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1Ti_3:11. Γυναῖκας ὡσαύτως σεμνὰς κ . τ . λ .] No further hint is given as to what women he is here speaking of; only it is to be observed that these instructions regarding them are inserted amongst the rules for the diaconate, since 1Ti_3:12 continues to speak of the latter. They must therefore, at all events, be regarded as women who stand in close relation to the deacons—either the wives of the deacons or the deaconesses. Mack’s supposition, that they are the wives of the deacons and of the bishops, is quite arbitrary. The second view is found as early as in Chrysostom ( γυναῖκας διακόνους φησί ), Theophylact, Oecumenius, Grotius, and others; de Wette, Wiesinger, and Hofmann also think it correct. The principal grounds for it are—(1) the word ὡσαύτως , which indicates that the apostle here passes (see 1Ti_3:8) to a new class of ecclesiastical persons (Wiesinger); and (2) the fact that the instructions given in this whole section are rather directions for election than exhortations to the persons named. On the other hand, the omisson of αὐτῶν (de Wette, Wiesinger) and the expression πιστὰς ἐν πᾶσιν , usually understood, as de Wette wrongly thinks, of conjugal fidelity, are of no weight.
Against this view, however, there are two circumstances which should be considered, viz., that the instruction regarding the deaconesses is inserted among those given to the deacons, and also that the apostle calls them quite generally γυναῖκες , instead of using the definite αἱ διάκονοι (comp. Rom_16:1). This makes it probable that by the γυναῖκες we should understand the deacons’ wives (so, too, Plitt). The reason of the special exhortation would then be, not, as Heydenreich says, that even the domestic life of the deacons should be considered, but that the office of the deacons, consisting in the care of the poor and the sick, was of a kind in which their wives had to lend a helping hand. Hence we can explain why the wives of the bishops are not specially mentioned.[129]
μὴ διαβόλους ] διάβολος , as an adjective: “slanderous,” occurs only in the Pastoral Epistles, here and at 2Ti_3:3; Tit_2:3.
ΝΗΦΑΛΊΟΥς ] is not equivalent to ΜῊ ΟἼΝῼ ΠΌΛΛῼ ΠΡΟΣΕΧΟΎΣΑς , 1Ti_3:8; it is to be taken in the same sense as in 1Ti_3:2 (in opposition to Wiesinger, van Oosterzee).
ΠΙΣΤᾺς ἘΝ ΠᾶΣΙΝ ] “faithful in all things;” ἘΝ ΠᾶΣΙΝ forbids us to limit the command of fidelity to any one sphere; it is not merely faithfulness at home nor in the duties of the church that is meant.
[129] Van Oosterzee’s view is arbitrary, that those deacons’ wives are meant who at the same time held the office of deaconess.