From Titus and Timothy themselves we pass naturally to the officers of the Ecclesiae of which they were set for a time in charge.

In Crete, as we saw before, there were apparently no Elders previously; and the duty most definitely named as laid on Titus was to set (or establish or appoint) Elders in the several cities. The verb καθίστημι is used in Acts vi. 3 for the Apostles setting or appointing the Seven over the business of attending to the widows of the Greek speaking part of the community at Jerusalem: it is a word implying an exercise of authority, but has no technical force. In 1 and 2 Timothy it is not used, nor any other word approximately similar in sense.

The qualifications of an Elder in Crete

The first qualifications mentioned (Titus i. 5—9) are not capacities but, so to speak, primary moral conditions affecting men's personal or family relations, “if a man is under no charge or accusation (άνέγκλητος, probably not ‘blameless’ but ‘unblamed’), the husband of one wife, having children that believe (i.e. Christian), who are not accused of riotous living, or, unruly.