Titus 1:14

14. Jewish fables Note, 1 Timothy 1:4.

Commandments It seems strange that commentators such as Wiesinger, Huther, and Alford should uniformly say that these commandments were ascetic in their character, when gluttony is one of the prominent traits of these slow bellies. Nor does asceticism appear to have any association with the Jewish fables, though it formed part of one side of Gnosticism, (note, 2 Thessalonians 2:7,) which is not the heresy here rebuked. Simon Magus, long before this time of St. Paul’s writing, had no difficulty in blending a licentious Gnosticism with the Judaism of Samaria, and imposing his commandments upon a herd of followers, founding his licentious system on the assumption of the essential evil of matter. Acts 8:9. Similarly, Nicolas, the deacon, (Acts 6:5,) and the Nicolaitans of Revelation 2:6, appear like licentious Jewish Gnostics. To the same class belonged the “filthy dreamers” of Jude 1:8. The commandments were the moral, or rather immoral, precepts of these men.