Passage

Titus 2.1

Book: Titus · ASV / WEB / KJV / YLT

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. But speak thou the things which befit the sound doctrine:

that aged men be temperate, grave, sober-minded, sound in faith, in love, in patience: 3. that aged women likewise be reverent in demeanor, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good; (Titus 2:1-3, ASV)

WEB

1. But say the things which fit sound doctrine,

that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance: 3. and that older women likewise be reverent in behavior, not slanderers nor enslaved to much wine, teachers of that which is good; (Titus 2:1-3, WEB)

KJV

1. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:

That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. ^{sober: or, vigilant} 3. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; ^{holiness: or, holy women} ^{false: or, one who foments strife} (Titus 2:1-3, KJV)

YLT

1. And thou, be speaking what doth become the sound teaching;

aged men to be temperate, grave, sober, sound in the faith, in the love, in the endurance; 3. aged women, in like manner, in deportment as doth become sacred persons, not false accusers, to much wine not enslaved, of good things teachers, (Titus 2:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul, who names himself "a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ" in the opening verse. The phrase doulos theou, servant of God, is unusual for him; he normally writes servant of Christ.
Audience: Titus, a Gentile co-worker whom Paul had declined to have circumcised (Galatians 2:1-3), addressed as "my true child after a common faith."
Location: Written to Titus on Crete, where Paul had left him "that thou shouldest set in order the things that were wanting, and appoint elders in every city." Paul's own location is not stated; he mentions only an intention to winter at Nicopolis (Titus 3:12).
Time period: Traditionally dated to about AD 62 to 66, after a first Roman imprisonment. Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles is disputed in critical scholarship, on vocabulary and church-order grounds; the letter presents itself as Paul's.

Theological reading

The adversative is doing the work: "But speak thou," in direct contrast to the false teachers just described in 1:10 to 16. Titus's counter to them is not primarily refutation but the positive setting out of ta preponta tē hygiainousē didaskalia, the things that befit sound doctrine. Hygiainō is the medical word for being healthy, and the letter uses it repeatedly; doctrine is treated as health, and the chapter that follows describes what a healthy household looks like rather than arguing propositions.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

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Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.