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.
Paul says he left Titus in Crete “set in order the things that are wanting” (1:5 KJV). Although there is no biblical evidence of Paul making a missionary visit to Crete, some scholars believe Paul may have started a church there while he was first imprisoned there. Either way, the church in Crete had not been organized to Paul’s satisfaction, requiring Titus to stay on the island.
Archaeologically, the island of Crete is a treasure trove. Evidence has been uncovered that Crete has been continually inhabited since at least the Neolithic Period (c.a. 9000 B.C.). The Monoans, once considered to be mythical, are now known to be one of the oldest civilizations.
As far as the New Testament period, the Cretan capital during the Roman period, Gortys (also known as Gortyn or Gortyna), has revealed a prosperous city with baths, an odeon, a praetorium and a temple dedicated to Apollo. Some estimate its population during the Roman Period was as many as 100,000. So far the earliest evidence of Christianity on the island dates from the sixth century, in the form of the ruins of several churches and basilicas, including the ruins of the Church of St. Titus which commemorates the traditional home of Titus.