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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Timothy 5:18 - 5:18
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Thou shalt not muzzle (ou phimōseis). Prohibition by ou and future (volitive) indicative of phimoō (from phimos, muzzle), old word, quoted also in 1Co 9:9 as here from Deu 25:4, and for the same purpose, to show the preacher’s right to pay for his work. See note on 1Co 9:9 for aloōnta (when he treadeth out the corn).
The labourer is worthy of his hire (axios ho ergatēs tou misthou autou). These words occur in precisely this form in Luk 10:7. It appears also in Mat 10:10 with tēs trophēs (food) instead of tou misthou. In 1Co 9:14 Paul has the sense of it and says: “so also the Lord ordained,” clearly meaning that Jesus had so said. It only remains to tell whether Paul here is quoting an unwritten saying of Jesus as he did in Act 20:35 or even the Gospel of Luke or Q (the Logia of Jesus). There is no way to decide this question. If Luke wrote his Gospel before a.d. 62 as is quite possible and Acts by a.d. 63, he could refer to the Gospel. It is not clear whether Scripture is here meant to apply to this quotation from the Lord Jesus. For ergatēs (labourer) see note on Phi 3:2.