1 Timothy 5:4

children or nephews Rather, grandchildren, -nephews" no longer having this meaning as in the time of Jeremy Taylor, who says, -If naturalists say true, that nephews are often liker to their grandfathers than to their fathers."

to shew piety The deeper meaning given to this word above, 1 Timothy 2:2; 1 Timothy 3:8, &c., is not lost here, though it be practicalgodliness. Our Lord's own teaching on this very subject, Matthew 15:3-6, is just this word, -writ large."

to shew piety at home More accurately towards their own house. If it is a little strained to speak of the children learning to shew piety towards their own house when the care of parents or grandparents is meant, it is much more strained to speak of aged widows requiting their parents by the care of their own children or grandchildren. -Let the children learn," then it should run. In answer to Bp Wordsworth's objections to this, notice (1) that the Apostle's whole subject is Christian duty towardswidows, (2) that the repetition in 1 Timothy 5:16 is only in keeping with other repetitions of the passage, (3) that the word -learn" here has a clause dependent upon it and so differs in sense from 1 Timothy 5:13; 1 Timothy 2:11, and 2 Timothy 3:7, where it is absolute. The plural verb is used, although the subject to be supplied is in the neuter, according to the common N.T. use in the case of persons: e.g. Matthew 10:21, -children shall rise up." So the plural verb should be read, 2 Timothy 4:17, -that all the Gentiles might hear." Winer, § 58, 3.

to requitetheir parents Lit., -to give due returns to their forbears," using the old Scotch word, which, as Fairbairn says, exactly corresponds in its including parents and grandparents.

For the phrase -to give due returns" which only occurs in N. T. here but is thoroughly classical, cf. Eur. Or. 467, where Orestes speaks of Tyndareus -who reared me, kissed me, carried me about," and then of -the base returns that I requited him" in slaying his reputed daughter Clytemnestra.

good and acceptable With R.V. following ms. authority, we should read acceptable alone; the addition has been made from 1 Timothy 2:3.