"Authority" in Titus 2:15

[GJx86]

Recently I’ve been taking part in an off-forum sola scriptura discussion. One thing I’ve been doing is looking through 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus for evidence that Paul directly transmitted his Apostolic authority to one of his disciples. 2 Tim 2:2 is one way to try to do this, but the other party claimed that this merely said that Timothy should find smart people to preach, not that these people would have any infallible authority.

In my reading I discovered Titus 2:15, which reads (NASB):

“These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”

Initially, this seemed like a good candidate verse, since Paul has just told Titus what to teach (in 2:1-14), and then told him to teach it “with all authority.” However, most of the commentaries I’ve read on the subject interpret the phrase “with all authority” as a modifier that describes how Titus should teach. These commentaries claim Paul is saying, “Speak, exhort, and reprove in an authoritative, commanding manner,” rather than “Speak, exhort, and reprove using the authority that you have.”

I checked an online interlinear Bible; evidently the word “authority” gets translated as “commandment” elsewhere in the NT, which would seem to support this view.

Are there any commentary owners or Greek scholars here who can confirm this interpretation or help me make some sense out of this verse? I’m considering appealing to “Paul wouldn’t instruct Titus to do this if he didn’t have authority to back up his claims,” but I’d like to know if there’s any linguistic evidence to go along with that.

Other thoughts on whether this is a useful text are, of course, welcome.

 

[po18guy]

This points to the fallacy of cherry picking scripture, as ‘you know who’ like to do. It is a seamless garment and has full meaning only in its completeness. But, if one must extract verses, 2 John 1:12 and 3 John 1:13-14 are good examples that the face to face oral tradition was preferred to scripture, so that their joy would be complete.

Christ’s peace.

 

[Todd_Easton]

The only verse that I recall approaching an infallible authority is Acts 15:28, where the conciliar decisions of the apostles and elders were also identified as the decisions of the Holy Spirit.

 

[garysibio]

Recently I’ve been taking part in an off-forum sola scriptura discussion. One thing I’ve been doing is looking through 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus for evidence that Paul directly transmitted his Apostolic authority to one of his disciples. 2 Tim 2:2 is one way to try to do this, but the other party claimed that this merely said that Timothy should find smart people to preach, not that these people would have any infallible authority.

In my reading I discovered Titus 2:15, which reads (NASB):

“These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”

Initially, this seemed like a good candidate verse, since Paul has just told Titus what to teach (in 2:1-14), and then told him to teach it “with all authority.” However, most of the commentaries I’ve read on the subject interpret the phrase “with all authority” as a modifier that describes how Titus should teach. These commentaries claim Paul is saying, “Speak, exhort, and reprove in an authoritative, commanding manner,” rather than “Speak, exhort, and reprove using the authority that you have.”

I checked an online interlinear Bible; evidently the word “authority” gets translated as “commandment” elsewhere in the NT, which would seem to support this view.

Are there any commentary owners or Greek scholars here who can confirm this interpretation or help me make some sense out of this verse? I’m considering appealing to “Paul wouldn’t instruct Titus to do this if he didn’t have authority to back up his claims,” but I’d like to know if there’s any linguistic evidence to go along with that.

Other thoughts on whether this is a useful text are, of course, welcome.

There’s a great resource on the Web called the Blue Letter Bible which is quite helpful with questions like this. It is Protestant but you can still get a lot out of it.

blueletterbible.org/

The word for ‘authority’ used here is ‘epitage’ which means injunction, mandat or command. It is used seven times in the Greek NT and the KJV uses ‘authority’ in this passage but ‘commandment’ in the other six.

Gary