1 Timothy 5:13

ἅμα δὲ καί, introducing the second reason for the exclusion of young women from the order of ‘widows.’

ἀργαὶ μανθάνουσιν κ.τ.λ. The translation is doubtful. We may construe (a) being idle, they pick up information, as they go about from house to house &c.; or, ‘in idleness, they are always learning,’ but nothing comes of it. This would be comparable to the γυναικάρια … πάντοτε μανθάνοντα of 2 Timothy 3:6-7. But (i.) this is to take μανθάνειν in a somewhat forced way, and (ii.) the antithesis in the next clause is spoilt, οὐ μόνον δὲ�.τ.λ. It is better to render with the A.V. and R.V., (b) they learn to be idle, going about from house to house, sc. in the discharge of their allotted ministrations. Their want of sobriety and steadiness may lead them to use their opportunities of usefulness as an excuse for idleness and gossip. This construction of μανθάνειν is not without parallel, although unusual; e.g. Field cites Chrys. IX. 259 B εἰ ἰατρὸς μέλλοις μανθάνειν.

ἀργός is not found in St Paul save here and at Titus 1:12 (in a quotation), but it is a LXX. word.

οὐ μόνον δὲ … ἀλλὰ καί.… This is a regular Pauline construction; cf. 2 Corinthians 7:7.

φλύαροι, garrulous, tattlers. We have φλυαρεῖν in 3 John 1:10, but φλύαρος (once in LXX. at 4Ma 5:10) does not occur elsewhere in the N.T.

περίεργοι, busybodies. Cf. 2 Thessalonians 3:11 μηδὲν ἑργαζομένους�. For περίεργος (which is not a LXX. word, and is not used elsewhere in St Paul) cp. Acts 19:19.

λαλοῦσαι τὰ μὴ δέοντα, speaking things which they ought not. That is, they are likely to make mischief, carrying from house to house private matters which have come to their knowledge in the course of their official visits.