Titus 2:14
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and might cleanse to himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- qui dedit semetipsum pro nobis, ut nos redimeret ab omni iniquitate, et mundaret sibi populum acceptabilem, sectatorem bonorum operum.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- ὃς ἔδωκεν ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἵνα λυτρώσηται ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ πάσης ἀνομίας καὶ καθαρίσῃ ἑαυτῷ λαὸν περιούσιον, ζηλωτὴν καλῶν ἔργων.
Haydock's commentary
A people, particularly acceptable.6 St. Jerome translates an egregious or eminent people. He says in the Septuagint it corresponds to segula, which signifies a man's proper possessions, which he has purchased or chosen for himself. Budeus says it signifies what is rare and uncommon; and it is well translated by the Protestants, a particular people. (Witham)
6 Acceptabilem, periousion a perieimi. St. Jerome says, Egregium, præcipuum. See Deuteronomy vii. 6.; Exodus xix. 5.; Psalm cxxxiv. 4., Israel in possessionem sibi. See also St. Chrysostom, log. i. p. 402. linea 4tâ.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Ignatius of Antioch Epistle to the Philadelphians: Shorter, Chapter IV. Have but one Eucharist,
I have confidence of you in the Lord, that ye will be of no other mind. Wherefore I write boldly to your love, which is worthy of God, and exhort you to have but one faith, and one [kind of] preaching, and one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ; and His blood which was shed for us is one; one loaf also is broken to all [the communicants], and one cup is distributed among them all: there is but one altar for the whole Church, and one bishop, with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants. …
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter XVIII. He Illustrates the Apostle’s Saying, “I Will Destroy the Wisdom of the Wise.”
And of such it is said, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise: I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” The apostle accordingly adds, “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world?” setting in contradistinction to the scribes, the disputers of this world, the philosophers of the Gentiles. “Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” which is equivalent to, showed it to be foolish, and not true, as they thought. And if you ask the cause of their seeming wisdom, he will say, “because of the blindness of their heart;” since “in the wisdom of God,” that is, as proclaimed by the prophets, “the world knew not,” in the wisdom “which spake by the prophets,” “Him,” that is, God, “it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching”, what seemed to the Greeks foolishness, “to save them that believe. …
St Augustine A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants, From the Epistle to Titus
Then again he writes to Titus as follows: “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” And to the like effect in another passage: “But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that, being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
St John Chrysostom The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians, Galatians 2:1,2
How is this, O Paul! why dost thou appropriate a general benefit, and make thine own what was done for the whole world’s sake? for he says not, “Who loved us,” but, “Who loved me.” And besides the Evangelist says, “God so loved the world;” ( John iii. 16 .) and Paul himself, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up,” not for Paul only, but, “for us all;” ( Rom. viii. 32 .) and again, “that He might purify unto himself a people for his own possession,” ( Tit. ii. 14 .) But considering the desperate condition of human nature, and the ineffably tender solicitude of Christ, in what He delivered us from, and what He freely gave us, and kindled by the yearning of affection towards Him, he thus expresses himself. Thus the Prophets often appropriate to themselves Him who is God of all, as in the words, “O God, thou art my God, early will I seek Thee.” ( Psalm lxiii. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, Titus 2:11-14
Titus ii. 11-14 “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, Teaching them that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” Having demanded from servants so great virtue, for it is great virtue to adorn the doctrine of our God and Saviour in all things, and charged them to give no occasion of offense to their masters, even in common matters, he adds the just cause, why servants should be such: “For the grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared.” Those who have God for their Teacher, may well be such as I have described, seeing their numberless sin …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, Titus 2:11-14
Ver. 14 . “Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people.” “Peculiar”: that is, selected from the rest, and having nothing in common with them. “Zealous of good works.” Dost thou see that our part is necessary, not merely works, but “zealous”; we should with all alacrity, with a becoming earnestness, go forward in virtue. For when we were weighed down with evils, and incurably diseased, it was of His lovingkindness that we were delivered. But what follows after this is our part as well as His.
St Athanasius Letters of Athanasius with Two Ancient Chronicles of His Life, To Adelphius, Bishop and Confessor: against the Arians
6. Such then, as we have above described, is the madness and daring of those men. But our faith is right, and starts from the teaching of the Apostles and tradition of the fathers, being confirmed both by the New Testament and the Old. For the Prophets say: ‘Send out Thy Word and Thy Truth,’ and ‘Behold the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted God with us.’ But what does that mean, if not that God has come in the Flesh? While the Apostolic tradition teaches in the words of blessed Peter, ‘Forasmuch then as Christ suffered for us in the Flesh;’ and in what Paul writes, ‘Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own possession, and zealous of good works.’ How then has He giv …
St Gregory Nazianzen In Defence of His Flight to Pontus, and His Return, After His Ordination to the Priesthood, with an Exposition of the Character of the Priestly Office
53. I say nothing of his labours, his watchings, his sufferings in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, his assailants from without, his adversaries within. I pass over the persecutions, councils, prisons, bonds, accusers, tribunals, the daily and hourly deaths, the basket, the stonings, beatings with rods, the travelling about, the perils by land and sea, the deep, the shipwrecks, the perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from his countrymen, perils among false brethren, the living by his own hands, the gospel without charge, the being a spectacle to both angels and men, set in the midst between God and men to champion His cause, and to unite them to Him, and make them His own peculiar people, beside those things that are without. …
St Gregory Nazianzen Funeral Oration on the Great S. Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia
72. Joseph was a provider of corn, but in Egypt only, and not frequently, and of bodily food. Basil did so for all men, and at all times, and in spiritual food, and therefore, in my opinion, his was the more honourable function. Like Job, the man of Uz, he was both tempted, and overcame, and at the close of his struggles gained splendid honour, having been shaken by none of his many assailants, and having gained a decisive victory over the efforts of the tempter, and put to silence the unreason of his friends, who knew not the mysterious character of his affliction. “Moses and Aaron among His priests.” Truly was Moses great, who inflicted the plagues upon Egypt, and delivered the people among many signs and wonders, and entered within the cloud, and sanctioned the double law, outward in the letter, and inward in the Spirit. …