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1Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s chosen ones and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, 2in hope of eternal life, which God, who can’t lie, promised before time began; 3but in his own time revealed his word in the message with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior, 4to Titus, my true child according to a common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior.

5I left you in Crete for this reason, that you would set in order the things that were lacking and appoint elders in every city, as I directed you— 6if anyone is blameless, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, who are not accused of loose or unruly behavior. 7For the overseer must be blameless, as God’s steward, not self-pleasing, not easily angered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for dishonest gain; 8but given to hospitality, a lover of good, sober minded, fair, holy, self-controlled, 9holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict those who contradict him.

10For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11whose mouths must be stopped: men who overthrow whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for dishonest gain’s sake. 12One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, and idle gluttons.” 13This testimony is true. For this cause, reprove them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14not paying attention to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 15To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16They profess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work.

Wine

Wine

Passage Study | Titus 1:7 | Hershel Wayne House

The "wine" spoken of in this passage is with little doubt fermented since the word is oinos (οἶνος), a translation of the Hebrew word yayin (יַ֜יִן). The word for "grape juice" (thus not fermented) is trux (τρύξ), a word not found in the New Testament. The limited use of grape juice may relate to the rapid fermentation of grape juice in the climate of Israel. It was common, however, to mix two to three parts water with wine in the first century, a practice that came from Greece with the Hellenizing influence that came from Alexander the Great's entrance into Semitic culture in the middle of the 4th century B.C. This was largely done in order to lessen the cost of wine rather than for sterilizing the water, which is sometimes posited as the reason.

You may read a more extensive study of wine in my article on wine at [H. Wayne House], "Wine," Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol 2, J-Z, Walter A. Elwell, Gen. Ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House), 2145-2148.