SIL Translator's Notes on Titus 3:10

3:10a

Reject a divisive man: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Reject means “keep/stay away from.” This need not refer to a formal process of excluding the person from the church (excommunication).

Here are some other ways to translate this phrase:

break off contact with a heretic (New American Bible)
-or-
have nothing more to do with anyone who causes divisions (New Revised Standard Version)
-or-
do not be involved with divisive people any more
-or-
turn away from a divisive person

a divisive man: A divisive man is someone who likes to argue a lot and encourages other people to argue and break relationships with those who disagree. Paul was not talking about a specific person. He wanted Titus to warn any and all people who caused divisions in the church. So in some languages it may be natural to use a plural form. For example:

Reject people who cause divisions among you

3:10b

after a first and second admonition: Paul told Titus that he should warn these people twice before taking stronger action. If the person did not change the way he was behaving after Titus had warned the person a second time, Titus must “reject” the person.

Here are some other ways to translate this clause:

Warn him once and then warn him again.
-or-
Tell them once and if they do not stop tell them again.

© 2000 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.

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