Ti’tus, (Graecized Τιτος, a common Latin name, e.g. of the celebrated Roman emperor whose triumphal arch [q.v.] still stands in Rome; once in the Apocrypha [2 Macc. 11:34] of a Roman ambassador to the Jews, SEE MANLIUS ), a noted Christian teacher, and fellow-laborer of Paul. He was of Greek origin (possibly a native of. Antioch), but was converted by the apostle, who therefore calls him his own son in the faith (Galatians 2; 3; Titus 1:4). This is all that we know of his early history. The following is an account of his later movements and of the epistle to him. King (Who was St. Titus? [Dublin, 1853, 8vo]) tries to identify him with Timothy.
1. Sources of Information. —Our materials for the biography of this companion of Paul must be drawn entirely from the notices of him in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, the: Galatians, and to Titus himself, combined with the Second Epistle to Timothy. He is not mentioned in the Acts at all. The reading Τίτου Ι᾿ούστου in Acts 18:7 is too precarious for any inference to be drawn from it. Wieseler, indeed, lays some slight stress upon it (Chronol. des apost. Zeit. [Gött. 1848], p. 204), but this is in connection with a theory which needs every help. As to a recent hypothesis that Titus and Timothy were the same person (King, Who was St. Titus? [Dublin, 1853]), it is certainly ingenious, but quite untenable (see 2 Timothy 4:10). The same may be said of the suggestion of Mircker (Meining. 1861), that Titus of the epistles is the same person with Silvanus, or Silas, of the Acts, although there is nothing that absolutely forbids such an identification.
2. His, Known Journeys. —Taking the passages in the epistles in the chronological order of the events referred to, we turn first to Galatians 2:1, 3. We conceive the journey mentioned here to be identical with that (recorded in Acts 15) in which Paul and Barnabas, went from Antioch to Jerusalem to the conference which was to decide the question of the necessity of circumcision to the Gentiles (A.D. 47). Here we see Titus in close association with Paul and Barnabas at Antioch. He goes with them to Jerusalem. He is, in fact, one of the τινὲς ἄλλοι of Acts 15:2, who were deputed to accompany them from Antioch. His circumcision was either not insisted on at Jerusalem, or, if demanded, was firmly resisted (οὐκ ἠναγκάσθη περιτμηθῆναι). He is very emphatically spoken of as a Gentile (῎Ελλην), by which is most probably meant that both his parents were Gentiles. Here is a double contrast from Timothy, who was circumcised by Paul’s own directions, and one of whose parents was Jewish (Acts 16:1,3; 2 Timothy 1:5; 3:15). Titus would seem, on the occasion of the council, to have been specially a representative of the church of the uncircumcision.
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Author: McClintock and Strong Cyclopedia
Keywords: Titus
Bible reference(s): 1 Corinthians 16:11, 2 Corinthians 12:18, 2 Corinthians 2:13, 2 Corinthians 7:6, 2 Corinthians 8:16, 2 Timothy 1:5, 2 Timothy 3:15, 2 Timothy 4:10, Acts 15:2, Acts 16:1, Acts 18:7, Acts 19:1, Titus 1:4, Titus 2:1, Titus 3:8
Source: John McClintock and James Strong, Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature.
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