Saturday, 1/26/13
St.
Titus, a Greek pagan converted by Paul, is often paired with Timothy in that
they were young men to whom Paul gave major responsibilities; and to whom Paul
wrote letters. An odd difference between them was that while Paul catered to
Jewish sensibilities in having Timothy circumcised, he made a more decisive
break with the past by refusing to have Titus circumcised.
In
sending Titus to Crete to put the Church there in order, Paul forced Titus to
develop mature ways. It was similar to what it must be like for a boyish
married man to suddenly find he is the father of triplets. We can see Titus as
the patron saint of young men with responsibility thrust on them.
Our finest
expert on Paul’s letters was the Jesuit, Rev. Joseph Fitzmyer. I had thought
that our English language Bibles made a mistake in translating a passage in
Paul’s Letter to Titus, so I asked Father Fitzmyer about it. He agreed that our
English version changed the meaning of what Paul wrote.
In Chapter
One, verses 6 to 8, Paul gave the qualities needed for a man to be a presbyter.
He wrote that a presbyter should be blameless and married only once; and the
sentence concludes with Paul saying that as overseers they should not be
arrogant. Our Catholic translation breaks that sentence in two. By translating
the word for overseers as “bishops,” our Catholic Bibles introduced the office
of bishops where Paul had not been talking about them.
Still on
that passage, where Paul spoke of appointing presbyters, Protestant Bibles
translate that as “elders,” but it would be better to leave it as “presbyters”
or even as “priests," since out word “priest” is actually a contraction of
“presbyter.”
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