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

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This attitude of God is contrasted with Christians’ past attitude (verse 3) so that no one less than God the merciful Saviour can be the norm for exhorting Christians “to be gentle, showing all meekness toward all people” (verse 2), since God showed to the Christians his “kindness and love toward mankind” when they were as “all people” are now (Knight, 1992:338, Emphasis added.). The normative role of the divine example is a key aspect in our understanding of this sentence. Unfortunately, Knight neither takes this up again in the rest his analysis nor does he relate it to the argument of the apostle earlier in the letter. Quinn (1990:215) gets even closer to target in his summary of this sentence, best presented in his own words: Jews were devoted to the God who loved humankind; they could not reasonably hate what their God loved …. Jesus, the savior, was the visible, historical revelation of God’s philanthrōpia to all human beings. That vision of the baptismal profession became in its turn the antithesis to the vicious existence that converts from extremist Jewish sects had once led. They had formerly been “detested, hating one another.” Now, in faith, they have seen “the humane munificence of our savior, God … revealed.” They have no longer any basis for hating those whom God, their Father and savior, has loved (Emphasis added). This comparative-contrastive dimension best explains the function of this unusual sentence. The apostle has not abandoned his dominant rhetorical objective, namely to enforce compliance to sound doctrine. Instead, he takes his argument a notch higher in this final of three strategic, though unusually long sentences, occurring here, in 1:1-4 and in 2:11-14. Each of these three long sentences forms a strategic part of the rhetorical strategy of the author. He thus tends to use these sentences to communicate highly concentrated theology. Each of the sentences contains shared knowledge or traditional material apparently known to the recipients. The present sentence is therefore also a strategically placed rhetorical technique. After shaming the believers PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 137
through self-vilification in the opening verses of this chapter, the apostle does not relent. The employment of the potev-o{te formula serves to connect this sentence with the previous section. Thus, the argument based on prior knowledge is implicitly perpetuated in this section. The believers must be reminded about good conduct (vv. 1-2), about what they were (v. 3) and now the apostle reminds them of what God did while they were unworthy of his beneficence. Paul is enforcing compliance to sound doctrine arguing now on the basis of the power of the divine example. Believers’ past negative conduct in v. 3 is juxtaposed with the positive attitude of God in the opening description of v. 4. The pote-o{te formula emphasises this contrast. Thus, when believers are instructed to manifest the positive behaviour of 3:1-2 to outsiders, lack of compliance will put them at variance not with man, but with God himself. Furthermore, this argument is based on transcendent conduct. When believers manifest these attitudes, their behaviour transcends common decency or what is expected from good citizens. Their conduct testifies about something extraordinary that has happened to them, namely the way God treated them! This is certainly a powerful line of reasoning, highly convincing and persuasive. A schematic presentation of the argument will demonstrate the careful reasoning in which the contrasts between the divine and human actions are accentuated: (3:1-2) Present: Believers manifesting positive behaviour (3:3) Past: Believers manifesting negative behaviour (3:4-7) Past: God manifesting positive behaviour (3:8) Present: Believers manifesting positive behaviour Most scholars recognise the temporal aspects of this sentence (3-7), particularly the believers’ past conduct and the attitude and intervention of the divine in the past, but are less appreciative of the rhetorical intent and function behind these shifts in temporal perspectives. The lack of unanimity among scholars, in identifying or categorising this section, prohibits any dogmatic notions about the nature of the section. The PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 138
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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
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Accordingly, the research hypothesi
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•Step 3: Where deemed necessary,
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The rhetorical situation correspond
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Titus' primary assignment is to app
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Throughout the letter, Paul shares
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equally negative conduct (1:16). In
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2.2.1.1 Emphasising the legitimacy
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strategically throughout this secti
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This section is suffused with the r
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and trustworthiness. This choice of
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“By whose authority are you imple
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“shared knowledge”. The qualiti
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espectively within the same sentenc
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dichotomy at the front end of this
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church. Implicit contrasting is als
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aijscrokerdhv", and these false tea
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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 and 106: or originating from God (tou' … q
Page 107 and 108: to God and this paves the way for t
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: exclusively or that this constitute
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
Page 157 and 158: two groups is accentuated and the d
Page 159 and 160: Verse 9 opens with the adversative
Page 161 and 162: awareness of the insidiousness of f
Page 163 and 164: This is a very tight unit, carefull
Page 165 and 166: turn, requires the presence of soun
Page 167 and 168: closing greeting to the Cretans inv
Page 169 and 170: SECTION 3 CONCLUSION In Section 1,
Page 171 and 172: 7: Titus 3:1-2: Persuading the Cret
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Page 175 and 176: In unit 7 (3:1-2), the relationship
Page 177 and 178: The second objective is to highligh
Page 179 and 180: These four objectives may be summar
Page 181 and 182: expected manner can look forward to
Page 183 and 184: f. Arguments based on the use of vi
Page 185 and 186: m. Example. For example, in 3:4-7 G
Page 187 and 188: ehaviour expected of older men. In
Page 189 and 190: 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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