Our goal for women’s Bible study is to equip you to enjoy God’s Word and to be transformed by the truth of it. While not the primary source of teaching at Heritage (that would be the pulpit ministry during our Sunday gatherings), Women’s Bible study is a wonderful gift. And we’re thankful for the opportunity to gather and read and discuss and grow in our understanding of God’s Word together.

The number one thing we want you to do with Bible study is value God’s word so that you can submit to it and be transformed by it. The Word of God is a means of grace to His people. Other means of grace (or, how you get grace) are prayer and the Church. So, that’s why we are practicing this with other sisters. Because God graciously uses all of His people to help one another grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Truth, so we can live godly lives. And that is what the book of Titus is all about! Grace and Truth lived out.

TOOLBOX ILLUSTRATION: If we were gathered around my kitchen table instead of here today/tonight, you’d notice that we’re in the middle of a minor renovation, building in a pantry and bookshelf. I’m really thankful for a handy husband who is still eager to learn new skills, especially from his dad (who’s a retired construction superintendent). Bryan’s dad didn’t really teach him the trade as they were going up, but it’s important to Bryan now to say, “Dad, I need to know how to do this. Can you help me?” And it’s fun to watch the two of them teach our 3 boys the different tools and how to use them. They’ve been running around with tape measures measuring everything! So, I brought a toolbox here (visual aid) and it’s filled with tools (or objects that represent those tools) that I’ve found helpful over the years in studying and working to understand God’s Word. Some tools are more helpful in specific types of Scripture, and some are helpful for all of Scripture. And just as in construction, these tools take a little practice.

TOOLS:

• Bible (Scripture Journal) – The Bible the living, inspired Word of the eternal God. These Scripture journals aren’t necessary, but they are helpful for note taking and highlighting in ways you might not want to mark up your Bible permanently.
• Workbook – see appendices for different questions you can ask of Scripture. And we’ve tried to be really thoughtful in how we’re asking the questions in our workbooks. Especially for those who maybe haven’t done a lot of Bible studies, we want to give you a framework to come to Scripture with good questions and ask God to help you answer them about the Word He’s given you.
• PRAYER (object lesson: phone, represents us calling out to God) – John 17 tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, guiding us as believers into all truth. In Proverbs 2, it tells us that God has storehouses of wisdom that He is ready to pour out on the righteous. And in James 1, He tells us that He loves to give wisdom generously to those who ask. So, always start by asking for wisdom as we approach God’s Word. We tried to model this as we wrote the workbooks this time as well. There are prayers that you can use as launching points at the beginning and end of each week’s lesson.

WORKBOOK QUESTIONS ON PAGES 2-3 (AND MORE TOOLS):

(Q1) What genre is the book of Titus? (What type of literature is the text?)

TOOL: READ AND REREAD (AND/OR LISTEN) – There’s value in reading things over and over again. And in our day and age, we have several solid translations that we can use. The Bible App is really helpful for listening (6.5 minutes to listen to the whole book of Titus).

(A1) As we read through Titus, we notice a few things… it’s a letter. So, we know we’re in the EPISTLES or LETTERS GENRE.

TOOL: ENVELOPE – Now, the original letters were probably written on scrolls, so no actual envelope, but the letters contained the features that would be on our modern envelopes. It includes who wrote the letter, who the letter was to, where it was sent from, and when it was written. Now, some of this is in the letter itself, and some we have to do a little research for.

(Q2) Who wrote the book? (A2) Paul. Now, we’re not going to look too deeply into Paul in today’s lesson because our study next week covers chapter 1:1-4, so Amina will cover Paul’s background next week. But we’re just getting the main ideas here and working on our toolbox.

(Q3) When was it written? Did you read the letter before coming tonight? Good! Did you find a date in the letter to Titus? Me neither!

TOOL: STUDY BIBLE/COMMENTARY 

• We would recommend the ESV Study Bible or the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible. If you don’t own a study Bible, that’s ok. Because most of this information can be found online for free; if you’re not sure of authors to trust, ask an elder or one of the other teachers here at Heritage for recommendations.
• Crossway and The Gospel Coalition (TGC) have some really good resources and free courses on their websites to help with this.
• The Bible Project has free videos on YouTube that cover every book of the Bible (some of their newer videos should be viewed with discernment, but the book overviews are very helpful).

(A3) Short answer: between AD 62-66.

When we compare these resources, it seems likely that this letter was written sometime after Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome (released AD 62; see Acts 28, so most of the events in Acts have taken place, including all 3 missionary journeys). Since Paul wants Titus to join him in Nicopolis by winter, it’s likely that Paul’s either already in Nicopolis or visiting some churches on his way there. And we know Paul was imprisoned in AD66 until he died a martyr under Nero in AD68.

It’s believed Paul wrote Titus in between writing 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, so there’s a lot of similarities in the Pastoral Epistles. You might want to take your Scripture journal and read thru all 3 letters and see what similarities you can find.

(Q4) Who was Titus written to?

(A4.1) A little self-evident by the title and Titus 1:4, Titus is clearly the immediate recipient.

Not to give away too much about Titus, but we know he was an uncircumcised Greek who trusted Jesus Christ as His Savior. The fact that he was uncircumcised will be valid as he refutes the Jewish circumcision party at the end of chapter 1.

Titus traveled with Paul on several of his missions, and clearly had some administrative gifting, or he would not have been tasked with the contents of this letter.

(A4.2) Titus is written in a way that is calling out certain activities and calling for other activities, so it’s also written to the churches Titus is pastoring. It was important for these young churches to know that Titus wasn’t just taking this task upon himself of his own volition (like some of the teachers in his day). But rather, God thru Paul was authorizing Titus to set up elders in the network of house churches. Where? on the isle of Crete (1:5). Those elders were to have authority over the churches. Just as our elders do today. It was the way God designed the Church to function.

(A4.3) As part of the Church, this letter is also for us today. But, before we get to US-NOW, we need to first understand what was going on with THEM-THEN.

TOOL: CONTEXT (object lesson: umbrella, since we have several tools or resources we can use under this tool of CONTEXT)

TOOL: WHERE IN THE BIBLE? You might look and see if the word “Crete” or “Cretan” is used anywhere else in Scripture.

• BIBLE INDEX (often at the back of your Bible)
• Strong’s Concordance (a big book that lists every word in the Bible and groups them together for every time they’re used in their original language)
• BlueLetterBible.org or BibleHub.com (both of these are free websites and have their own apps now).

WHAT WE FOUND OUT ABOUT CRETE: So, we search Crete, and we see it mentioned in Titus, of course. And we believe Paul actually spent some time in Crete, even though it’s not mentioned in his missionary journeys because Titus tells us there’s an unfinished task that he needs to do.

• Acts 27 multiple times, so we read that story. Paul is on his way to Rome to be imprisoned, stops on the island of Crete, and ends up being shipwrecked on the nearby island of Malta.
• Acts 2. Jews from Crete are mentioned among those at Pentecost (AD33, after Christ had died, risen, and ascended to heaven, and the disciples were gathered in Jerusalem, waiting). Those at Pentecost witness the filling of the Holy Spirit and the disciples speaking in tongues. They understand the gospel in their own language, repent and are baptized, and begin devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayer. This is the beginning of the Church! And they must have taken the gospel back to Crete and started a network of house churches.

But then we see even further back—is Crete mentioned in the OT!? Let’s see.

• Deuteronomy 2:23, “… the Caphtorites from Crete invaded and destroyed the Avvites, who had lived in villages in the area of Gaza” (AMP).(This is when Israel is wandering around the wilderness and about to enter Canaan, the Promised Land. And the LORD uses various people groups to wipe out Canaanites to give the land to the Israelites! These original people of Crete (or Caphtor) are actually the ancestors of the Philistines (“the people from the sea”). [Note: Archaeologists have recently linked DNA from a Philistine tomb to DNA on the island of Crete!]

This little island wasn’t called Crete until about the 15^th c. BC. Before that, it’s actually called Caphtor! And that’s confirmed by the map during the Patriarchs time in the back of my study Bible: Crete (Caphtor). So, then we have to search for Caphtor and see if that opens up anything else.

• Genesis 10:14 mentions Caphtorites or Caphtorim—a descendant of Ham (son of Noah). So that’s around or before the 25^th c. BC.
• Caphtor pops up again in Amos, Jeremiah, Chronicles.

And we don’t want to go down any rabbit holes, but it’s good to do a general overview and then ask, “Does this help me understand the text I’m studying?” Some will, some won’t. Keep the bits that INFORM your TEXT. The rest may come in handy as you study something else though. 😉

What we conclude is that God is sovereign (and has been since before Creation) over every human, every people group, every island and continent, including those on the isle of Caphtor (or Crete)!

• Acts 17:26, “From one man He made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.”

TOOL: Maps – The history of the world is marked by lines on maps, and depending on the time period you’re studying, those lines might be different than they are today.

• p. 3 Workbook (Find Crete).
• Most Bibles have a few maps in the front or back, especially a good study Bible.
• Online maps
• Google Earth or other satellite images or pictures online to see what it looks like today.

Crete is an island in the Mediterranean Sea—about the same size as Long Island, NY. It has a huge mountain running from E to W and is rich in agriculture, art history, beaches and quarries. It’s gorgeous! This particular island was known for having many towns, being a central port; it was very wealthy, and was conquered multiple times over the years. How do we know that?

TOOL: History Books – not every part of Scripture gives us specific details about who and where and when, BUT when it does, we must assume it to be important—at least important enough for God to include it in His preserved Word for us. So, if history and places are important to God, we should work to make them important to us. Some of you are really good with history. This does not come naturally for me, so I have to really work at remembering what happened when and where and how it all connects (usually using large pieces of paper to draw out timelines), but it is worth the work.

• Bible Timelines
• History books written from a biblical worldview
  • Story of the World—available at the library or Hoopla!
  • Mystery of History
• Solid secular history books (I really like the DK publishers for history and science—just edit the parts about evolution, obviously).

CONTEXT: Being Greek, Titus would have known the histories and mythologies that centered around this island. But being a Christian, his whole life and understanding of how the world works had been totally transformed by the truth of God!

APPLICATION: The book of Titus is here to help us understand and experience the total transformation of the gospel in our own lives, even as we fight our own cultural myths and superstitions! Many of us adapt how we act based on cultural myths or  superstitions. (E.g., “Step on a crack, and… do you avoid stepping on cracks because of this little rhyme? And there are far more serious myths out there, and we can be tempted to change our behavior because of them.)

Note: I was an English major in college, and I am really glad I took Classical Medieval Literature with Dr. Karen Silvester in college—and that I kept my notes for over 20 years! 😉

WHAT WE FOUND OUT ABOUT CRETE’S HISTORY/MYTHOLOGY (TIMELINE):

• 7000 BC (if the world’s that old), Recent archaeological discoveries have dated the inhabitants of Crete as one of the most ancient civilizations.
• 2700BC, the Minoans (under King Minos), founded the first European civilization on Crete (Caphtor). They were the head civilization in the Mediterranean (or Aegean) region.
  • They built elaborate palaces, with beautiful fresco murals; each palace had its own port, and the greatest palace Knossos has been discovered, restored and partially rebuilt as a tourist attraction that’s still around today!
  • Minoans were known for their cruelty. The Minoans, like many ancient cultures, viewed bulls as sacred. Legend of Minotaur (Minos and taurus, half-man/half-bull). The Minotaur was kept in an elaborate labyrinth under the palace, and it was a brutal beast that ate children. Talk about rule by fear! Minos didn’t want to sacrifice his own country’s children, so he ordered that the king of Athens send 7 boys and 7 girls to be sacrificed to it every year! And allegedly, King Aegeus complied, putting names of all the children into a bowl to be drawn each year. UNTIL his son Theseus found out when he turned 18! His name had been kept out of the drawing all this time, and he decided to volunteer to go to Crete and slay the Minotaur, which he did with the help of King Minos’s daughter (a tragic, love at first sight story). These are the kind of brutal tales that Titus would have grown up hearing. And the people on the island of Crete would have known them too.
• 1600BC, the Mycenaeans (from modern day Greece) conquered the Minoans and took over the island and the title of “head civilization.”
  • After a nearby volcanic eruption sent ash into the area and destroyed the crops on Crete, many of the Minoans were weakened, died of starvation, or disappeared (likely fleeing to the mainland).
• 1200 BC, Mycenaean’s fall to Troy (in modern Turkey)
  • Battle recounted in Homer’s Iliad.
  • Trojan horse story, the soldiers hidden inside a horse as a gift to Troy – the Mycenaeans from Crete are the ones who did that (according to the myth).
• 800 BC, Crete ruled by various Greek city-states (lots of civil wars, to say the least).
  • New alphabet developed.
  • Homer (blind Greek poet) lived and wrote down the stories of the Greek gods, including a description of Crete in The Odyssey, Book XIX: “There is a country, Crete, in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair land and a rich, begirt with water. The people there are many, innumerable indeed, and they have ninety cities. Their speech is mixed; one language joins another. Here are Achaeans, here brave native Cretans, here Cydonians, crested Dorians, and noble Pelasgians. Of all their towns the capital is Cnosus [Knossos], where Minos [legendary king of Crete, during whose rule the labyrinth was built] became king when nine years old—Minos, the friend of mighty Zeus….” Continues to talk of the “strong wind,” “a harbor hard to win,” and elaborate feasts and clothing.
• 700-501 BC (exact dates unknown), Epimenides
  • Poet/prophet who lived at Knossos
  • Quoted by Paul in Titus 1:12, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” [The original poem was to reprimand Crete for making a burial tomb for Zeus and to promote Zeus’ immortality:

“They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one
The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!
But thou art not dead: thou livest and abidest forever,
For in thee we live and move and have our being.” — Epimenides, Cretica ]

• 500-400 BC, Jews arrived in Crete from Egypt and Palestine
  • Maccabean Revolt
  • End of OT, before and during the 400 years of silence before Jesus comes to Earth.
  • They were religiously Jewish, but culturally, many or most of them “hellenized”, which means they acted like the Greeks.
• 200-118 BC, The Ancient Greek historian Polybius in his Histories wrote, “Now it would be impossible to find, except in some rare instances, personal conduct more treacherous or a public policy more unjust than in Crete.”
• 106-43BC, Roman statesman Cicero (around the time of Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, and Pompey) wrote in his Republic, “How many… have thought it exceedingly pious and agreeable to the gods to sacrifice men. Besides these religious discrepancies, the rules of life are so contradictory that the Cretans and Aetolians regard robbery as honorable.”
• 69 BC, Crete came under Roman rule in 69BC.
• AD: The year of our Lord – Jesus’s coming is the lynchpin between BC and AD. When Jesus comes, everything changes!
• AD 33, Jews from Crete at Pentecost in Jerusalem
• AD 54-65, Nero was the Roman ruler
• AD 62-66 Letter to Titus written
• Lots of other battles and victories over Crete; but today, Crete is part of Greece.

MYTHOLOGY: The word “myth” (or “mythos” in Greek) simply means “story.”

Mythologies are groups of stories that different people groups collect and pass down as they try to make sense of the world. Every culture has them—and they almost all involve a creation narrative, a supreme god (or ruler over all), and the meaning of life (Who am I? Where did I come from? Why am I here?) And a lot of them have warriors fighting over mankind, including slaying snakes, dragons, and demons—or the warriors are the serpent gods. So many of the mythologies have underpinnings of the true story, but they miss it by so far! The great deceiver continues to twist the stories of creation and authority and purpose.

It’s important for us to know what the common lies are so we can combat them with the truth, as Titus did by the grace and power of the one true God—the one true God who created the universe and man, who is sovereign over all, and by His life and death and resurrection, He gives meaning to all of our lives! (And slays the Great Dragon, Satan, to rescue His beloved—us!)

• In Greek mythology, chaos produced the first being—Gaia (Earth).
• Cronos (son of Gaia) fathered Zeus, presumably on the island of Crete.
• Zeus seduced MANY women and fathered COUNTLESS children, including Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Perseus (who killed Medusa) and Hercules. Are all these names coming back to you?
• Zeus was the Greek’s supreme ruler—the Father of the gods. He was thought to be generous, but also known to be a seducer and liar. And the Cretans took their cues from this god.
• Apparently when two of the goddesses fought about who was the most beautiful, they asked a Cretan to judge and he chose one; the other goddess called him a liar and cursed all Cretans to never be able to tell the truth again.
• Remember, these are MYTHS because they didn’t know the truth of Jesus yet!

The term “Cretan” is actually still used today as a derogatory term! I actually laughed out loud when I heard the word “Cretan” used as a joke between Randall and Mike Wazowski (the one-eyed monster in the Monsters Inc. cartoon—a cuter version of the Cyclops, perhaps?)!

Randall: ‘Wazowski! Where is it you little one-eyed cretin?’
Mike: ‘Okay, first of all it’s “Cretan”, if you’re going to threaten me, do it properly.’

(Q5) “What is the central theme of the book?”

TOOLS: KEY WORDS (object lesson: COLORED PENCILS)

As you read the book again and again, asking the Spirit for wisdom and insight, certain words or themes may stand out to you. Colored pencils can help illuminate these repeated words and ideas as key truths to study more in depth or find connections to one another. So, choose a color for each word or idea and try to be consistent with that color throughout the whole book.

(A5) LOTS OF KEY WORDS:

• Truth: This was a big deal, in contrast to the lies of Zeus and other teachers in Crete.
• Authority: Paul and Titus needed to establish the authority of Jesus Christ as God Himself, and consequently the authority of His Word as the true and living Word of God, as well as the authority of His apostles and elders to the Church.
• Grace
• Godliness (or good works)
• Teaching
• Jesus as God and Savior
• Hope

CONNECT CONTEXT AND THE GOSPEL: In their context, they would have been raised looking at the gods determining their fates with no benevolence. It was hopeless! But the gospel gives hope from the One true God who elects us to hope in a beautiful eternity with Him. Their gods were full of wrath at anyone who didn’t please them; there was no grace in Zeus, for sure! His generosity was only placating the people for his own lusts. But our God, though full of wrath towards sin, is also full of grace and uses His grace to save us and sanctify us, making us His very own people (2:14) out of His great kindness and love for us (3:4-5).

(A5) As the Women’s Bible Study Teaching Team studied Titus, various themes emerged. But, as you can tell by the title, we landed on Living the Truth, with a subtitle of “Belief and Behavior that Adorn the Gospel.”

OVERVIEW OF TITUS (see Table of Contents, page 1)

Chapter 1: Paul writes in the first few verses, which you’ll study for next week, that God’s purpose in making him an apostle was to further the faith of God’s elect—all those chosen by God from before the foundation of the world to be His special children—and to further their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness. How we live matters—and what we believe matters. But it starts with knowing the Truth, which can only come from the one True and Living God who cannot lie. Then, as we grow in knowing the Truth, that truth transforms our hearts and lives from the inside out. Faith and Truth lead to godly living.

As we continue, we’ll see Titus’s task to establish elders in the network of churches in every town in Crete. This is where we need to know and live the truth in regard to our leadership here at Heritage. God has graciously provided elders who are fit for godliness and fit for managing God’s household, as they walk worthy of the gospel—not perfectly, but  beautifully, in their homes and in our community. We’ll see a contrast between godly leaders and those who are self-professed leaders who stir up strife and division and are “insubordinate” and “unfit for any good works.” Ouch! We’ll have to really dig into the truth of God’s word and fight the lies of the cultural myths that surround us today—just as the Greeks and Jews on Crete had to fight the myths of their own days. We’ll compare these two groups in what they teach, how they use their tongues, what their tempers are like, and where their trust lies; and I think we’ll find that godly submission is actually a beautiful place to live.

Chapter 2: Value of Teaching Godliness to every age and stage, male and female, bond and free. As we value God’s Word and teach it to one another, it becomes more and more beautiful and valuable to us! And it’s all based on the beauty of the gospel of grace and glory.

Chapter 3: We’ll see the value of living the truth in good works and in devotion to God and God’s people among the world. Are we stressed out by our past sins and failures? Or present distractions and divisions? Or are we stressing God’s Kindness thru Gentle Reminders, Gospel Foundations, and Good Works for God’s Glory? Doctrine (3:1-8) informs duty (3:8-15); what we believe, and how that affects how we live. i.e., the good news produces good works  – in the Church, in our homes, and in the world.

FINAL WEEK: We’ll wrap up with a meal and time of sharing all God has taught us of Living the Truth by Grace. Titus 3:14 says, “Our people must learn to devote themselves to good works!” It’s not a command to “Just do it”—it’s a command to keep learning to do it. And that’s why we’re here—to learn together to devote ourselves to good works, as we devote ourselves to God’s good and kind gospel work in each of our hearts.

PRAYER: Dear God, we thank you for each of these ladies and pray that these tools would be helpful and not overwhelming. Help us as we learn to devote ourselves to good works and further our faith in the knowledge of the truth. We pray that we would be transparent in our small groups, and that you would transform us from the inside out by your grace. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.