Abstract

AbstractThis article investigates action of grace in Titus 2:11 and argues for a congeniality in this epistle with Pauline thought on grace as interpreted by John Barclay inPaul and the Gift.Barclay's disentanglement of the concept, including his newfound taxonomy for χάρις, advances Pauline studies significantly, yet it has not informed studies of the Pastoral Epistles. The article examines the juxtaposition of soteriology and ethics found in Titus 2:11–14 and 3:4–7, proposing that the subsequent passage is an elaboration of the first, which sheds light on the idiosyncratic notion of God's grace performing ethical training.

Highlights

  • The notion of paideia was at the heart of ancient Greco-Roman ethical and intellectual cultivation

  • In Titus 2:11–14 we are told that grace performs this work; through the participle παιδεύουσα, the notion is conveyed that God’s revealed grace calls the believing community to godly conduct

  • Scottish Journal of Theology 73, 330–339. https://doi.org/10.1017/ S0036930620000666

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Summary

Grasping key terms

What is being referred to in Titus 2:11 by the expression ἐπεwάνη ἡ χάρις τοῦ θεοῦ? Possibly it points to the divine Word being continually made ‘visible’ through the preaching of the gospel. Such an interpretation is understandable; God is said in the introduction of the letter to reveal his word (ἐwανέρωσεν) through the apostolic preaching (1:3). In the immediately subsequent and related passage of Titus 3:4–7, the revealed Christ event itself is closely connected to the ongoing personal experience of this salvific event These two soteriological pericopes are clearly lexically and thematically linked, one obvious instance being the use of the verb ἐπιwαίνω. In Titus 2:11 this adjective functions predicatively and agrees with χάρις, conveying the thought of God’s revealed grace bringing salvation to all humans.8 It carries all the semantical range of the verb σῴζω.. Both these soteriological paragraphs portray a revelatory and salvific act of God formulated slightly differently, with the appearance of God’s χάρις the focus, and his χρηστότης and wιλανθρωπία in chapter 3.12 This saving revelation of Christ is linked to ethical renewal in both these passages.

Ethics and soteriology in Titus
Barclay in brief
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