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

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2.2.4 Titus 2:1: Distinguishing Titus as a minister of sound doctrine on the basis of apostolic authorisation The dominant rhetorical objective in this section is to distinguish Titus as a minister of sound doctrine on the basis of apostolic authorisation. This section follows on from the previous section in which the author discredited the opposition through the rhetorical technique of vilification. Here, he is distinguishing Titus by commending him as a minister of sound doctrine with apostolic endorsement. Furthermore, the mandate of Titus is extended in that he becomes responsible not only for the appointment of office bearers but also for the disbursement of sound doctrine to the believers. Titus is thus presented here as one who is qualified to teach the church as opposed to the opposition (1:11). The ministry of Titus is set apart from that of the false teachers in various ways. To achieve this task, the apostle uses several linguistic markers. First, there is the emphatic placement of the second person singular personal pronoun suv at the beginning of the sentence, together with the adversative conjunction dev. While marking off the section as separate from the previous one, it also contrasts Titus' ministry by drawing attention to the apostolic imperative from which his ministry originates. If someone from Crete were to ask "Why are you teaching these things to us?” Titus could answer, “The apostle Paul commanded me to". Next, Titus is commanded to “speak”, lalevw. This is an interesting word choice. The false teachers were “teaching”, didavskonte" (1:11). So, why does Paul not instruct Titus to “teach” (didavskw)? Why this change of vocabulary? Could it be that he wants to create some distance between Titus, here representing legitimate ministry and the false teachers who represent illegitimate ministry? Another option is that the close proximity to the remaining words in the sentence could have distorted the meaning of particularly didaskaliva. Thus, he appears to be protecting the distinctive or technical sense of the word didaskaliva. Alternatively, the variation of vocabulary might have been intended to avoid redundancy. This is an example of the rhetorical technique paranomasia (word play). A third PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 89
marker is the use of the plural of the neuter relative pronoun, a}. This pronoun has an immediate correlation to the false teachers who, according to 1:11, teaches a} mh; dei`. Rhythmically, with reference to metre, as well as aurally, with reference to assonance of the vowel a, and the diphthong ei, the relation between the words in their different contexts is undeniable. A hearer would immediately have picked up this similarity of sound and noticed the intended difference between what is said to Titus and what is said about the false teachers. Titus, unlike the false teachers must speak, a} prevpei th`/ uJgiainouvsh/ didaskaliva. Interestingly, the expression hJ uJgiainouvsh didaskaliva is here reversed, when compared to its first occurrence in 1:9. Furthermore, the first time these two words appear together is in the context of elders-overseers, who must parakalevw the teaching. Now, Titus shares that responsibility as he must lavlew it. Here, repetition is used to establish a positive association. The parallel between the verbs used is also unmistakable. Thus, Titus and the elders-overseers are shown to be allies or associates, while the false teachers are shown to be aliens. Purely through the choice of vocabulary, the apostle manages to distinguish the ministry of Titus and the elders-overseers from that of the false teachers through the ingenious combination of the neuter article and an expression used earlier with reference to another set of validated ministers of the church: a} prevpei th`/ uJgiainouvsh/ didaskaliva. Conclusion This section appears upon a first inspection to be addressed to Titus. However, from a rhetorical angle, the manner in which the apostle ties this section to the preceding one suggests that a wider audience is intended. The opening sentence is directed to distinguish Titus and what he does as the apostolic delegate among the Cretan believers (cf. 1:5). This is the dominant rhetorical objective of this section. More importantly though, is the fact that this verse also introduces the notion of healthy doctrine. In the next section (2:2-10), the concept of healthy doctrine will be developed in a comprehensive sense. The doctrine of the false teachers has been discredited in the previous section and their profession of faith was shown to be nothing more than hot air PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 90
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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
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: implicit contrasting. The negative
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
Page 141 and 142: 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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