What Does Titus 1:5 Mean in the King James?
For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee:
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Greek repeats one root in “left I thee” and “things that are wanting”: what remains unfinished is what has been left in your care to set straight.
THE MEANING
The work entrusted to you has a concrete shape: straighten what remains unfinished and establish elders in every city. The verse joins repair with steady, local leadership.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that unfinished work means the whole undertaking has failed dissolves here: the verse names what remains as a specific part that can be set straight.
THE ROOT
ἀπέλιπον
apélipon
GROWS FROM
λείπω
leípō
To leave behind; to be absent or lacking.
“left / wanting” in this verse is apélipon. One stem runs through both actions: Titus is left in Crete, and the remaining things are named with the same λείπω family. The verse folds responsibility and deficiency together: what is still absent is the work entrusted to be completed.
ALSO GROWS
apélipon: I left behind
ἀπέλιπον
This names the act of leaving Titus in Crete, linking the assignment to what has been entrusted to him.
leíponta: Things remaining; things lacking
λείποντα
These are the unfinished things to be set straight, so the same root connects what was left with what remains to be done.
ἐπιδιορθώσῃ
epidiorthōsē
GROWS FROM
ὀρθός
orthós
Straight; upright.
The verb translated “set in order” carries the image of straightening what remains. This family also pictures straightness in a walk and in rightly handling a word, giving the repair a line of integrity.
ALSO GROWS
orthopodeō: Walk uprightly; walk straight
ὀρθοποδέω
Galatians uses this word family for a way of walking that stays straight; here, the unfinished work is likewise brought into alignment.
orthotomeō: Cut straight; rightly divide
ὀρθοτομέω
Second Timothy uses this family for rightly handling the word, extending the image of straightness into faithful work.
THE PATTERN
What remains unfinished is brought into order through trusted leadership placed where the community lives.
Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens:And when they had ordained them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed.Let all things be done decently and in order.THE THREAD
But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.The word behind “wanting” shares the λείπω (leípō), “leave behind; be lacking,” root with the things still lacking in Titus. Together, the verses connect what remains unfinished with the possibility of becoming whole, wanting nothing.
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