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

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1. “The belief of the people of God in his graciousness and promises of salvation and eternal life; 2. The need to know the sound teaching; 3. The need to live a moderate life and to perform kalav e[rga”. d) Conclusion The article concludes with an outline of the letter based on the rationale as presented earlier. 1.1.5.3 Critical evaluation of rhetorical approaches to Titus It is fair to say that very little, if any work, has been done that has made the rhetoric of the Letter to Titus its exclusive focus. The prevalence of the authenticity debate appears to have had a restraining effect on the scholarly treatment of the entire corpus. Even commentators treat and interpret the letters in the light of the authorship debate, displaying an apparent apprehensiveness to appreciate the individuality of Pastorals. Titus tends to be treated in the light of the other two. Critical works dedicated to a rhetorical study of the Pastorals continue to concentrate upon the Timothean corpus, as a survey of recent rhetorical conferences, has shown. Generally, therefore, there appears to be a dearth of rhetorical attention when it comes to the collective treatment of the Pastorals, which becomes even less in the case of the Letter to Titus. In this regard, I am aware of only one study that pays direct attention, in a more or less comprehensive manner, to the rhetoric of Titus, namely that of Joachim Classen discussed above, whose book is dedicated to the rhetorical criticism of the New Testament. He apportions 23 pages of his book to the rhetorical treatment of Titus. Classen’s work has much to commend it. His decision to take the letter seriously and to evaluate it on its own merits is in itself commendable. The decision to structure the letter around the occurrence of imperatives is rather PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 47
novel. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only analysis of Titus to attach such significance to that particular construct. His initial analysis of the sentences also renders helpful insight despite a subsequent tendency towards a selective analysis of only parts of sentences. Unfortunately, there are also some weaknesses in his rhetorical reading. Persuasion is a key aspect of rhetorical criticism. At no stage in his treatment of the letter does Classen even allude to this element. The issue should be “Why does the author say what he is saying in the way he says it?” Classen’s examination highlights what is there, i.e. in the text. He never attempts to go beyond that and answer the next question, namely, why is it there? Leading on from this is, perhaps, a more serious shortcoming of the study. Classen’s assessment is more exegetical than rhetorical. His critical treatment interprets the contents of the text without disclosing any indication of motive. His article merely offers knowledge about the peculiar vocabulary of the letter, the special phrases, and the syntactical flow of ideas between sentences. The role of the unique vocabulary and what the peculiar sentence flow communicate about the intention of the author are left unexamined. His study is far more textual and focused on the linguistic aspects of the text than the rhetoric thereof. This fact is evident from his definition of rhetoric and rhetorical reading (Classen, 2002:45, 46), which emphasises “understanding” the message, while “appreciating” and “explaining the function” of the parts as well as of the whole composition (Classen, 2002:46). Classen (2002:63) places great emphasis on the fact that this is a letter and not a speech. While this is true, it is equally true that ancient letter writers wrote in an oral, and even an aural manner. Yes, in form it is a letter, but it is not merely a letter. The phenomenon of the so called apostolic parousia is an accepted feature in New Testament scholarship. It has been demonstrated that the epistolary format also functions to communicate the apostolic presence. This phenomenon in part contributes to an appreciation of the literary format of New Testament letters. Classen’s study does not pay any consideration to this PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 48
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 and 38: accentuate the unmistakable role of
Page 39 and 40: order to prove issues of authorship
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: offer any translations in this rega
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
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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
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the apostle adopts to persuade his
Page 123 and 124:
Most commentators treat ejxousivai
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person. Interestingly, both instanc
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2.2.8 Titus 3:3: Evoking disgust wi
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purpose while Mounce (2000:446) bel
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negative. Paranomasia and the metap
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conformity to the divine example. I
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as traditional, with verse 3 as an
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aptism effected by the Holy Spirit
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exclusively or that this constitute
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through self-vilification in the op
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crhstovth" and filanqrwpiva of God
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ejpoihvsamen hJmei`" (works) ajlla;
Page 147 and 148:
these titles. The future appearance
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The certainty and completeness of t
Page 151 and 152:
The next two words in v. 7 are exam
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their salvation by God. The divine
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discourse. In this regard, consider
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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
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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
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
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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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