Unlike the Classical Greek and Hellenistic periods, women in Roman times could accompany their husbands to dinners.s" For the wives, abstention was no longer the case, as Pliny himself went on to note.
Think of the drinking matches! Think of the vessels engraved with scenes of adultery, as though tippling were not enough in itself to give lessons in licentiousness! ... Then it is that greedy eyes bid a price for a married woman, and their heavy glances betray it to her husband; then it is that the secrets of the heart are published abroad ... and truth has come to be proverbially credited to wine.53
The husband had not only turned a blind eye but also, in effect, acquiesced during the traditional drinking session that followed the meal to the sexual indiscretions of his wife in what was all part of the `after dinners'.54 These indiscretions were disclosed elsewhere by the eyewitnesses in an unguarded and drunken moment.
Philo recorded in the Julio-Claudian period that there were special tables reserved for `the drink bouts which followed as part of but not the only event in "the after-dinners , as they call them'.55 It was not only the single young men who, on donning the toga virilis as a sign of manhood, operated with no self-control, engaging in what has been described as `the intimate and unholy trinity' of eating and drinking and sexual immorality at private dinners.56 Both sexes might do so at these dinner parties. Female partners who had tra ditionally been only the courtesans might now include those called `new' wives.
Men and women alike in the first century were included in Epimenides' ancient epitaph of `lazy gluttons'. In the Christian communities drinking to excess applied equally to men, for the Christian elder was not to be a drunkard (1:7) any more than the older women were to be given to `much wine'. The injunction to younger men to exercise self-control in `all things' would have included drinking bouts and sexual activities once they acquired the toga of manhood (2:6). Extant evidence shows that there could be a nexus between drunkenness and immoral conduct at the feasts of young men in the East as well as in Rome.57
In addition to the instruction not to be slaves to much wine, older women were not to be `slanderers' (i? bta(3oXouc) (2:3). This activity was not totally unrelated to the gluttony at dinners and the subsequent excessive drinking. Epicharmus observed the nexus between drinking at banquets and slanderous comments: `But after drinking comes mockery, and after mockery filthy insults, after insults a lawsuit ... 5' The word `slander' is part of the semantic field shared by the accepted legal convention called `defamation' (6ta(3oXi) in which one sought to `bad mouth' an accused or defendant in public in advance of a civil or criminal trial.59 The denigration of others with the tongue was associated with the loss of self-control. If present among older Christian women it would severely damage the whole tenor of the life of the various Christian communities on the island.
The connection, then, between gluttony, excessive drinking and slandering others as well as immorality among older women is well attested and provides the Sitz im Leben of this instruction to older women.
`Reverend behaviour' was demanded of older Christian Cretan women. Like their Neo-Pythagorean sisters, they were to help younger wives live in marriage circumspectly in contrast to the current cultural laxness. (See pp. 72-74). The former could do this only if self-control and other virtues were evi denced in their own lives (2:3). The content of good teaching to be given by older women is explained in 2:4-5. More recently the Greek KaXo - 6t6a6xdXouS, Yva Gw4povilwdty zac vfaS rivat 4tXdvbpovS xai 4t1,oTfKvovS has been rendered: `They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children'.60 It will be argued in this section that the verb, 6w4povilw, in the clause has either not been translated, undertranslated, or mistranslated.
The noun KaXobtbaGKdXOvc means `good teachers'. The running of two or three words together is certainly not unknown in Greek.61 The sense is best secured by rendering this term as `good teachers' and not `teachers of what is good' and then by fully translating the Yva clause which expresses conscious purpose.62 It indicates the aim as well as the content of the instructions that the good teachers give. Commentators have drawn the conclusion that the task of older women was `to train, which would mean the Greek word used would be either 7ratbsuco `I educate, or btbdcxw `I teach' but certainly not 6w4poviCw. The verb `to teach' does not appear in the text. Translators may have assumed it from 2:1 where again the sentence is addressed to Titus - literally he is `to speak that which befits wholesome teaching' (6u bi Xa Et a 7Tp6TCS1 Tp uytatvoi btba6KaXla) and not literally `to teach'. The role of teaching is contrasted with that of those who were denounced for not adorning their instruction with a consistent life-style (1:io-i6). While it is true that the older women were called upon to live a lifestyle appropriate to their Christian calling (2:3a), their role as good teachers (2:3b) is covered in the clause that follows (2:4a) with a series of ethical terms preceded by an important verb.
Commentators have not reached a consensus in their interpretations of the meaning of the verb 6w4povi1w in the subordinate clause. Fee has suggested something of a dynamic equivalent: `wise them up' as regards marriage and family responsibilities as if the problem being addressed was that of ignorance; this does not really capture its meaning.63 Marshall felt that Fee comes close to the force of the Greek word.64 Mounce has suggested that this verse aims to `encourage', but he adds the important observation -'although this term does not carry the cognate's meaning to be self-controlled'.65
The entry in the latest edition of Bauer and Danker does not bring any more clarity to the issue. They begin the entry by citing the usual meaning in classical and Koine Greek (to `bring to one's senses'), citing from sources as early as Xenophon and as late as Origen, and include the first-century writers Philo and Josephus. They then conclude that in Titus 2:4 it means to 'encourage, advise, urge' but precede this with the explanation `to instruct in prudence or behaviour that is becoming and shows good judgement.' In support of this latter comment they cite this additional evidence. The second-century sophist, Maximus Tyrius, speaks of bringing people back to their senses but, he adds, `not the Corinthians'. The late-first-century author, Dio Chrysostom, notes how the people of Sparta `were brought back to their senses'. The much earlier Demosthenes provided a similar meaning where `the utterly wicked ... are only called back to their senses by suffering'.66 These three sources are the basis for the three possible renderings given by Bauer and Danker, viz. 'encourage, `advise' or `urge'.
They also cite with approval Moulton and Milligan, who provided a latesecond-century non-literary example, viz., the imperial comment: `we too are accustomed to bring to their senses those who are mad or beside them- selves'.67 Moulton and Milligan then noted `cf. Titus 2:4 where, however, the RV understands the verb in the general sense "to train" .68
Liddell and Scott from the earliest edition of their Greek-English Lexicon in 1843 provided two meanings for this verb: `to chasten' and `to recall a person to their senses'. In its twentieth-century editions they cite Titus 2:4 as an example of chastening. It will be argued in the light of the following firstcentury examples of the use of this verb that there is a very specific meaning. It is re-enforced by terms used in the clause; the renderings offered by commentators and the latest lexicon of `teaching' and `encouraging' do not have the support of the ancient sources.
Long ago Ellicott concluded that the verb plus 6c54povas (2:5) to `be somewhat tautologous'- he seems wrongly to have assumed that oco4povf(w and not oco4povfw was the verbal form of oc.4 povaS and went on to render 2:4: `that they may school the young women to be ... '.69 Ellicott also cited Philo, who used the verb `to admonish' (vouOrif at) alongside 6co4povf1co, although the former does not appear in Titus 2:4 or anywhere else in the letter.70
Philo as a first-century witness provides a good starting point. A careful examination of his evidence provides a number of helpful examples of 6w4povil;w that cannot be translated `I admonish' because the verb vouOr ri at appears alongside 6w4povil;w, and therefore the latter
is rightly rendered as `I recall a person to their senses'. It therefore has its own distinctive meaning over against the former verb, which indicates admonition. Philo makes mention of the need `to admonish (vouOrTf a1) those who could not otherwise "be brought to their senses" (6C4povI r Oat)', 53.1 if ill-disciplined slaves `cannot be brought to their senses and to wisdom by truth, they need to be brought to heel by fear'. `The law imposes ... an admonition and correction (vouOriri Kal ow4povi(t) leading a person to improve his ways', i.e., to move back on the correct path. Philo speaks of shepherding by means of `admonition' (vouOszwv) and `correcting' irrational powers. He notes elsewhere that fighting does not necessarily `admonish' (vouOszwv) or `bring people back to their senses' (ow~povi(wv). Well-qualified teachers engage in the admonition and correction of those capable of receiving them. Elsewhere the fear of the sovereign has the force of correction to admonish the subject (&v&yxf ow4povt(otkn1 vouOririiat), whereas a father's kindness has no such fear for a child. Philo's use of this word with the two other terms throws further light on its distinctive meaning to draw the person back to the appropriate way -'reproving, admonishing and bringing them to their senses' (~1rtztµwv, vouOszwv, 6w4povi(wv). So even the idea of chastening as a rendering of the verb used in Titus 2:4 should be called into question.71
Philo also uses the verb 6w4povflw by itself. He noted that people flocked to Flaccus, who had been relegated, whenever he disembarked from his ship. Some came out of malice but the rest `to find lessons of wisdom in the fate of others [so as] to be brought to their senses (oco4povf(s66at)'. The punish ment of others often admonishes the offenders and recalls them to wisdom. He even goes so far as to argue that in times of pestilence it is well that some of the guiltless should perish as a lesson that jolts all back to a wiser life (oco4povi(covzat). It is the work of justice and the power of the law to bring men and women to their senses, according to Philo, as `a father brings his son to his sense (oco4povi(cov) by way of a beating'. The aim of a ruler is to instil fear in his presence so that `those who have no ears for reproof to come back to their senses (oco4povi(ovzat) are controlled by fear'.72
An important conclusion can be made on the use of the verb ow4povilw in Philo's corpus. In all these instances the intention was either to bring a city, its inhabitants, sons and daughters or subjects back to their senses through persuasion, or for them to learn lessons through adverse circumstances. A clear distinction is to be drawn between `reproof and admonition' and redirecting by the powers of persuasion a person back to the path from which he or she should not have deviated.73 The other verb `to admonish' or `chasten' (vouOETf at) is used on occasions where a sharp correction is undertaken, but owo povi(co is used with the hope of bringing about a return to an appropriate or a former way of operating. The fundamental meaning of the latter verb then is `to recover one's senses' with respect to a particular matter or a course of action.
Philo wrote in the late Julio-Claudian era, and his use of this verb is confirmed in other literary sources at both the beginning and the end of the first century. The late Republican and early Empire writer, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, when discussing a siege recorded `that those in the city neither showed gratitude nor were they brought to their senses by their misfortunes'. 74
Dio Chrysostom at the end of the first century observed that severe and insuperable hardships help to bring men who are `gluttonous' and `follystricken' to their senses. In the rapidly changing alliances in Greece between Athens and Sparta, the inhabitants of the latter were called back to their senses, realising that nothing was more important to them than law and order whereby that city achieved its greatest prosperity.75 A great city is one in which someone who
admonishes with kindly intent is more beloved than he who speaks to flatter, [and] in which the masses are more eager to be called back to their senses and to be restored (ow4povi(c66at xai rravopOooaft), than to be courted and live luxuriously, Or. 51.5.
His contemporary, Josephus, also used the term `to bring his city to reason'.76 Strabo challenged men to gentleness, calling them back (~aw4p6vt(s) to do certain things and forbidding them to do others.77
In the light of the above evidence it can be concluded that this key verb has not been correctly rendered in Titus 2:4, and its important role in the clause has not been fully appreciated. However, the general interpretation has become fixed - that the older women were simply to teach and/or to model a lifestyle or encourage. The intention was more than to seek `to inculcate Christian values' or to teach women how to live as married women.78 The idea of `chastening' does not capture the significance of what is being said, but good teachers bringing their charges back to their senses does.
The purpose of older married women undertaking this task with younger married women is for the recovering of what were seen as important perspectives on Christian marriage. The first focus of calling younger wives to their senses is their immediate family. They are `to be lovers of their husbands and their children' (4t1,&vbpous dual Kal 4t1,oTEKvous). These are qualities also recorded in epigraphic evidence of the good wife.
Julius Bassus to Otacilia Polla, his sweetest wife, the lover of her husband and her children (rtj yXuxuz&zq yuvawl 4iX60pw xai ~taoTftvw), she lived with him unblamably (&pep7Trwc) for thirty years.79
On the tombstone of Pompeia Chia who died at twenty years was carved -'I hope that my daughter will live chastely and learn by my example to love her husband'.80
Younger wives were also to live a life marked by `self-control' (Ge 4 povac), which follows the requirement to love husbands and children. The embracing of this virtue was a primary concern for the women in the philosophical schools. Others with educative concerns were committed to instilling this one cardinal virtue that epitomised the modest wife. Among other things it covered sexual conduct in the context of relationships with the opposite gender. Its antonym, `self-indulgence', related to inappropriate and unrestrained sexual behaviour that accompanied extravagant lifestyle.
To this was added the term `pure' (&yv&S), the life to which younger wives were to be recalled (2:5; cf. 1:15 where the synonym for `pure' [KaOapbs] was used). The Latin language bears witness to the vast vocabulary of sexual terminology with foreign loan words for conduct of a particular sexual nature of which society did not approve. In addition there were a large number of seemingly ordinary terms that, when used in the semantic field of sexuality, epitomised a society where sexual innuendoes abounded in conversation.81 Clearly, the call to purity on the part of younger wives touched this area of life which was marked not only by an infusion of sexual allusions into everyday terms be they in Greek or Latin, but also by impure sexual conduct.
Strabo who wrote parts of his Geography in the reign of Tiberius visited Crete and recorded a marriage convention peculiar to that island. Husbands `did not take their girls whom they married to their own homes immediately, but as soon as the girls were qualified to manage the affairs of the house' (aXX' s~Tav >jbq btotxsiv ixaval cxn TO( TCSpI Tour oIKovs).82 This fits well with Titus 2:5. Young wives who had not been instructed in the management of their households are called to undertake that for which they were deemed qualified before they ventured into the marriage home. This further suggests that in Crete there was now an option of an alternative lifestyle for young married women - that which was promoted by the `new' Roman women.
The young wife was to focus on the management of her household - she was to `work at home' (oiKovpyo6s).83 Tacitus looked back to the `good old days' when -
every child born to a respectable mother was brought up not in the room of a hired wet-nurse but at his mother's knee. A mother could have no higher praise than that she managed her house and gave herself to her children.... With piety and modesty she regulated not only the serious tasks of her youthful charges, but supervised not only the boys' studies but also their recreation and games.84
He went on to relate a different situation which existed in the time when he lived.
... our children are handed over a
t birth to some silly little Greek servant maid.... The parents themselves make no effort to train their little ones in goodness and self-control; they grow up in an atmosphere of laxity ... they come to lose all sense of shame, and all respect both for themselves and for other people.85
A moving inscription asks the reader to simply ponder the virtues of his wife including the fact that she kept house.
Friend, I have not much to say; stop and read. This tomb, which is not fair, is for a fair woman. Her parents gave her the name of Claudia. She loved her husband in her heart. She bore two sons, one of whom she left on earth, the other beneath it. She was pleasant to talk with, and she walked with grace (sermone lepido, tum autem incessu commodo). She kept the house and worked in wool (domum servavit, lanam fecit). That is all. You may go.86
A physician from Pergamum whose wife was named Pantheia and who lived in the second century A.D. recorded that she was not only the mother of his children and had cared for him and them but she also `took the helm and steered the household's course and heightened the fame it had in the healing art'.87 This reflects something of the complexities and diverse responsibilities, as well as the opportunities, in running the household.
The call is also to be `kind' (ayaOas) in her treatment of others, presumably to those who live in the household. This would encompass others beyond the confines of her family and include any of her household servants.
Roman Wives, Roman Widows Page 17