1 Timothy 5:13

Ver. 13. Other proofs are here given of their tendency in that direction, and such as would naturally grow by the comparative ease in which they might be enabled to live in consequence of the pecuniary support ministered to them by the church. Moreover, they learn also to be idle, going about from house to house. The connection seems plainly to require that the expression in the first clause, ἀργαὶ μανθάνουσιν, should be taken in the sense here ascribed to it; for it immediately follows, and not only to be idle, but tattlers also, etc., clearly implying that idleness had been predicated of them in what went before. The construction is certainly peculiar, but is merely, after all, as well stated by Winer ( Gr. § 45), “an abbreviated mode of expression, such as we sometimes find elsewhere with an adjective (Plato, Euthyd. 276, b, οἱ ἀμαθεῖς ἄρα σοφοὶ μανθάνουσιν, and frequently διδάσκειν τινὰ σοφόν), which does not, like the participle, include the notion of time and mood. This exposition,” he adds, “which is adopted by Beza, Piscator, and others, and has recently been approved by Huther, is supported by the fact that ἀργαὶ is taken up again in the following clause as the principal word.” He therefore justly discards the interpretation which had been given by some previous expositors, coupling the verb μανθάνουσιν with the participle following, περιερχόμενοι, and rendering, they learn to go about idle. But this is not really the sense that would be gained by so construing the passage, as μανθα ́ νειν when followed by a participle having reference to the subject, signifies, not to learn, but to perceive, understand, or remark (see also Jelf, Gr. § 683). The apostle justly regarded it as a great evil, and the proof of a frivolous, unsanctified, worldly spirit, that young widows should fall into idle, gossiping habits, and unwise in the church to place them in circumstances which would tempt them into such ways. The later expressions in the verse merely point to the different forms which the evil in the case supposed naturally assumes: (φλύαροι, loose talkers, babbling out whatever might come into their minds; περίεργοι, busybodies, intermeddling with affairs which did not properly concern them; λαλοῦσαι τὰ μὴ δέοντα, speaking things which they ought not, which were not befitting, or, as it may be explained, carrying about reports and sayings from one family to another, and so giving rise to serious misunderstandings, jealousies, and strife. The plain remedy for all this, the most effective check against it, would manifestly be to throw those younger widows as much as possible on their own resources, and encourage them to take any fitting opportunity that might present itself of obtaining a settlement in life, and having households of their own to occupy them. And this is precisely what the apostle advises in the next verse.