Titus 3:2

The Bias of Passivity

In classical and early Hellenistic literature, ἄμαχος is overwhelmingly in the “invincible, irresistible, impregnable” camp.

The passive, peaceable sense (“non-fighting, not contentious”) is rare and emerges primarily in later, moralistic contexts — namely in the traditional Christian usage.

Earlier literature (Homeric age → 4th c. BCE)

• Herodotus (1.84; 5.3): “impregnable city,” “invincible man.”

• Aeschylus (Pers. 856, 90): “irresistible grief,” “irresistible wave.”

• Pindar (Olymp. 13.13; Pyth. 2.76): “impossible to defeat,” “irresistible evil.”

• Xenophon (Cyrop. 6.1.36): “irresistible beauty.”

Meaning here: Beyond defeat or resistance, whether literal (military) or metaphorical.

Later Hellenistic / Roman imperial usage

• Aelian (Var. Hist. 1.1; NA 16.23): same “irresistible” sense, applied to animals and nature.

• Plutarch (QConv. 2.667d): “irresistible charm.”

Still dominant: the “unconquerable” metaphor.

What happened?

Primary meanings of words were castrated, truncated, flattened.

• Idiomatic Extended Meanings NT translations:

  • 1 Tim 3:3 — ἐπιεικῆ, ἄμαχον, ἀφιλάργυρον → “gentle, not quarrelsome”

  • Titus 3:2 — μηδένα βλασφημεῖν, ἀμάχους εἶναι → “speak evil of no one, be peaceable.”

Here it was reinterpreted in a behavioral, ethical frame, closer to “avoiding disputes” than “invincible.”

The original, concrete sense of ἄμαχος is “without battle” → “with whom no one fights” → “invincible, unconquerable, irresistible.”
This is the dominant meaning in classical Greek, historiography, poetry, and military contexts from Herodotus through the Hellenistic period.

The later, moralized sense “peaceable, not quarrelsome” is a secondary idiomatic development. This usage in the NT is particularly potent as the word is directly applied to men. The sense is found on a civic inscription (e.g., Inscr. Cos 325) but anywhere else in Greek literature such a sense is never applied to men. It is used overwhelmingly in the active/military or metaphorical irresistible sense (e.g., “invincible army,” “irresistible beauty,” “unassailable fortress”).

• When applied to persons, it meant “unconquerable”, not “peaceable.”

• When used morally, it still kept a sense of strength (“not overcome by…”) rather than a passive temperament.