Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Timothy 5:3 - 5:3
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Honor (τίμα)
Not only by respectful treatment but by financial support. Comp. τιμήσει, Mat 15:5, and πολλαῖς τιμαῖς ἐτίμησαν, Act 28:10; and διπλῆς τιμῆς 1Ti 5:17. Comp. Sir. 38:1. 'The verb only once in Paul (Eph 6:2, citation), and only here in Pastorals.
Widows (χήρας)
Paul alludes to widows in 1Co 7:8 only, where he advises them against remarrying. They are mentioned as a class in Act 6:1, in connection with the appointment of the seven. Also Act 9:39, Act 9:41. In the Pastorals they receive special notice, indicating their advance from the position of mere beneficiaries to a quasi-official position in the church. from the very first, the church recognised its obligation to care for their support. A widow, in the East, was peculiarly desolate and helpless. In return for their maintenance certain duties were required of them, such as the care of orphans, sick and prisoners, and they were enrolled in an order, which, however, did not include all of their number who received alms of the church. In Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians, they are styled “the altar of God.” To such an order the references in the Pastorals point. The Fathers, from the end of the second century to the fourth, recognised a class known as πρεσβύτιδες aged women (Tit 2:3), who had oversight of the female church-members and a separate seat in the congregation. The council of Laodicaea abolished this institution, or so modified it that widows no longer held an official relation to the church.
Who are widows indeed (τὰς ὄντως χήρας)
Comp. 1Ti 5:5, 1Ti 5:16. Ὄντως verily, truly, twice in Paul, 1Co 14:25; Gal 3:21. See on 2Pe 2:18. Wherever ὄντως is used by Paul or by any other N.T. writer, it is used purely as an adverb (see Luk 23:47; Luk 24:34): but in all the four instances in the Pastorals, it is preceded by the article and converted into an adjective. The meaning is, who are absolutely bereaved, without children or relations (comp. 1Ti 5:4), and have been but once married. There is probably also an implied contrast with those described in 1Ti 5:6, 1Ti 5:11-13.