PAUL'S “PARTNER AND FELLOWHELPER” (2 CORINTHIANS 8:23) · CALLED IN GALATIANS 2: TAKEN TO JERUSALEM

Titus. A Greek believer, Paul's envoy to Corinth, left in Crete.

ALSO CALLED

No other name

FROM

Scripture does not say

TRADE

Scripture does not say

FAMILY

“Titus, who was with me, being a Greek”.

WRITINGS

The letter to Titus (addressed to him)

BACKGROUND

Home, trade and family

FAMILY

  • “Titus, who was with me, being a Greek”. Galatians 2:3
  • Paul calls him “mine own son after the common faith” and “Titus my brother”. Titus 1:4 2 Corinthians 2:13

THE CALLING

Called, as 2 accounts tell it

“Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.”

Galatians 2:1 (KJV) →

WHERE HE WENT

Acts and after

  • Jerusalem · Went up with Paul and Barnabas. Galatians 2:1
  • Troas · Paul looked for him here and did not find him. 2 Corinthians 2:12–13
  • Macedonia · Met Paul here with news from Corinth. 2 Corinthians 7:5–6
  • Corinth · Paul's envoy here. 2 Corinthians 7:13–15 2 Corinthians 8:6 +2 more
  • Crete · Left here to appoint elders. Called the bishop of its churches by Eusebius, about 325 (tradition). Titus 1:5
  • Nicopolis · Asked to join Paul here for the winter. Titus 3:12
  • Dalmatia · The last place Scripture names for him. 2 Timothy 4:10
  • Gortyna, in Crete · tradition · no map pin · Called its bishop in a late fragment ascribed to Zenas (tradition).

IN ACTS AND THE LETTERS

  • He went up to Jerusalem with Paul and Barnabas. Paul writes that Titus, “being a Greek”, was not “compelled to be circumcised”, and that to the “false brethren” who came in “we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour”. Galatians 2:1–5
  • When Paul came to Troas he “had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother”, and went on into Macedonia. 2 Corinthians 2:12–13
  • In Macedonia “God … comforted us by the coming of Titus”, who brought word of the Corinthians' “earnest desire”, “mourning” and “fervent mind”; his spirit “was refreshed by you all”. 2 Corinthians 7:5–7 2 Corinthians 7:13–15
  • Paul sent him to Corinth to finish the collection, with “the brother, whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches” and another brother. 2 Corinthians 8:6 2 Corinthians 8:16–24
  • “Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit?” 2 Corinthians 12:17–18
  • The letter to him says: “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city”. Titus 1:5
  • Paul asks him, when Artemas or Tychicus comes, to come to Nicopolis for the winter, and to send Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way. Titus 3:12–13
  • 2 Timothy says he had gone “unto Dalmatia”. 2 Timothy 4:10

COMPANIONS

Who was with him

Each line joins him to someone Scripture places beside him.

  • Paul Took him to Jerusalem, sent him to Corinth, left him in Crete; “my partner and fellowhelper”. Galatians 2:1 2 Corinthians 8:23 Titus 1:5
  • Barnabas Went up to Jerusalem with Paul and Titus. Galatians 2:1
  • Artemas Paul planned to send him or Tychicus to Titus, who was then to come to Paul at Nicopolis. Titus 3:12
  • Tychicus The other man Paul might send to Crete. Titus 3:12
  • Zenas “Zenas the lawyer”, to be sent on his way by Titus. Titus 3:13
  • Apollos To be sent on his way by Titus, “that nothing be wanting unto them”. Titus 3:13
  • Crescens and Demas Named beside him in 2 Timothy: Demas gone to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 2 Timothy 4:10

HOW THE STORY ENDS

Scripture says, tradition says

SCRIPTURE SAYS

  • The last we read of him: “Titus unto Dalmatia” (2 Timothy 4:10). Scripture does not say whether he reached Paul at Nicopolis, or how he died. 2 Timothy 4:10 Titus 3:12

TRADITION SAYS

  • Eusebius writes that, “so it is recorded”, Timothy was first bishop at Ephesus and “Titus of the churches in Crete”.[1] Who says so: Eusebius, Church History 3.4.6, about AD 325
  • The Apostolic Constitutions list “Of Crete, Titus” among bishops ordained in the apostles' lifetime.[7] Who says so: Constitutions of the Holy Apostles 7.46, a compilation its ANF editor places “not later than the fourth century”
  • A fragment on the life of Titus ascribed to “the lawyer Zenas” makes him bishop of Gortyna in Crete and of a royal Cretan family; McGiffert calls the tradition “late, and, of course, of little authority”, though it “accords very well with all that we know of Titus”.[2][20] Who says so: a fragment “de Vita et Actis Titi”, as reported by McGiffert and Smith, late; date not given
  • Candia in Crete claims to be his burial place (McGiffert, citing Cave, 1677); Smith adds that he is “said to have been permanent bishop in the island, and to have died there at an advanced age”.[2][20] Who says so: local tradition, reported by Cave (1677), McGiffert and Smith, Cave, 1677, as reported by McGiffert (1890)

WRITINGS

Writings tied to him

LETTERS

The letter to Titus (addressed to him)

OPEN QUESTIONS

Where readers have differed

No: Paul did not yield

Lightfoot (1890), with “the vast majority of early writers”; Rutherfurd, ISBE (1915)

Lightfoot: the incident is told to show Paul never conceded circumcision, and Paul “could scarcely say ‘we yielded no not for an hour’ in the same breath” as confessing it. Galatians 2:3–5 [11][24]

Yes: he was circumcised, but not by compulsion

Farrar (1879); Pelagius, the one early exception Lightfoot found; “several modern critics” (Lightfoot)

Farrar asks why Paul's sentence is “so ambiguous, so involved” if he did not yield, and reads “was compelled” to mean Titus was circumcised “but not under compulsion”. Galatians 2:3 [12][11]

IN SCRIPTURE

Every passage

CHAPTERS · 8

Galatians 2 2 Corinthians 2 2 Corinthians 7 2 Corinthians 8 2 Corinthians 12 Titus 1 Titus 3 2 Timothy 4

PASSAGES · 9

Galatians 2:1–5 2 Corinthians 2:12–13 2 Corinthians 7:5–16 2 Corinthians 8:6 2 Corinthians 8:16–24 2 Corinthians 12:17–18 Titus 1:1–5 Titus 3:12–15 2 Timothy 4:10

WHAT SCRIPTURE DOES NOT SAY

  • Scripture does not name Titus's family or home town.
  • Scripture does not say when Paul and Titus were in Crete together, or whether Titus came to Nicopolis.
  • Scripture does not say why Titus went to Dalmatia, or what became of him.
  • Scripture does not call Titus a bishop.

IDENTIFICATIONS THIS PAGE RELIES ON

  • From the textActs never names Titus. Everything Scripture says of him is in Galatians, 2 Corinthians, 2 Timothy and the letter addressed to him. Galatians 2:1–3 2 Corinthians 2:13 2 Timothy 4:10 Titus 1:4
  • Scholars' viewSmith (1884) and Rutherfurd (ISBE, 1915) take “mine own son after the common faith” to mean that Paul brought him to faith. Titus 1:4 [20][24]
  • Scholars' viewSmith (1884) mentions that the “Titus Justus” of Acts 18:7 in the Revised Version is “possibly the same”; the KJV there reads only “Justus”. Kerr (ISBE, 1915) calls a suggested identification of Titus with Silas “very improbable”. This page relies on neither. Acts 18:7 [20][21]

SOURCES

Where this page comes from

  • Eusebius (trans. A. C. McGiffert, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1), Church History (1890), 3.4.6-7; 6.25.6.
  • A. C. McGiffert, Notes to Eusebius, Church History (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 1) (1890), book 3, chapter 4, notes 607-611 and 614-615; book 6, chapter 25, note 1981.
  • Irenaeus (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1), Against Heresies (1885), 3.1.1; 3.13.3 with note 3538; 3.14.1.
  • Tertullian (trans. Peter Holmes, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 3), Against Marcion (1885), book 4, chapter 2; book 5, chapter 3.
  • Unknown (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5), The Muratorian Fragment (Canon Muratorianus) (1886), sections 1-2.
  • Ascribed to Hippolytus (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 5), On the Seventy Apostles (1886), list nos. 15-17 and 50, with note 2027 ("Probably spurious, but yet antique").
  • Unknown (ed. James Donaldson; notes by M. B. Riddle; Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 7), Constitutions of the Holy Apostles (1886), book 7, chapter 46; Riddle's introductory notice ("not later than the fourth century").
  • Jerome (trans. E. C. Richardson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 3), Lives of Illustrious Men (1892), chapter 7 (Luke); chapter 135 (written "the fourteenth of the Emperor Theodosius").
  • Clement of Rome (trans. J. B. Lightfoot), 1 Clement (1891), chapter 47 (checked against the 1891 printing, archive.org apostolicfathers00ligh).
  • Suetonius (trans. J. C. Rolfe, Loeb Classical Library), The Lives of the Caesars: The Deified Claudius (1914), 25.4.
  • J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (10th ed.; scan of a later reprint) (1890), pp. 96-98 ("The name and office of an Apostle", with notes); pp. 104-105 (on 2:3-5); pp. 121-123.
  • F. W. Farrar, The Life and Work of St. Paul (1898 printing) (1879), pp. 234-236 ("Was he circumcised?").
  • Brooke Foss Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews: The Greek Text with Notes and Essays (2nd ed.) (1892), Introduction, "History and Authorship", pp. lxxiv-lxxix.
  • Marcus Dods, "The Epistle to the Hebrews", in The Expositor's Greek Testament, vol. IV (1897 (1910 printing)), Introduction: authorship, pp. 228-229.
  • Charles Bigg, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistles of St. Peter and St. Jude (2nd ed. 1902) (1901), Introduction to 1 Peter, p. 5.
  • W. M. Ramsay, St. Paul the Traveller and the Roman Citizen (1895), ch. III (Titus and the famine visit); ch. IX section 3 ("The coming of Luke"); ch. X; ch. XI (Aquila and the edict); ch. XII sections 1-2 (Cenchreae; Apollos, Priscilla and Aquila); ch. XIII (Titus); ch. XVII (Luke and Antioch).
  • W. J. Conybeare and J. S. Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, new edition (first published 1852) (1891), ch. XI, pp. 300-301 (Aquila and Priscilla); ch. XII, pp. 330-331 and note (the vow at Cenchreae).
  • Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 1: Apostolic Christianity (revised ed.) (1890), section 82 (Luke), with notes 991-994; section 85 (Acts), with note 1098.
  • M. G. Easton, Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897), entries Silas; Timothy; Titus; Luke; Apollos; Aquila; Priscilla.
  • William Smith, Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884), entries Silas; Timothy; Titus; Titus Justus; Luke; Apollos; Aquila.
  • C. M. Kerr, Silas (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) (1915), read online at internationalstandardbible.com; to be checked against a scan of the printed 1915 edition.
  • C. M. Kerr, Apollos (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) (1915), read online at internationalstandardbible.com; to be checked against a scan of the printed 1915 edition.
  • John Rutherfurd, Timothy (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) (1915), read online at internationalstandardbible.com; to be checked against a scan of the printed 1915 edition.
  • John Rutherfurd, Titus (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) (1915), read online at internationalstandardbible.com; to be checked against a scan of the printed 1915 edition.
  • A. T. Robertson, Luke, the Evangelist (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) (1915), read online at internationalstandardbible.com; to be checked against a scan of the printed 1915 edition.
  • International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (article unsigned in the online text), Acts of the Apostles, part 1 (III. Unity of the Book; IV. The Author) (1915), read online at internationalstandardbible.com; to be checked against a scan of the printed 1915 edition.
  • Jacob W. Kapp, Aquila (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) (1915), read online at internationalstandardbible.com; to be checked against a scan of the printed 1915 edition.
  • William G. Moorehead, Peter, the First Epistle of (International Standard Bible Encyclopedia) (1915), section on Silvanus; read online at internationalstandardbible.com; to be checked against a scan of the printed 1915 edition.

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