Titus 1:6 PISTA
Kevin Smith
kgs at iafrica.com
Sun Feb 27 07:46:24 EST 2000
Mark
I am a complete novice in the context of this forum. However, I am currently working on a doctoral thesis entitled Bible Translation and Relevance Theory: The Translation of Titus. Here are my thoughts about TEKNA ECWN PISTA as they currently stand.
The commentator you cite is correct that the NT never uses PISTOS (faithful) to describe anyone whom the context clearly designates as an unbeliever. But I'm not sure this is the real issue in Titus 1:6. The author might well be working on the assumption that the children of potential elders will be believers. Thus PISTOS would mean 'faithful' since 'believing' is taken for granted. I have yet to verify this completely (perhaps someone on the list can confirm or refute it), but it seems that (a) most of the early church's elders were household patrons [see Anchor Bible Dictionary, "Family: New Testament"], and (b) the head of a household determined the household's religion [see Derek Tidball, The Social Context of the New Testament, 81].
Grammatically, either 'believing children' or 'faithful children' are possible. PISTOS is used in the Pastoral Epistles (PE) in both active and passive senses. Knight (1992:289-90) says this:
The context here and the parallel passage in 1 Tim 3:4-5, however, provide some important indicators: The qualifying statement here, "not accused of dissipation or rebellion," emphasizes behavior and seems to explain what it means for TEKNA to be PISTA. Likewise, 1 Tim 3:4 speaks of an overseer "keeping his children under control with all dignity." In both cases the overseer is evaluated on the basis of his control of his children and their conduct. It is likely, therefore, that TEKNA ECWN PISTA here is virtually equivalent to TEKNA ECONTA EN hUPOTAGHi in 1 Tim 3:4. If that is so, then PISTA here means "faithful" in the sense of "submissive" or "obedient."
Since elders' children would have been believers anyway (at least nominally so), there would be little point in specifying that they must be believers. Conversely, there is merit in requiring that they be faithful as believers.
In Christ
Kevin Smith
South Africa
kgs at iafrica.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Markham <markhamm at topsurf.com>
To: Biblical Greek <b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Cc: b-greek <b-greek at franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Saturday, February 26, 2000 10:56 PM
Subject: Re: Titus 1:6 PISTA
> Clay:
>
> I agree with your observations:
>
> > There is a kind of circularity of argument that crops up all the time in
> > discussions of lexical semantics. The argument runs, signifier X never
> > points to signified Y in corpus Z, therefor this instance of signifier X
> > which is in corpus Z cannot point to signified Y.
>
> I guess my question is one of preponderance of evidence. Do the NT writers
> (esp. Paul) seem to limit the use of this word to believers only? Would this
> be the linguistic exception?
>
> Secondly, the use of PISTA in a verbal fashion seems to mean believing as
> the more modern translations bear out. Are there any clues in the context
> that I have missed? Also what would the object of the belief be? Or are no
> answers to be found?
>
> Grace,
>
> Mark Markham
> Heidelberg, Germany
>
>
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