source—which is precisely what Paul is doing here. “One of Crete’s own prophets”—the philosopher Epimenides—thinks this of his countrymen. In the Greek language, “Cretan” became a by-word for dishonesty: “to Crete” was to lie. The phrase translated “evil brutes” is literally “dangerous animals”. Crete was famous for having no dangerous animals, but the saying was that the human inhabitants more than made up for this lack of wildlife! Christians are repeatedly described in the Bible as sheep, with