To Titus, my own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.
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George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
To Titus, my beloved, (in the Greek, my true and genuine son. Grace and peace. In the present ordinary Greek copies is added mercy, which the Protestant translators followed; but it is judiciously omitted by Dr. Wells, as not found in the best manuscripts nor in St. Chrysostom's Greek edition, nor in the ancient Greek and Latin Fathers. (Witham)
For in children by nature, the true and the spurious are determined by the father who begot and the mother who bore them. But it is not so in this case, but it depends on the disposition. For one who was a true son may become spurious, and a spurious son may become a true one. For it is not the force of nature but the power of choice on which it depends, whence it is subject to changes in time.
After Paul had called Titus his own son and assumed the dignity of a father, hear how it is that he lessens and lowers that honor. He adds, “After the common faith”—that means: with respect to the faith I have no advantage over you. It is common to us both. You and I were together born by it. Why then does he call him son? Either wishing to express his affection for him, or his priority in the gospel, or to show that Titus had been enlightened by him. In a similar way he calls the faithful both children and brothers. They are brothers because they were born by the same faith. They are children, because it was by his hands.
To Titus, my own son after the common faith.
What is after the common faith? After he had called him his own son, and assumed the dignity of a father, hear how it is that he lessens and lowers that honor. He adds, After the common faith; that is, with respect to the faith I have no advantage over you; for it is common, and both thou and I were born by it. Whence then does he call him his son? Either only wishing to express his affection for him, or his priority in the Gospel, or to show that Titus had been enlightened by him. On this account he calls the faithful both children and brethren; brethren, because they were born by the same faith; children, because it was by his hands. By mentioning the common faith, therefore, he intimates their brotherhood.
Grace and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Because he had called him his son, he adds, from God the Father, to elevate his mind by showing whose son he was, and by not only naming the common faith, ...
