1 Timothy 3:1. A TRUE SAYING. Better as before, ‘faithful,' so as to keep the identity of phrase before the English reader. THE OFFICE OF A BISHOP, or overseer, was not likely, at the time when St. Paul wrote, to be an object of worldly ambition. The risk was the other way. Men were likely to draw... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:2. A BISHOP MOST BE BLAMELESS. Literally, ‘ _giving no handle to reproach_, _unassailable.'_ THE HUSBAND OF ONE WIFE. The emphasis of the numerical adjective shows that the command is restrictive rather than injunctive, but both this verse and 1 Timothy 3:4 appear to take marriage for g... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:3. The words imply that in the haste of the early organization of the Church, mistakes had been made which invested even such characters as those described with the office of a bishop or elder. NOT GIVEN TO WINE. The Greek word is sometimes used, it is said, for the petulant, quarrelso... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:4. ONE THAT RULETH WELL HIS OWN HOUSE. Like the former condition, ‘the husband of one wife,' the qualification seems to presuppose the experience of home life as practically the best, if not the necessary, preparation for the pastoral office.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:5. FOR. Literally ‘ _but,'_ the reason being implied rather than stated in the imaginary case which the apostle puts as involving obvious unfitness. TAKE CARE. The change of words assumes that ‘presiding,' the position of authority, involves watchful carefulness over those subject to i... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:6. NOT A NOVICE. Not referring to general inexperience, but specially to the state of one newly _planted_ in the Church by conversion, and yet more definitely by baptism. LIFTED UP WITH PRIDE. Better, ‘ _besotted'_ or _‘beclouded.'_ The explanation commonly given of the word (τυφωθεὶς)... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:7. A good report from them that are without. As a matter of practice, the word points to more than general reputation. The ‘report' μαρτυρία was _testimony_ direct and formal, hose ‘without' are, of course, as in 1 Corinthians 5:12, the non-Christian members of the community in which th... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:8. THE DEACONS LIKEWISE. As the ‘bishops' and ‘elders ‘were titles applied to the same persons, expressing different aspects of their relation to the Church, there is, of course, no mention of the ‘elders' as an intermediate order. The absence of that order, as contrasted with the recogn... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:9. THE MYSTERY OF THE FAITH. The truth hidden before, but now revealed to the initiated-Comp. ‘the mystery of godliness' in 1 Timothy 3:16, and the use of the word in Ephesians 3:3-5. Guided by the analogy of that passage, and by 1 Timothy 5:8; Jude 1:3, it seems better to take faith her... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:10. LET THESE ALSO FIRST BE PROVED. Not, as the English word suggests, by an experimental probationary period of service, though this is not perhaps excluded, but tested in whatever might seem expedient by evidence as to their past life. If they stood that test, and were found open to no... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:11. EVEN SO MUST THEIR WIVES. The mention of women in this parenthetic way is, in any case, remarkable, seeing that the writer returns to the deacons in the next verse. The English of the Authorised Version is a possible rendering, but the absence alike of the article and the pronoun in... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:12. After the parenthetic digression, the list of qualifications for the deacons is continued, the conditions of good reputation being identical with those for the bishops.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:13. PURCHASE FOR THEMSELVES A GOOD DEGREE. The English rendering sounds hard and technical, but it is not easy to suggest a better. ‘Step,' ‘station,' ‘rank,' ‘position,' have been pro-posed, and all (except perhaps the first, which yet is the more literal) fairly represent the meaning o... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:14. SHORTLY. Literally, _‘sooner'_ than was expected. It would seem as if St. Paul had left Ephesus for Macedonia, and wrote giving directions for a probably lengthened absence. Then something like a change of plan suggests itself. He could not tell whether it will be possible. We cannot... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:15. THE HOME OF GOD. The true Bethel, in which through the Spirit. God manifests His presence. The title, at first applied locally, as in Genesis 28:17; Genesis 28:19, and continuing so applied throughout the whole period of the Old Testament, received a new significance in the teaching... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 3:16. WITHOUT CONTROVERSY. ‘ _Confessedly'_ answers better to the purely affirmative element of the Greek word. IS THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. As interpreted by the language of this Epistle, the phrase stands parallel to ‘the mystery of the faith' in 1 Timothy 3:9; _i.e.,_ the word ‘godlin... [ Continue Reading ]