Do You Know Where Your Children Are?
Or, what kind of children does an elder have?
Posted
Friday, January 26, 2007
by
Charlie Trimm
Categories:
New Testament
I've been looking recently at the qualifications for an elder in Titus 1:6 and the qualification about children of elders. The debate on this clause flows around whether the word pistos should be translated "faithful" or "believing." Are the kids of elders required to be belivers? I was wondering if anyone had an opinion about this and why they lean the way they do. Here is the evidence.
1. Faithful. The term pistos can have a passive sense, such as in 2 Timothy 2:2. The context leans toward this view, since the next clause seems to describe what faithful is: not accused of dissipation or rebellion. The parallel with 1 Timothy 3:4 is also instructive, as there it says that elders must keep their children under control.
2. Believing. The term could have an active sense, such as in 1 Timothy 6:2. If it was passive, we would expect a term that describes to what they were faithful (faithful to parents? to God?). Further, when the passive sense is used, it refers to believers. Therefore, the children could not truly be faithful without also being believers. Unbelievers are never called faithful, according to this line of evidence.
So which lines of evidence seem compelling? Which seem weak? Are there some that I have missed?
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