Church work

The early band of Christian church workers had it tough. But they were faithful, brave, persevering. 

An article by Mary Metzner Trammell and William G. Dawley titled "Primitive Christianity takes root in the Roman world", published in the March 1993 issue of The Christian Science Journal points out the results of their work. While the excerpt here mentions Peter and Paul, we learn from the Bible that there were many others who were faithful, including Titus, our subject this month. Here is the excerpt:

By around AD65, both Peter and Paul had laid down their lives for Christianity. By the end of the century, most of the apostles were gone. But what they left behind was a well-established Church--one that had spread with amazing speed to the farthest reaches of the Roman Empire, one that persecution couldn't destroy.

At the time Jesus ascended, his followers were barely known. But the apostles--and especially Paul--changed that perception forever. They made sure, with every sermon preached and with every letter written, that people understood one thing: They spoke in "the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth." They let everyone know that the good news they preached was distinctive. True, it fulfilled the promises of the Hebrew Bible. Jesus was the Messiah the Jews had expected. But the apostles left no doubt that Jesus made a new covenant. And so his followers needed to found a Church to preserve, propagate, and record for all time the revolutionary truths that he had taught.

It was the Apostle Paul who, above all others, took on the awesome responsibility of establishing that Church. Without his passionate commitment and dogged zeal, Christianity might never have spread much beyond Palestine. Without his tender and sometimes tough stewardship, the churches he founded all over the Roman Empire might have become infected with heresy or faded out altogether. Without the Apostle Paul, primitive Christianity might never have taken root in the Roman world.

Just as Paul instructed Titus to beware of those who "profess that they know God; but in works they deny him" (Titus 1:16), so Mary Baker Eddy insisted that "...however little be taught or learned, that little shall be right" and that "Unless this method be pursued, the Science of Christian healing will again be lost, and human suffering will increase" (Retrospection and Introspection pp. 61-62).

And so can we “be ready to every good work” (Titus 3: 1), “to speak evil of no man” (3:2), in short to gratefully acknowledge and exemplify “the kindness and love of  God our Saviour toward [all mankind]” (3:4).

Julie Swannell

the task: healing

Something I had wondered about has been clarified. People from Crete are indeed called Cretans. And in Titus’ time they were so named as a derogatory term. This is implied in the book by the healing qualities which Titus is required by Paul to encourage in the populace, namely

·       Blameless

·       Selfless

·       Slow to anger

·       Not a drunkard

·       Not quick to violence

·       Not a gambler (implied by “filthy lucre”)

·       Living the Word

·       Not unruly

·       Not vain talkers

·       Not dreamers

Those are from Chapter 1. Chapter 2 gives more.

Titus 1:12 gives a definition by one of themselves. It reads: “It was one of them, their very own prophet, who said, ‘Cretans are always liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons.’” New Revised Standard Edition. (The KJV has the spelling “Cretians.”)

Present usage by Merriam-Webster is, “a stupid, vulgar, or insensitive person: CLOD, LOUT.”

What a task Paul set for Titus! I am reminded that Mary Baker Eddy appointed some of her students to go to certain towns and spread the word of Christian Science by healing.

One can only wonder how Titus carried out his task.

What really was required of Titus was to heal. One doesn’t imagine that he healed the whole populace, but what joy over those who were healed.

Joyce Voysey

Titus and the island of Crete

 The short letter titled Titus, although appearing to have been written by Paul, is now almost certainly seen by scholars as not Paul's work. Bible teacher Madelon Maupin writes that "Titus, First and Second Timothy, and Second Thessalonians have a different 'voice' and approach" (see Understanding Paul in the December 2009 issue of The Christian Science Journal).

Of interest to the Bible reader is mention of the (now) Greek island of Crete, where it seems a new Christian community was being established:

Titus 1: 5 "The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you." (NIV)

Titus 1: 12 "One of Crete's own prophets has said it: 'Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.'" (NIV)

My husband and I bought Cretan honey today. It seems to be quite famous, as we've seen it several times here in Greece.

On the map below, you can see that Crete is the largest and most southerly of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. The site of Fair Havens, where Paul's ship was safely anchored, is roughly in the middle on the southern side of the island. Acts 27:21 (NIV) - "After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood before them and said: 'Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss.'"

https://www.britannica.com/place/Aegean-Islands

An extract from A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey provides a nice introduction to what one might find on Crete today:

Crete is the largest and most southerly of all the Greek islands. It is also one of the most visited, due to both its beauty and its famous ancient sites. By far the best-known of these attractions is the spectacular Palace of Knossos, reconstructed over a period of thirty-five years by its discoverer, Sir Arthur Evans, who put more than a million dollars of his own money into the work. Scholars have criticized his reconstruction as a fanciful and not altogether accurate representation of the original, but millions of tourists delight in being able to see more at an ancient site than foundations, scattered stones, and a few columns. But Knossos is not the only dramatic ruin of antiquity on the island. Gortyna and Phaistos should not be missed, and for Christians the harbor of Kaloi Limenes (called Fair Havens in the New Testament) is a place of importance in the life of the Apostle Paul. Likewise, the Basilica of St. Titus at Gortyna commemorates the ministry of Titus, a Greek convert who was a disciple of Paul (Gal 2:3), as described in the New Testament book of Titus. Furthermore, Iraklion possesses an archaeological museum second only to the National Museum in Athens. The only site on Crete mentioned in the Bible, though Crete itself was said to be the place of the ministry of Titus (Titus 1:5), is the harbor of Kaloi Limenes (Good Harbor), referred to in the Book of Acts as Fair Havens (Acts 27: 8). After two thousand years, the site is known by the same name today. Even in New Testament times the place was distinguished only as the harbor for the nearby city of Lasea, a flourishing commercial city in the Roman period. 

Fant, Clyde E, and Mitchell G Reddish, "Crete", A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey (New York, 2003; online edn, Oxford Academic, 12 Nov, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195139174.003.0015, accessed 11 May 2024.

I wonder how Titus got to Crete? Perhaps he was a native of the island. It seems he had his work cut out for him.

Julie Swannell