Albert Barnes Commentary Titus 1:5

"For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city, as I gave thee charge;" — Titus 1:5 (ASV)

For this cause left I you in Crete. (Compare to 1 Timothy 1:3).

That you should set in order the things that are wanting. The marginal note says, left undone. The Greek means "the things that are left;" that is, those which were left unfinished. This doubtless refers to arrangements that had been started but which, for some reason, had been left incomplete.

Whether this occurred because he had been driven away by persecution, or called away by important duties demanding his attention elsewhere, cannot now be determined. The word translated "set in order"—epidiorywsh—occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It properly means to make straight upon, and then to put further to rights, to arrange further (Robinson, Lex.).

There were things left unfinished which he was to complete. One of these things, and perhaps the principal one, was to appoint elders in the various cities where the gospel had been preached.

And ordain. The word "ordain" has now acquired a technical signification which it cannot be shown that it has in the New Testament. In common usage, it means "to invest with a ministerial function or sacerdotal power; to introduce, establish, and settle in the pastoral office with the customary forms and solemnities" (Webster); and it may be added, always with the connected idea of the imposition of hands.

But the word used here does not necessarily convey this meaning or imply that Titus was to go through what would now be called an ordination service. It means to set, place, or constitute; then, to set over anything, as a steward or other officer (Luke 12:42; Acts 6:3), though without reference to any particular mode of investment with an office. See the word ordain, as explained in the notes on Acts 1:22 and Acts 14:23.

Titus was to appoint or set them over the churches, though with what ceremony is now unknown. There is no reason to suppose that he did this except as the result of the choice of the people. .

Elders. Greek, Presbyters. See the word explained in the notes on Acts 14:23.

These elders, or presbyters, were also called bishops (Compare to 1 Timothy 3:1), for Paul immediately, in describing their qualifications, calls them bishops—"ordain elders in every city—if any be blameless—FOR a bishop must be blameless," etc. If the elders and bishops in the times of the apostles were of different ranks, this direction would be wholly meaningless.

It would be the same as if the following directions were given to one who was authorized to appoint officers over an army: "Appoint captains over each company, who shall be of good character and acquainted with military tactics, for a brigadier-General must be of good character and acquainted with the rules of war." That the same rank is also denoted by the terms presbyter and bishop here is further apparent because the qualifications that Paul states as requisite for the "bishop" are not those which pertain to a prelate or a diocesan bishop, but to one who was a pastor of a church or an evangelist.

It is clear from Titus 1:7 that those whom Titus was to appoint were "bishops"; and yet it is absurd to suppose that the apostle meant prelatical bishops, for no one can believe that such bishops were to be appointed in "every city" of the island. According to all modern notions of Episcopacy, one such bishop would have been enough for such an island as Crete; indeed, it has been not unfrequently maintained that Titus himself was in fact the bishop of that diocese. But if these were not prelates who were to be ordained by Titus, then it is clear that the term "bishop" in the New Testament is given to the presbyters or elders; that is, to all ministers of the gospel. That usage should never have been departed from.

In every city. Crete was anciently celebrated for the number of its cities. In one passage, Homer ascribes to the island a hundred cities (Iliad 2:649); in another, ninety (Odyssey 19:174). It may be presumed that many of these cities were towns of no very considerable size, and yet it would seem probable that each one was large enough to have a church and to maintain the gospel. Paul, doubtless, expected that Titus would travel over the whole island and endeavor to introduce the gospel in every important place.

As I had appointed you. As I commanded you or gave you direction, dietaxamhn. This is a different word from the one used in the former part of the verse and translated ordain, kathistēmi. It does not mean that Titus was to ordain elders in the same manner as Paul had ordained him, but that he was to set them over the cities as he had directed him to do. He had, doubtless, given him oral instructions, when he left him, as to the way in which it was to be done.