What Does Titus 1:7 Mean in the King James?
For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre;
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 overseer is a steward of God’s household, so the verse measures authority by whether the caretaker serves the trust or his own impulses.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks now wherever spiritual responsibility is held: the role is a trust belonging to God. Self-will, anger, wine, violence, and shameful gain are rival masters that compromise the care entrusted to the overseer. The character of the person and the nature of the trust cannot be separated.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a sacred office makes a leader’s private volatility or self-interest inconsequential; those traits matter precisely because the office is a trust.
THE ROOT
οἰκονόμον
oikonomon
GROWS FROM
οἶκος + νέμω (oikos + nemō)
Household + manage or apportion: one entrusted to administer a household.
The word presents the steward as a manager, not the owner. In this verse, “of God” identifies whose household the overseer tends, making self-control part of faithful care.
ALSO GROWS
oikonomia: administration, stewardship
οἰκονομία
The same word family names the work of managing what has been entrusted.
oikonomeō: manage as a steward
οἰκονομέω
This verb makes the role active: stewardship means carrying out the entrusted management.
αὐθάδη
authadē
GROWS FROM
αὐθαδ-
authad-
A self-willed, self-pleasing disposition.
“selfwilled” in this verse is authadē. The word points to a person whose own preference becomes the deciding authority. Beside “steward of God,” it exposes the tension between serving a trust and treating oneself as its center.
ALSO GROWS
authadēs: self-willed, headstrong
αὐθάδης
This is the adjective in its base form, describing a person governed by self-will.
authadeia: self-will, arrogance
αὐθάδεια
The related noun names the disposition that clashes with a steward’s accountability.
ὀργίλον
orgilon
GROWS FROM
ὀργ-
org-
The Greek word family for anger and irascibility.
“soon angry” in this verse is orgilon. The adjective describes a disposition prone to anger, reaching beyond one flare-up to a temper that can govern a person. The verse places that disposition among the forces a steward cannot let rule the care entrusted to him.
ALSO GROWS
orgē: anger
ὀργή
The noun names the anger that the adjective describes as a recurring disposition.
orgizomai: become angry
ὀργίζομαι
The verb shows the same word family in the act of anger arising.
THE PATTERN
Entrusted authority is measured by faithfulness in handling what belongs to another.
And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had he put into his hand.Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.THE THREAD
Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful.The word translated “stewards” is οἰκονόμοι (oikonomoi), meaning stewards, from the same word family as οἰκονόμον (oikonomon) in Titus 1:7. This shared root makes the qualification clear: the overseer handles what belongs to God, and faithfulness is the measure of that trust.
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