Bad Theology

Text for today: Titus 3 ix

A forger writing in the guise of Paul the Apostle sends instructions to his subordinate in Crete. As befits one secure in the truth, the forger proclaims his own honesty and the deceitfulness of non-Christians at every opportunity. He orders his dupe not to argue over genealogies or the law, and he also does not miss the chance to slip in some racial slurs; inevitably against the evil conspiracy of the circumcised, but also against the Cretans, who are paradoxically denounced as beastly gluttonous liars even by their own prophets.

Much concerned with spreading his own doctrine (to the extent of "stopping the mouths" of the Jews, doubtless by the usual peaceful means), the forger indicates his agreement with Matthew 5 xvi, where the Saviour exhorts His disciples to publicise their own good works. However, the forger is careful to emphasise that such works are to be undertaken purely for the purpose of worldly politics and make no difference to God: souls are saved only at the eternal whim of the Father, who chose the elect and damned the rest before the beginning of time, according to His inexorable will.

This perspective indicates how the forger can so casually shrug off the importance of genealogies and the law. In dismissing such matters as unimportant, he fortifies his doctrine against accusations of novelty (a highly suspicious attribute in the ancient world) and illegality, at the evidently trivial cost of dismissing Matthew 1 i-xvii, Matthew 3 xvii, Mark 1 xi, Luke 1 xxxii and John 1 xxxii, all of which attest to the Saviour's genealogical or adoptive (viz. legalistic) godly credentials. Only the most self-complacent sense of his own entitlement can explain the forger's calm effrontery in implying that all four evangelists commenced their gospels with what is unprofitable, worthless and foolish.