A Text centred rhetorical analysis of Paul's Letter to Titus

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characterise all believers. The comprehensive nature of sound doctrine is demonstrated by applying it to various sectors of the social strata of Crete. Even Titus is not excluded from the influence of legitimate teaching. Two lines of argument are used to achieve the dominant objective. The first argument is based upon the notion of shared knowledge. Christians must manifest the right behaviour because the rest of society also considers such behaviour to be good. The next line of argument is transcendent in nature. The behaviour that believers must manifest is behaviour that God expects from people (5, 6, 9). The repetition of this line of reasoning suggests that the apostle considers it to be more authoritative and binding upon believers. In other words the behaviour that believers must manifest exceeds the maintenance of a good public image - they must live up to the expectations of God! Through rhetorical techniques like repetition, behaviour compliant with sound doctrine is demonstrated to characterise all believers; thus, the correspondence between the behavioural characteristics of older men and elder-overseers and between Paul being a slave of God and the Christian slaves in Crete. The positive effect of Christian behaviour in the home is negatively contrasted with the damaging effect of false teachers (1:11). Similarly, the behaviour of “teaching what is good” (2:3) spoken about older women is contrasted with the false teachers who “teach things not necessary” (1:11). These techniques maintain the tension between “sound” and “unsound”, forcing the audience to choose a position. The superiority of legitimate teaching over against illegitimate teaching is a secondary outcome of this section. Thus, sound doctrine must be embraced and the corresponding behaviour must be manifested because it is superior to false doctrine. This superiority is more implicit rather than explicit in the text. Sound teaching benefits the family institution, by respecting the authority of the husband. This is the same argument used with reference to slaves. Furthermore, some theological progression is discernible from the references PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 103
to God and this paves the way for the next section. The expression swth`r hJmw`n qeou' is taken up here, having first appeared in the salutation and serves as a transitionary device that will be developed in the next section. Other rhetorical techniques used in this section include inclusive language, paronomasia, role modelling and stigmatisation, while the use of implicit contrast occurs constantly. 2.2.6 Titus 2: 11-15: Emphasising the divine basis of obedience to sound doctrine The dominant rhetorical objective in this section is to emphasise the divine basis of obedience to sound doctrine. In the previous section, Paul highlighted the relationship between sound doctrine and deeds compliant with the doctrine. Deeds corresponding to sound doctrine were shown to comply with the expectations of the rest of society. In verses 5 and 10, he alluded to the transcendent nature of the prescribed behaviour, namely that it is behaviour that God expects from people. He furthermore, emphasised the benefits that legitimate teaching has for the broad spectrum of the congregation as well as the beneficial influence of legitimate teaching upon social institutions like the family and servant-master relationships. Now, Paul is going to proverbially “clinch the deal” by a final argument. He is going to justify the divine expectation for sound behaviour in accordance with sound doctrine by arguing on the basis of the divine origin of this teaching. Not only is the behaviour in line with that which God expects, but so is the doctrine that prescribes the behaviour. Paul is now arguing that God is the one teaching the doctrine, making the doctrine and the behaviour inseparable. The teaching as well as the Teacher are transcendent and must therefore be obeyed because it is not of human origin. It applies, and the Cretans are radically bound to it. In other words, sound doctrine must be obeyed, because it is the exact opposite of “the commandments of men” (1:14). Not to obey the doctrine and therefore PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 104
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A TEXT-CENTRED RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
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DECLARATION I declare that the diss
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SECTION 2 RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 2.1 R
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SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 OVERVIEW
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The content of the authorship debat
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consistently identified as pioneer
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J. Quinn. Their list of scholars ad
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Uncharacteristic Pauline theology:
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etc. are not referring to actual pe
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History never lies” (Titus 1:2)?
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meaning as determined by historical
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other to explain what these critics
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1.1.2.4 Conclusion The various theo
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Excursus: Cumulative-complimentary
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Lumping or clustering apparent oppo
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these letters on a more individual
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Furthermore, the name Jesus Christ
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C. 1. qeou` and swthvr depend on do
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accentuate the unmistakable role of
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order to prove issues of authorship
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Miller (1997:124) is particularly u
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Next, Van Neste goes on to show how
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There have been some recent excepti
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The first part of the analysis is e
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offer any translations in this rega
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novel. To the best of my knowledge,
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ather than as a supplement to the T
Page 55 and 56: Accordingly, the research hypothesi
Page 57 and 58: •Step 3: Where deemed necessary,
Page 59 and 60: The rhetorical situation correspond
Page 61 and 62: Titus' primary assignment is to app
Page 63 and 64: Throughout the letter, Paul shares
Page 65 and 66: equally negative conduct (1:16). In
Page 67 and 68: 2.2.1.1 Emphasising the legitimacy
Page 69 and 70: strategically throughout this secti
Page 71 and 72: This section is suffused with the r
Page 73 and 74: and trustworthiness. This choice of
Page 75 and 76: “By whose authority are you imple
Page 77 and 78: “shared knowledge”. The qualiti
Page 79 and 80: espectively within the same sentenc
Page 81 and 82: dichotomy at the front end of this
Page 83 and 84: church. Implicit contrasting is als
Page 85 and 86: aijscrokerdhv", and these false tea
Page 87 and 88: The second part of verse 13 contain
Page 89 and 90: different groups. He relentlessly p
Page 91 and 92: implicit contrasting. The negative
Page 93 and 94: marker is the use of the plural of
Page 95 and 96: instruction in this regard. “Heal
Page 97 and 98: almost desirable. Thus, legitimate
Page 99 and 100: The subject is the older women. Thi
Page 101 and 102: negatively upon the oJ lovgo" tou`
Page 103 and 104: 2.2.5.6 The behaviour of slaves In
Page 105: or originating from God (tou' … q
Page 109 and 110: This explains the use of inclusive
Page 111 and 112: Furthermore, through the direct rep
Page 113 and 114: what grace is instructing the belie
Page 115 and 116: Paul demonstrates that he is himsel
Page 117 and 118: The section closes with the apostle
Page 119 and 120: Another technique is personificatio
Page 121 and 122: the apostle adopts to persuade his
Page 123 and 124: Most commentators treat ejxousivai
Page 125 and 126: person. Interestingly, both instanc
Page 127 and 128: 2.2.8 Titus 3:3: Evoking disgust wi
Page 129 and 130: purpose while Mounce (2000:446) bel
Page 131 and 132: negative. Paranomasia and the metap
Page 133 and 134: conformity to the divine example. I
Page 135 and 136: as traditional, with verse 3 as an
Page 137 and 138: aptism effected by the Holy Spirit
Page 139 and 140: exclusively or that this constitute
Page 141 and 142: through self-vilification in the op
Page 143 and 144: crhstovth" and filanqrwpiva of God
Page 145 and 146: ejpoihvsamen hJmei`" (works) ajlla;
Page 147 and 148: these titles. The future appearance
Page 149 and 150: The certainty and completeness of t
Page 151 and 152: The next two words in v. 7 are exam
Page 153 and 154: their salvation by God. The divine
Page 155 and 156: discourse. In this regard, consider
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two groups is accentuated and the d
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Verse 9 opens with the adversative
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awareness of the insidiousness of f
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This is a very tight unit, carefull
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turn, requires the presence of soun
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closing greeting to the Cretans inv
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SECTION 3 CONCLUSION In Section 1,
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7: Titus 3:1-2: Persuading the Cret
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apostles and lay leaders appointed
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In unit 7 (3:1-2), the relationship
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The second objective is to highligh
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These four objectives may be summar
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expected manner can look forward to
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f. Arguments based on the use of vi
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m. Example. For example, in 3:4-7 G
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ehaviour expected of older men. In
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Aageson, J. W. (1997).
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Everts, J. M. (1993). Hope Dictiona
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Lea, D. and H. P. Griffin (1992). 1
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Sumney, J. L. (1996). “A Reading
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ABSTRACT This study has been conduc
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In Section 3 the results of the stu
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amanuensishipotese en die allonieme
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KEY TERMS 1. Pastoral Letters 2. Rh
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A Text centred rhetorical analysis of Paul's Letter to Titus

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