Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Titus 1:12

"One of themselves, a prophet of their own, said, Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons." — Titus 1:12 (ASV)

These Cretan false teachers were all the more dangerous because of the known nature of the people on whom they preyed. As evidence, Paul quotes a line from Epimenides (a 6th-5th century B. C. Cretan poet and religious reformer). This man had intimate knowledge of his own people and was esteemed by them as a “prophet.” Paul was willing to accept this evaluation in order to underline the authority of his own judgment. The quotation establishes the picture without exposing Paul to the charge of being anti-Cretan. It put the Cretans on the horns of a dilemma. They must either admit the truthfulness of his verdict concerning them or deny the charge and brand their own prophet a liar. The triple charge that “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons” is supported by other writers. So notorious was their reputation for falsehood that the Greek word kretizo (“to Crete-ize”) meant “to lie.” “Evil brutes” stigmatizes them as having sunk to the level of beasts, unrestrained in their brutality. “Lazy gluttons” underlines their greed as idle sensualists who desired to be filled without exerting personal effort to earn an honest living.