The Greek word in Titus 3:10 is
hairetikos, and as you can see below it literally means a schismatic (one who causes divisions), but biblically it means one who follows (and therefore promotes) false doctrines.
Strong's Concordance
hairetikos: causing division
Original Word: αἱρετικός, ή, όν
Part of Speech: Adjective
Transliteration: hairetikos
Phonetic Spelling: (hahee-ret-ee-kos')
Definition: causing division
Usage: disposed to form sects, sectarian, heretical, factious.
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
STRONGS NT 141: αἱρετικός
αἱρετικός, (ή, (see αἱρέω);
2. schismatic, factious, a follower of false doctrine:Titus 3:10.
But we know from the second epistle of John that it is far more serious than that since false doctrines manifest the spirit of antichrist:
7 For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.
9 Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.
10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:
11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.
The doctrine of Christ is comprehensive, since it not only includes the deity of Christ and the triunity of the Godhead, but it includes all Gospel truth: And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. (1 Tim 3:16)
Therefore Paul says in Galatians 1 that even if an angel were to bring "another gospel" let him be anathema (accursed = damned).
In Against Heresies, Irenaeus states that the Church has a group of fundamental doctrines (as below), so those who attack or pervert these doctrines are heretics:
The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit, who proclaimed through the prophets the dispensations of God, and the advents, and the birth from a virgin, and the passion, and the resurrection from the dead, and the ascension into heaven in the flesh of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His [future] manifestation from heaven in the glory of the Father "to gather all things in one," and to raise up anew all flesh of the whole human race, in order that to Christ Jesus, our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King, according to the will of the invisible Father, "every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess" to Him, and that He should execute just judgment towards all; that He may send "spiritual wickednesses," and the angels who transgressed and became apostates, together with the ungodly, and unrighteous, and wicked, and profane among men, into everlasting fire; but may, in the exercise of His grace, confer immortality on the righteous, and holy, and those who have kept His commandments, and have persevered in His love, some from the beginning [of their Christian course], and others from [the date of] their repentance, and may surround them with everlasting glory.
Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies / Adversus Haereses, Book 1 (Roberts-Donaldson translation)
So the difference between heresy and false teaching is whether the fundamentals of the faith are under attack.
Enoch,
Do you read and understand NT Greek's grammar and syntax? Doing a copy and paste from these sources has not shown me (I have taught NT Greek) that you understand the meaning of
hairetikon in
Titus 3:10.
This word is from an old adjective, based on the noun
hairesis or the verb
haireomai, I choose. It could be the choosing of a party/sect (Acts 5:17) or choosing of a teaching (2 Pet 2:1). Since Titus was at Crete (Tit 1:5), Paul left him there 'for there are many rebellious people, full of empty talk and deception, especially those from the circumcision party' (1:8).
There are several meanings of the noun,
hairesis, in the NT: Sect, party, school of Sadducees (Ac 5:17), of Pharisees (Ac 15:5); dissension, a faction (1 Cor 11:19); destructive opinions (2 Pet 2:1) [Bauer, Arndt & Gingrich
Greek-English Lexicon1957:23].
BAG gives the meaning of
hairetikos in Titus 3:10 as 'factious, causing divisions, perhaps heretical' (1957:23).
The New International Dictionary of NT Theology (Kittel & Friedrich I:184) gives the meaning of
hairetikos as a more technical sense of 'adherent of a heresy', found in the NT at Titus 3:9ff. The early church fathers also used the word, including Irenaeus,
Against Heresies (3:3.4), The Didache (33:31; 118:33) and Polycarp.
Oz
