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

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demonstrate a positive influence upon his own family. All these disclose a positive attitude towards the family. The negative impact of the illegitimate teachers upon the family institution is thus exacerbated by the use of the kinship argument. This implicit contrast highlights an underlying argument suggestive of the importance of a stable family life in the ancient world. Whereas elder-overseers must maintain a stable family life, the opposition threatens that stability and are vilified for it. The text, therefore, suggests that it is a severe form of vilification to accuse someone of threatening the family institution. Johnson (1996:235) mentions that “[i]n the Greco-Roman world, insubordination or instability in the oikos was reason enough to condemn a religious movement”. Through a clever play on the word oi\ko~, the apostle exploits the connotative value of the kinship argument with direct application to the church. In 1:7, he described the overseer as a qeou' oijkonovmo~. The false teachers on the other hand, are subverting whole oi\koi. Again, by implicit comparison to the elders, these impostors are shown to be illegitimate by highlighting the negative impact of their activities upon the church or individual families. They must be avoided because they prove to be outsiders, non-family, and predatory. The next justification for the ruthless treatment of the impostors, relates to the content of and the motivation for their teaching, which serves as a further basis for their vilification. Their illegitimacy relates to the content of their teaching, here described very unflatteringly as a} mh; dei' (“things not necessary”). The insignificance of what they teach is expressed by the use of the relative pronoun (neuter) a}{. The illegitimate teachers simply teach “things”. Again, this is the opposite of what Paul and the elders teach. The selection of vocabulary heightens the polarity between the two groups. “Things” do not quite compare with “the truth”, “the faithful word”, “the teaching”, and “healthy teaching” or “healthy doctrine” (1:1, 9). The readers must choose between being taught illegitimate “things” and legitimate “teaching”. The next two words aijscroiv kevrdoi, are further examples of paranomasia. It intentionally recalls a quality listed in the earlier catalogue of vices with reference to overseers, namely aijscrokerdhv~. If an overseer may not be PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 81
aijscrokerdhv", and these false teachers are teaching for the sake of aijscroiv kevrdoi, then there is no way that the latter group can ever legitimately serve in God’s oi\ko~. They are disqualified. The language implies a warning to the believers. It is as if the apostle is saying, “Watch out. They are out to exploit you!” Clearly, he cannot be speaking to Titus. Those who stand to benefit from these caveats are the believers. In verse 12, the apostle intensifies his strategy of vilifying the illegitimate teachers. His rhetorical strategy involves the use of alienating or exclusive language and appeal to an external source of authority. Paul’s use of “them- us” serves to alienate the believers from the illegitimate teachers. It also harnesses the notion of community and belonging. Here, he uses it negatively with reference to the illegitimate teachers. The repetition of the third person, plural, of the pronoun aujtov~ (ejx aujtw`n i[dio" aujtw`n profhvth") emphasises the notion of “them” and “us”. More importantly, however, the repetition of the pronoun functions to corroborate the accusation that is expressed in the form of that infamous quote. Thus, here we have information about the false teachers from the proverbial horse’s mouth; here is an inside story. Paul’s rhetorical strategy furthermore involves an appeal to an external authority. The quote, Krh`te" ajei; yeu`stai, kaka; qhriva, gastevre" ajrgaiv, effectively points the attention of the hearers away from Paul. It is as if Paul is saying: “Don’t be surprised. I’m not sucking these things out of my thumb. Here’s what is said about them by someone who knows them. Here is what you know is true about them”. The citation suggests a known source, insinuating that this is public knowledge. One could read into this citation a mild or implicit rebuke towards the congregation. They should have known these things. However, if there is a rebuke, it is softened by the earlier use of the “them-us” language. The quote demonstrates another instance of emphatic clustering. More specifically, we have here an example of asyndetic emphatic clustering. Together with verse 10, it ties this section into a neat unit and maintains the vilification of the false teachers. The vocabulary employed is significant. PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 82
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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
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 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: church. Implicit contrasting is als
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
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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;
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these titles. The future appearance
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The certainty and completeness of t
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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
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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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