Texts in conversation

Compare Epimenides, Cretica 1 and Titus 1:12

Classical · New Testament

Summary

Titus quotes the poet Callimachus’s Hymn to Zeus, which is itself quoting the poet Epimenides, which mocks the Cretans for claiming to have built a tomb for an immortal god. In its original setting, it ridiculed local myths about Zeus’s birth and death.

Passages

Epimenides, Cretica 1

Classical

They fashioned a tomb for you, holy and high one, Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies. But you are not dead: you live and abide forever, For in you we live and move and have our being.

700–600 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Epimenides, Cretica

Titus 1:12

New Testament

10 For there are many rebellious people, idle talkers, and deceivers, especially those with Jewish connections, 11 who must be silenced because they mislead whole families by teaching for dishonest gain what ought not to be taught. 12 A certain one of them, in fact, one of their own prophets, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 Such testimony is true. For this reason rebuke them sharply that they may be healthy in the faith 14 and not pay attention to Jewish myths and commands of people who reject the truth. 15 All is pure to those who are pure. But to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and consciences are corrupted.

90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Titus

References

"... Epimenides is regarded the author of the well-known verse «Cretans are ever liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies». It appeared for the first time, in Callimachus' Hymn to Zeus, and later, in the Christian era, Paul the Apostle mentioned it in his epistle to Titus. This verse has become controversial because of questions relating to its origin and/or its context, and because of the relation between its supposed author and the bad reputation of the Cretans ... his reputation of the Cretans seems to have been created out of caprice by ancient non-Cretans who sought for various reasons to vilify the inhabitants of Minos' island. An historian of Crete illustrates the case: Callimachus of Cyrene called the Cretans liars because they presented Zeus as mortal. To the Athenians they were liars for claiming the birth of the gods on the island of Crete. The Romans and the Romanizing Greek writers remained hostile towards the Cretans due to the latter's resistance to Roman imperialism. Regarding Paul the Apostle, he was referring only to the Jews of Crete in his epistle to Titus, as Strategakis explains clearly ..."

Anna Strataridaki, Epimenides of Crete: Some Notes on His Life, Works, and the Verse (University of Crete, 1991), 1–17.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Compare Epimenides, Cretica 1 and Titus 1:12

Summary

Passages

Epimenides, Cretica 1

Titus 1:12

References

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