of Crete's traditional political institutions had been superseded by Roman administration (Strabo, Geogr. 10.4, 22), L. Vance Watrous and Despoina Hadzi-Vallianou conclude from their archaeological survey of the Mesara region that, ‘Dorian social practices, concering male initiation, marriage, and kinship relations, seem to have continued longer in Early Roman Crete, at least into the third century ad’.Footnote 8 Is it possible that some of the unusual features of the letter to Titus could correspond to any of those ‘distinct peculiarities’ of the letter's stated destination, the island of Crete?
The exploration of such questions is assisted by advances in archaeological and historical studies of Roman Crete. Long neglected in favour of its glorious Mycenaean and Minoan predecessors, ‘[t]he Roman period on Crete has received increased academic attention in recent years’.Footnote 9 Of special interest is the city of Gortyn, which local tradition identifies as the site of the first Christian mission on Crete and the ministry of Titus.Footnote 10 Set in the plain of Mesara in southern central Crete, and with access to the sea via the port of Lebena, Gortyn became the capital of the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenaica after the Roman occupation of 67 bce. The odeon containing the famous Law Code of Gortyn has received significant attention,Footnote 11 but work on the praetorium is still in progress,Footnote 12 and by far the greater part of the Roman city remains to be excavated. It is becoming more possible, however, to describe features of life on Crete in Roman times and ask whether aspects of the letter to Titus might be particularly appropriate to a Cretan environment. We shall proceed to consider some possible connections.
1. Cretan Society and the Ethical Distinctives of Titus
Almost a century ago Martin Dibelius proposed that Stoic tables of duties for the various members of Hellenistic households lay behind apparently similar material in Colossians.Footnote 13 While the extent of literary dependence on Greco-Roman models has been questioned,Footnote 14 it has become standard practice to speak of NT Haustafeln, or household codes (Eph 5.21–6.9; Col 3.18–4.1; 1 Pet 2.18–3.7; 1 Tim 2.1–15; 5.1–2; 6.1–2, 17–19; Titus 2.1–3.8).Footnote 15 Although Titus 2.1–10 is commonly listed along with those other examples, it differs from most of them in interesting ways. Comparable instructions in Col 3.18–4.1 and Eph 5.21–6.9 are set out in pairs of relationships that would be appropriate to a standard household (i.e. wives–husbands, children–parents, slaves–masters), and assume a degree of reciprocity within each pair, but ‘[i]t is a characteristic feature of the “household rules” in Titus that the congregation is divided by age and sex, not by family relationships’.Footnote 16 There are instructions for older men (πρϵσβῦται, 2.2), older women (πρϵσβύτιδϵς, 2.3–4), younger women (νέαι, 2.4–5), younger men (νϵώτϵροι, 2.6), Titus himself (2.7–8), and slaves (δοῦλοι, 2.9–10), before instructions are provided for the whole Christian community (3.1–2).Footnote 17
A range of explanations has been offered for the differences. Some have discerned within the NT a process of ‘adaptation of the household code to the household of God. The household code format, a kind of convention in moral discourse, has already been Christianised within the Pauline tradition and used for codifying ethical norms (Colossians, Ephesians); now further development produces the earliest “church order”’.Footnote 18 From this perspective, the self-understanding of the church as ‘God's household’Footnote 19 has suggested the adoption of standard household norms governing relationships and behaviour to regulate life within the Christian community. There are considerable difficulties, however, in tracing a line of development from the supposedly earlier Christian Haustafeln in Colossians and Ephesians to later church-oriented adaptations in Titus 2.1–3.2 and 1 Pet 2.13–3.7. Such is the divergence in form and content between the instructions in Titus and 1 Peter and those in Colossians and Ephesians that H. von Lips concludes that, ‘[m]an kann dies aber nicht als Weiterentwicklung oder gar Auflösungserscheinung interpretieren, sondern muß darin eine Paralleltradition sehen’.Footnote 20 To account for the codes in Titus 2.1–3.2 and 1 Pet 2.13–3.7 he finds it necessary to posit a separate Station Code tradition dealing with the duties of various classes of people within society.
The material in Titus, however, differs even from that in 1 Peter, both in its form and in the theological and ethical grounding of the instructions.Footnote 21 Even if it were possible, then, to identify some Station Code source, that in itself would not be sufficient to explain the particular shape of the instructions to the Christian community envisaged in Titus. As Verner argues, the variety in form of the NT codes ‘strongly suggests that they address real, concrete, and in some cases persistent social needs within the church’.Footnote 22 Could those ‘real, concrete…social needs’ be found in specific conditions on the island of Crete?
Throughout its history Crete has both shared aspects of culture with the Greek mainland and exhibited its own distinctive characteristics. Notable among the latter are the practices of male communal dining in ἀνδρϵία (men's halls) and the separation of children into age groups for education and eventual initiation into adult society.Footnote 23 Prent gives the following account:
a basic and recurring characteristic in the education of both boys and girls is the organisation into different age groups or choruses, probably from the age of six or seven. In these choruses, children were instructed in the traditions, history, norms and values of their communities. They engaged in music, song, dance and physical exercise, they learnt various practical skills and were familiarized with sexuality, often involving homo-eroticism.Footnote 24
Among males παῖδϵς (children), νϵώτϵροι (young men), and πρϵσβύτϵροι (older men) are distinguished. This pattern recalls the Spartan model whose goal had been to nurture the fighting qualities that it was felt the community's warriors would need.Footnote 25 Those were still prized on Crete. Plutarch lists Cretans among ‘the most warlike of peoples’ (Mor. 9.761d). Cretan armour was highly developed, suggesting ‘an interest in martial arts which the Cretans must have practised mainly on each other’.Footnote 26 Cretan mercenaries featured in many conflicts,Footnote 27 and their role against Roman forces, together with accusations of Cretan involvement in piracy,Footnote 28 gave Rome the pretext to impose governors in the first century bce.Footnote 29 In this martial environment the primary role models for νϵώτϵροι were the seasoned fighters. At the all-male communal meals described by Athenaeus, the πρϵσβύτϵροι received the largest portions of food and if they wanted to they had the right to consume greater quantities of wine (Deipn. 4.143d). Read against this background the exhortation in Titus 2.2 that older men should be νηϕάλιοι, σέμνοι, and σώϕρονϵς perhaps assumes a sharper profile. After dinner tales of exemplary courage were told to urge the younger men toward manly virtues (προτρϵπόμϵνοι τοὺς νϵωτέρους ϵἰς ἀνδραγαθίαν, Deipn. 4.143d). Titus for his part is to serve as a τύπος καλῶν ργων for the νϵώτϵροι of his communities (2.7).
With the men's halls serving as the focus for male community life, women's lives revolved around the household. This is the setting for the instructions concerning women in Titus 2.3–5. These are characterised again by a distinction in age categories between older women (πρϵσβύτιδϵς, 2.3) and younger women (ν
αι, 2.4). Upon the former group are urged responsibilities relating to exemplary behaviour and the training of the latter group. Carolyn Osiek and Margaret MacDonald comment, ‘Every cultural and religious tradition that practices any kind of gender separation develops distinctive teaching traditions for men and women’, and in these instructions in Titus 2.3–5 they find evidence of ‘a continuing custom of whose content we know very little: older women are to form character in younger women while male teachers do the same for young men’.Footnote 30 There is of course nothing specifically Cretan about older women passing on guidance to younger women in a domestic context.Footnote 31 What is unusual, however, is ‘terminology practically unexampled in this correspondence or in biblical Greek’ in 2.3–4a,Footnote 32 which depicts the role of the senior women in almost priestly terms (ἱϵροπρϵπϵῖς, 2.3). Interestingly, votive offerings found in the temple of Athena in Gortyn include representations of ‘young females in the confinement of some kind of structure’, which Prent suggests may refer to ‘a period of temple service for the girls’ that might have formed part of their education.Footnote 33 Is Titus 2.3–4 hinting at an analogy to service performed by women in the temples, indicating that the behaviour of Christian women in their households could have the character of service offered to God?
2. Cretan Religion and the Theological Distinctives of Titus
a. Zeus the Deceiver and the ἀψϵυδὴς θϵός (1.2)
The great god of the Cretans was Zeus. From ancient times they had claimed to be guardians of both his birthplace on Mt. Ida and his tomb. Archaeological finds at the Idaian cave and elsewhere attest to a continuation or even intensification of the worship of Zeus in the Roman period, and symbols of Zeus Cretagenes appear consistently on coins of the Roman province of Crete.Footnote 34
It was specifically the Cretan claim to possess the tomb of Zeus that provoked the accusation in Calimachus's Hymn to Zeus that Κρῆτϵς ἀϵὶ ψϵύσται.Footnote 35 The characterisation, however, extended far beyond that single instance.Footnote 36 Polybius describes the breaking of a treaty and subsequent massacre as a prime example of the Cretans' ‘habitual ferocity’ (Polybius 28.14). The currency of such terms as κρητίζϵιν, to lie, κρητισμός, falsehood,Footnote 37 and the expression, πρὸς Κρήτα κρητίζϵιν, ‘to meet craft with craft’,Footnote 38 suggest a widespread perception.Footnote 39 Moreover this was not considered altogether a disgrace. ‘The Greeks…admired people who, like Odysseus, could prevaricate their ways out of danger’, so ‘we may take the reputation of the Cretans as oblique, amused praise’.Footnote 40 Writers commented on not only the ability of Cretans to deceive but also their proclivity to be deceived. Josephus tells of Crete's Jewish community being hoodwinked by a pretender to Herod's throne (Ant. 17.327; cf. B.J. 2.103). Dishonesty in public life continued under Roman rule; in fact, their conquest owed something to deception. (Appian Bell. civ. 6.1–2). Mark Antony later attempted to wrest Crete from Rome with a forged document, and between 20 and 70 ce no less than five governors were recalled to Rome to face corruption charges.Footnote 41 In reiterating the Κρῆτϵς ἀϵὶ ψϵύσται reproach in Titus 1.12, then, the author was accurately reflecting ancient perceptions of Crete and its inhabitants.Footnote 42
Not only the Cretans, however, but Zeus himself, was notorious for deception and trickery. The Iliad furnishes several examples.Footnote 43 His wife Hera accuses Zeus of being crafty-minded (δολομήτης, 1.540) and demands an assurance that he will not cheat her by failing to do what he has promised (ψϵυστήσϵις οὐ δ᾿αὖτϵ τλος μύθῳ πιθήσϵις, 19.108). Nestor waits to see whether or not Zeus's promise will prove false (ϵἰ τϵ ψϵῦδος ὑπόσχϵσις ϵἰ τϵ καὶ οὐκί, 2.348–9). Agamemnon fears that Zeus has decided to play a cruel trick on him (νῦν δὲ κακὴν ἀπάτην βουλϵύσατο, 2.114) and is at a loss for what to do because ‘Zeus has changed again’ (Διὸς τράπϵτο ϕρήν, 10.45; cf. δὴ γὰρ νόος τράπϵτ᾿ αὐτοῦ, 17.546). Asios complains, ‘Father Zeus, you really are a lover of lies’ (ϕιλοψϵυδής, 12.163). In his philosophical discussion of the perfection of the gods (Resp. 2.382–85) Plato took issue with Homer, objecting that gods should not be represented as lying, since ‘there is no falsehood at all in the realm of the spiritual and the divine’ (πάντῃ ἄρα ἀψϵυδὲς τὸ δαιμόνιόν τϵ καὶ τὸ θϵῖον, Resp. 2.382), but the old legends continued to hold the popular imagination.Footnote 44
In 1.2 God is described as ἀψϵυδής. While the idea of God's truthfulness and dependability is pervasive in the biblical literature,Footnote 45 the term ἀψϵυδής is a biblical hapax. Against the background of endemically deceitful Crete the introduction of ὁ ἀψϵυδὴς θϵός (1.2) could be heard as a contrast with lying humans, whether the Cretans in general (1.12) or specifically the envisaged opponents (1.14),Footnote 46 but there may also be a polemical contrast with the Cretans' god.Footnote 47 Another encounter between Christian missionaries and worshippers of Zeus is illustrated in the account in the book of Acts of the experience of Barnabas and Paul in Lystra (Acts 14.8–18). In the speech attributed to the missionaries in Acts 14.15–17, C. Breytenbach finds an ‘Anti-Zeus-Tendenz’, presenting the ‘living God’ in terms that directly challenge claims made on Zeus's behalf in Asia Minor in the first century ce.Footnote 48 In a missionary approach to Crete, jealous of its association with Zeus, the declaration of ὁ ἀψϵυδὴς θϵός, the God who does not lie, would be a plausible strategy, in this instance not claiming for God activities and qualities for which Zeus had been given credit, but suggesting a contrast between a deceitful and capricious deity and the truthful and dependable God of Christian missionary proclamation.
b. Potnia Thērōn and the Taming of ‘Wild Beasts’
The saying cited in Titus 1.12 characterises Crete's population as not only ‘always liars’ (ἀϵὶ ψϵῦσται) but also ‘wild beasts’ (κακὰ θηρία). Ironically, Crete enjoyed the reputation of being free of wild animals,Footnote 49 but the implication here is that the beastly characteristics were exhibited by its human inhabitants.Footnote 50 The organisation of young men into ἀγλαι (herds) for training is suggestive. As Prent explains, ‘The taming of animals as a simile for the education of the young was popular in the ancient Greek world… In Crete, this concept is exemplified by the term agela, which puts the Cretan male adolescents on a par with herds of horses or cattle’.Footnote 51
How were those ‘wild beasts’ to be tamed? Archaeological findings at Gortyn are interesting in this connection. On the acropolis above the city, worship was offered to a protector goddess. Although the shrine is to Pallas Athena, associated in Classical times with Artemis the hunter goddess, some continuity with the Mycenaean Cretan goddess Britomartis is evident in the iconography at the site, depicting the goddess with an animal in each hand, under control. This is Potnia Thērōn, the ‘Mistress of beasts’, or tamer of wild animals. Clay figures of adolescent males in armour are among the votive offerings,Footnote 52 seeming to indicate that the help of Potnia Thērōn was invoked at a significant transition point in the process whereby youths were prepared for and initiated into adult roles. According to Prent,
The presence of Potnia Theron at the EIA sanctuary of Gortyn does not simply constitute a relic of earlier times, nor was there unselective borrowing from the Near East. Both manifestations of the deity can be related specifically to the initiatory functions of the deity. The martial aspects of the Palladion, apart from indicating broader functions as protector of the community, gave the young male initiands a means of identifying with the deity. Her representation as Potnia Theron, or a goddess reigning over wild nature, assumed a more specific meaning in connection with the idea of a ‘taming of the young and uncivilised’ that took place in her sanctuary.Footnote 53
In Titus 2.12, ‘[t]he grace of God is pictured in a somewhat unusual way as a teacher who guides people into a new way of life’.Footnote 54 To tame the passions was of course a general aspiration espoused by most Hellenistic philosophers,Footnote 55 so the claim of Christian missionaries to offer a means of actually realising that ideal need not be specific to Crete. It would certainly be appropriate, however, in a Cretan context. Kidd argues that the three-fold virtuous outcome described in Titus 2.12, ‘lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly’ (σωϕρόνως καὶ δικαίως καὶ ϵὐσϵβῶς ζήσωμϵν), corresponds in a programmatic way to the three-fold disparagement of the Cretan character in 1.12.Footnote 56 While the point by point correspondence he proposes may be difficult to sustain, it is quite plausible that in an environment where the help of a deity is sought in relation to training and character development, a missionary approach might include a presentation of the character-shaping effect of the divine gift of grace (2.11–12) appropriated by those who put their hope in ‘our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ’ (2.13).
c. Isis and Salvation Through Washing (3.4–7)
A third unusual theological statement occurs in the reference in Titus 3.5–6 to salvation ‘through the washing of rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour’ (διὰ λουτροῦ παλιγγϵνϵσίας καὶ ἀνακαινώσϵως πνϵύματος ἁγίου, οὗ ξχϵϵν ϕ᾿ ἡμᾶς πλουσίως διὰ᾿Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν). Mention of ‘the washing of rebirth and renewal’ (3.5) has naturally suggested the image of baptism and possible associations with the mystery religions, though the exact nature of any relationship is difficult to establish.Footnote 57
Prominent in the praetorium of Roman Gortyn is a temple to Isis and Serapis,Footnote 58 consistent with the well-attested popularity of Isis around the Mediterranean during the Roman period.Footnote 59 The clearest literary evidence for Isiac rites is in the well-known Metamorphoses of Apuleius, the story of Lucius, who, having been changed into the shape of a donkey as a penalty for meddling in magic, seeks a saving transformation back into human form. Finally arriving through many labours and trials at the ‘harbour of quietness and the altar of mercy’ (XI.15),Footnote 60 Lucius is ‘reborn’ (renatus, XI.16, 21), not only recovering his human form but entering into a life of service of the goddess Isis,Footnote 61 who is described as ‘eternal saviour of the human race’ (humani generis sosipatrix perpetua, XI.25).
Titus 3.3–8 also describes a transformation from beastly behaviour (3.3) to devotion to doing good (3.8), brought about by a saviour God (3.4) on the basis of his mercy (3.5), and involving a rebirth and renewal of life (3.5). As in the story of Lucius, the rebirth in Titus 3.5 is closely associated with a washing. Water played a significant role in the Isis cult, reflecting the importance of the River Nile in its foundation myth and practices.Footnote 62 An Isis temple typically included a ‘nilometer’, a cistern-type installation incorporating a large basin fed by a water pipe entering the structure at a higher level. R. A. Wild explains:
there must have been certain times when water coursed through the large main and splashed down into the basin to cause it (probably) to overflow. Worshippers at this sanctuary very likely looked upon such moments as a symbolic renewal of the Nile flood, a visible manifestation of the power of their god over the forces of life.Footnote 63
It is interesting that Titus 3.5–6 employs the image of water poured out (κχω) rather than the plunging or immersing in water that might be suggested by the verb βαπτίζω.Footnote 64 The use of the verb κχω may echo the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost, interpreted as a fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel 2.28–32 (Acts 2.17, 18, 33),Footnote 65 but it would also be an appropriate image in relation to Isiac rites. Wild's study of the water installations in the temples of Isis leads him to conclude that ‘a ritual pouring or sprinkling of water over the heads of those to be purified was widespread in Isis-Serapis worship’.Footnote 66 Against such a background, the claim in Titus 3.1–8 to transformation through the pouring out of the Spirit effecting a washing of rebirth could be heard as a counter claim to the hope of renewal of life through a drenching in water in the rites of Isis.
It is striking that peculiarities discovered in each of the three theological statements in Titus, the ἀψϵυδής God (1.2), the training operation of grace (παιδϵύουσα ἡμᾶς, 2.12), and a saving transformation through the pouring out of the Spirit to effect a washing of rebirth and renewal (διὰ λουτροῦ παλιγγϵνϵσίας καὶ ἀνακαινώσϵως πνϵύματος ἁγίου, οὗ ξχϵϵν ϕ᾿ ἡμᾶς, 3.5–6), can all be matched to particular features of the religious life of Roman Crete. This is not of course to suggest that these correspondences could only have been made on Crete. Zeus was universally worshipped, the cult of Isis had spread widely, and ideals of paideia were pervasive in the Greco-Roman world. In each case, however, it is at least plausible that a missionary approach to the people of Crete might have included the shaping of aspects of the Christian message in conscious engagement with the features of Crete's religious life that have been described.
3. Incidental Glimpses of Crete in Titus
Alongside the letter's ethical instruction, corresponding to the structure of Cretan society, and its theological statements, relating to aspects of Cretan religious life, there are a number of other features and details of the letter to Titus that might be considered particularly appropriate to Crete.
a. 
πιδιορθόω (1.5)
The use of the verb πιδιορθόω to describe Titus's task is worthy of note (1.5). Not only is this a NT hapax but it is also extremely rare in pre-Christian Greek literature. The solitary recorded occurrence is in Crete, in a second-century bce inscription from Hierapytna, referring to the activity of a regional administrator.Footnote 67 Evidently this rare term had some currency in Crete in the context of political organisation. Might its appearance in Titus 1.5 reflect familiarity with that sort of usage?Footnote 68
b. κατὰ πόλιν (1.5)
With settlements strung along its unusually extensive coastline, Crete was known in antiquity as ‘the island of a hundred towns’.Footnote 69 The instruction that elders be appointed ‘town by town’ (κατὰ πόλιν, 1.5) could of course make good sense in many locations, but it is at least compatible with an island setting such as Crete, where a missionary movement would see opportunity in a series of centres of population connected easily by sea as well as by overland routes.
c. οἱ κ τῆς πϵριτομῆς (1.10)
In comparison with the letters to Timothy, Titus seems to accent the confrontation between a Gentile Pauline leader and Judaising opposition. Only here do the opponents specifically include οἱ κ τῆς πϵριτομῆς (1.10). In the same expression in Gal 2.12 Dunn discerns ‘an identity determined by or focused in the act and fact of circumcision—hence the metonymy “the circumcision”, not “the circumcised”’, indicating a specific faction within Judaism.Footnote 70 In Titus 1.10 the adverb μάλιστα seems to specify οἱ κ τῆς πϵριτομῆς as a particular group among the many ἀνυπότακτοι, ματαιολόγοι καὶ ϕρϵναπάται who threaten the church.Footnote 71 Titus also encounters ᾿Ιουδαϊκοι μύθοι (1.14) rather than the general μύθοι in 1 and 2 Timothy (1 Tim 1.4; 4.7; 2 Tim 4.4), and is warned against ‘quarrels about the law’ (3.14). ‘False teachers are indeed in evidence’, Fee writes, ‘but the letter as a whole is not dominated by their presence’.Footnote 72
Josephus and Philo attest the presence of a significant Jewish population on Crete.Footnote 73 Stylianos Spyridakis, historian of Crete, locates the principal Jewish population in Gortyn, the administrative capital for the Roman province of Crete and Cyrenia. In view of the links between Ptolemaic Egypt and Crete he suggests that, ‘it is very likely that the Jews of Gortyn came from the city of Alexandria’.Footnote 74 Gortyn is traditionally held to be Crete's first ecclesiastical centre,Footnote 75 and it would not be surprising if a Christian mission located itself in such a leading town, nor that both recruits and opposition to the Christian movement should come from the Jewish community already established there.
d. Apollos (3.13)
It was not only Alexandrians who might be predisposed to ‘stupid controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law’ (3.9), but if the sort of Hellenistic Judaism that flourished in Alexandria furnished part of the environment envisaged by the author, who better to help than Apollos (3.13), the learned Alexandrian Jew encountered in Acts 18.24–28; 1 Cor 3.4–6, and so on?
e. Zenas the Lawyer (3.13)
What of ‘Zenas the lawyer’ (3.13)? Otherwise unknown in the NT, he has been variously identified as an expert in Jewish law, or, as his pagan name might suggest, a Roman lawyer.Footnote 76 In fact it was common for lawyers to visit Crete in Roman times. The famous stone panels on which were inscribed the Law Code of Gortyn dated from c. 450 bce but had been restored under Roman rule and were prominently displayed to facilitate study. Crete became ‘a centre of pilgrimage for legal inspiration’.Footnote 77
4. Conclusions and Implications
It has been argued here that several unique features of the content of the letter to Titus correspond to specific social and cultural realities on Roman Crete. This suggests that a Cretan provenance for the letter may not be so implausible as is often assumed. If Crete is not the actual destination, then it may only be concluded that the author has gone to great lengths to construct the implied destination with remarkable verisimilitude. In the light of this series of correspondences to aspects of Cretan society, culture, and religious life, readings that assume that the letter is interested only in the internal ordering of the Christian community are insufficient.Footnote 78 An adequate appreciation of the letter must also take into account its concern for the integrity of the church's witness in the men's halls, women's quarters, and households where the ideal of grace-trained living put forward in this letter was to be lived out in concrete behaviour (2.11–14; 3.1–5), and for effective communication of the content of Christian faith in terms that would have resonated with religious beliefs, aspirations, and practices current on Crete in the Roman period. The letter to Titus is understood most satisfactorily as a product of early Christian mission and an intriguing example of creative missionary engagement with a specific environment.Footnote 79
