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

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ecause of their works (1:16). The false teachers were teaching "things not necessary" (1:11). Titus is distinguished as one entitled to teach something very specific, namely "things fitting for sound doctrine". In this section, Paul is simply "backing" or validating his man. The rhetorical techniques used in this section include: paronomasia, metre, assonance, emphatic use of pronouns and repetition. 2.2.5 Titus 2:2-10: Persuading the Cretans that personal conduct compliant with sound doctrine is compulsory and should characterise all believers The dominant rhetorical strategy of this section is to persuade the Cretans that personal conduct compliant with sound doctrine is compulsory and should characterise all believers. Sound doctrine is given its fullest explanation in this section. In this section, Paul’s objective is to give substance to the notion of sound doctrine. In other words, it sets out to answer the question: What does sound doctrine look like?” Paul correlates sound doctrine to the manifestation of right behaviour. Earlier, in 1:10-16, right behaviour was shown to be the key indicator of a genuine profession of faith in God (1:10-16). The false teachers by their deeds are denying God; conversely, believers by their deeds must confess God. Thus, the inseparable correspondence between deeds and sound doctrine is at the heart of Paul’s rhetorical objective in this section. The author makes extensive use of the rhetorical method of implicit contrast to achieve this objective. The distinction between “sound” and “unsound” is consistently highlighted in this section. The objective involves providing the Cretan believers with reasons why they should embrace sound doctrine rather than the “things” of the false teachers. The text suggests that part of what the apostle is countering in this letter is the tendency among Cretan Christians to tolerate unhealthy teachers. This weakness corroborates the theory of the relative newness of the church of Crete. It appears that they have not yet learnt to discern between healthy and unhealthy teaching and was still in need of PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 91
instruction in this regard. “Healthy doctrine” is never defined anywhere in this letter. This is probably explicable from the fact that Paul does not seem to treat it as a theoretical concept. Instead, sound doctrine appears to be manifested in practical, personal and public conduct by all believers. In 2:2-10, Paul delineates the behaviour that will characterise obedience to healthy doctrine as manifested through the lives of different categories of believers. These groups seem to be arranged in a particular order and are clearly cordoned off from each other. In a footnote, Hendriksen (1957:363) draws attention to the rhetorical technique of a chiastic arrangement of the first four groups in this section: older men (2:2) older women (2:3) young women (2:4-5) young men (2:6) In verses 2-5, the author describes what behaviour fitting for sound doctrine looks like for older men, older women and younger women. This is followed by a purpose statement in the form of a i{na-clause. In verses 6-7 he deals with the behaviour of young men and of Titus, also followed by a i{na-clause. The behaviour of slaves is the final social category (2:9-10) and this too is followed by a i{na-clause. The section thus comprises verses 2-10 and is further subdivided by three i{na-clauses. The list is general and comprehensive. 2.2.5.1 The behaviour of older men In verse 2, Paul directs attention to the conduct of older men in the congregation that will comply with sound doctrine. Here the noun presbuvth~ (older man) appears, while earlier (1:5) its adjectival form, namely presbutevro~, is used to refer to an officer of the church. The change in terminology suggests that this group is distinct from the leaders mentioned previously. Fee (1988:185) argues that the agreement between the characteristics for elder-overseers and older men could be attributed to the fact that the former would be appointed from latter group. Nevertheless, the PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com 92
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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
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: marker is the use of the plural of
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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
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Page 135 and 136: as traditional, with verse 3 as an
Page 137 and 138: aptism effected by the Holy Spirit
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Page 141 and 142: through self-vilification in the op
Page 143 and 144: 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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