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

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part of Paul. Thurston does not elaborate upon the role of the Holy Spirit apart from mentioning His agency and that He comes through Jesus Christ (Thurston, 1999:181,182). This is presumably due to her interpretation that the heart of this letter is Christological. What she is prepared to emphasise, and to which Collins concurs, is her conviction that Titus 3:4-7 is a hymn or creedal fragment (Thurston, 1999:181; Collins, 2000:66, 67; See also Hanson, 1968:78-96; Karris, 1996:80). Scholars also concede the conspicuously Trinitarian emphasis of this section. What is being emphasised is the role of the Spirit in regeneration and renewal (Bailey, 1994:349). 1.1.3.4 Conclusion Central in the theology of Titus is the historical act of salvation. It is a salvation that God and Jesus Christ share as co-saviours. Christologically, the letter evinces a very high view of Jesus Christ, who in 2:13 is designated as God. It is not an overstatement to say that Titus has an exalted Christology. The interpretation of such an elevated view of Christ is not without complexities as the debate around Titus 2:13 clearly testifies to. The introduction of the Holy Spirit, in the last chapter, completes the Trinitarian emphasis of the letter. 1.1.4 STRUCTURE AND COHERENCY 1.1.4.1 Introduction Any appreciation for the structure of the Letter to Titus must begin with the recognition of the difficulty of such an endeavour. This problem relates to the prevalence and influence of the authenticity debate which, on the one hand, informed an attitude of alienation from matters related to the structure and composition of these letters. Thus, scholars and commentators, in particular, just simply ignored the existence of structural concerns. It was observed, for example, as recent as 1997 that “most commentators on the Pastorals do not address the question of literary structure within these letters” (Miller, 1997:159). On the other hand, a related response was the fostering of a negative interest that tended to focus on the exploitation of structural issues in PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 35
order to prove issues of authorship, without appreciating the potential value of the insights gleaned from structural analysis to advance our understanding of the content of the letters. The implications of some positions related to the matter of structure and coherency are so severe as to render these letters meaningless. Fortunately, a shift in scholarly mindset looms on the horizon. The dust having almost settled on the authorship debate and the non-Pauline view in the proverbial driving seat, scholars are slowly, though increasingly focusing their attention on other aspects, like the structure and linguistic features of these letters. It must be pointed out that scholars on both sides of the debate have sometimes weighed and found wanting any structural coherence in these letters. Paradoxically, some scholars are of the view that the majority of contemporary scholarship affirms the fundamental coherence of the Pastoral Letters (Van Neste, 2002:119). That the matter is far from settled is evidenced by the fact that even those who defend the Pauline integrity of these letters doubt the coherency of the corpus. No less than Donald Guthrie himself, in this regard, found the letters to evince “lack of studied order, some subjects being treated more than once in the same letter without apparent premeditation”, concluding that the letters are “far removed from literary exercises” (Guthrie, 1957:12). This apparent disjunctiveness, however, bolsters his conviction that Paul authored this corpus. Non-Pauline proponents likewise, interpret the alleged structural “inconsistencies” to galvanise their position. While a comparatively great amount of work has been done on the letters to Timothy, the Letter to Titus, even on this issue, has largely been relegated to the margins. 1.1.4.2 Two positions There are essentially only two positions when addressing the specific matter of the structure of Titus. The first is that Titus, in the light of the whole corpus, has no structure and is incoherent. The key proponent of this position is James D. Miller. The second alternative is that Titus has a definite and justifiable structure, and constitutes a coherent unit of discourse. PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 36
Page 1 and 2: A TEXT-CENTRED RHETORICAL ANALYSIS
Page 3 and 4: DECLARATION I declare that the diss
Page 5 and 6: SECTION 2 RHETORICAL ANALYSIS 2.1 R
Page 7 and 8: SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 OVERVIEW
Page 9 and 10: The content of the authorship debat
Page 11 and 12: consistently identified as pioneer
Page 13 and 14: J. Quinn. Their list of scholars ad
Page 15 and 16: Uncharacteristic Pauline theology:
Page 17 and 18: etc. are not referring to actual pe
Page 19 and 20: History never lies” (Titus 1:2)?
Page 21 and 22: meaning as determined by historical
Page 23 and 24: other to explain what these critics
Page 25 and 26: 1.1.2.4 Conclusion The various theo
Page 27 and 28: Excursus: Cumulative-complimentary
Page 29 and 30: Lumping or clustering apparent oppo
Page 31 and 32: these letters on a more individual
Page 33 and 34: Furthermore, the name Jesus Christ
Page 35 and 36: C. 1. qeou` and swthvr depend on do
Page 37: accentuate the unmistakable role of
Page 41 and 42: Miller (1997:124) is particularly u
Page 43 and 44: Next, Van Neste goes on to show how
Page 45 and 46: There have been some recent excepti
Page 47 and 48: The first part of the analysis is e
Page 49 and 50: offer any translations in this rega
Page 51 and 52: novel. To the best of my knowledge,
Page 53 and 54: 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 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 and 140:
exclusively or that this constitute
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through self-vilification in the op
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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,
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7: Titus 3:1-2: Persuading the Cret
Page 173 and 174:
apostles and lay leaders appointed
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).
Page 191 and 192:
Everts, J. M. (1993). Hope Dictiona
Page 193 and 194:
Lea, D. and H. P. Griffin (1992). 1
Page 195 and 196:
Sumney, J. L. (1996). “A Reading
Page 197 and 198:
ABSTRACT This study has been conduc
Page 199 and 200:
In Section 3 the results of the stu
Page 201 and 202:
amanuensishipotese en die allonieme
Page 203 and 204:
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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