Charles Ellicott Commentary Titus 3:9

"but shun foolish questionings, and genealogies, and strifes, and fightings about law; for they are unprofitable and vain." — Titus 3:9 (ASV)

But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies.—The “questions” and “genealogies” have been discussed above (1 Timothy 1:4). The Apostle characterizes them as “foolish,” because they were of an utterly impractical nature and consumed time and energy that were needed for other and better things. The “contentions” were disputes and wranglings that arose from arguments advanced by different teachers about the “questions” and “genealogies.”

The “strivings about the law” were, most likely, arguments suggested by disputed and intricate points connected with the Law of Moses. In the Talmud we find countless instances of all these strange and curious inquiries about which people then seriously disputed and wrangled, but none of which could in any way teach people how to make life more beautiful and loving, more like that beautiful pattern that St. Paul’s Master loved. St. Paul, well versed—thanks to his early and thorough training—in all this useless, curious learning, sought once and for all to expel from orthodox Christian teaching everything that seemed to relate to this popular Jewish theology—so-called. It had, like a cancer, eaten the life out of Judaism; it should not, if he could prevent it, poison in the same way the young life of Christianity.