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1Ti_5:1-2. Directions regarding Timothy’s behaviour towards elder and younger church-members of both sexes.
πρεσβυτέρῳ μὴ ἐπιπλήζῃς ] Chrysostom rightly remarks: ἄρα τὸ ἀξίωμα νῦν φησίν ; οὐκ οἶμαι · ἀλλὰ περὶ παντὸς γεγηρακότος . Otherwise we could not but take νεώτεροι as equivalent to διάκονοι , and understand by νεώτεραι the deaconesses, which, however, would be arbitrary. There is, besides, no ground for Mack’s opinion, that the οἱ νεώτεροι mentioned in Act_5:6 (1Ti_5:10 : οἱ νεανίακοι ) were “church servants.” By far the greater number of expositors rightly agree with Chrysostom.
ἐπιπλήσσειν ] only occurring here, properly “strike upon,” then “scold, make violent reproaches.” The opposite: Gal_6:1, καταρτίζειν ἐν πνεύματι πραότητος . It is presupposed in this and the next exhortations that the church-members named had been guilty of some transgression or other.
ἀλλὰ παρακάλει ὡς πατέρα κ . τ . λ .] It is not to be forgotten that Timothy was still a νεός . As such he is in his office to deal in childlike respect with the elder men and women, if they had rendered themselves liable to his correction.
νεωτέρους ὡς ἀδελφούς ] supply only παρακάλει ; still Bengel is right in meaning when he remarks on μὴ ἐπιπλήξῃς : hoc pertinet etiam ad ea, quae sequuntur. By ὡς ἀδελφούς and ὡς ἀδελφάς it is implied that Timothy was not to exalt himself over those who were of the same age as himself or younger, but that he was to deal with them in brotherly love as his equals.
The addition ἐν πάσῃ ἁγνείᾳ , which follows ὡς ἀδελφάς , may grammatically be referred to all the members; but Chrysostom[170] and most expositors since, connect it closely with the words immediately preceding. Rightly; since, even when taken in the more general sense of “purity of morals” (1Ti_4:12), it cannot rightly be referred to the preceding relations; but it is very appropriate to the last, all the more if it be taken in the more special sense of “modesty, chastity.”[171]
[170] Chrysostom: μὴ μοί , φησὶ , τὴν τῆς μίξεως μόνον εἴπῃς ἁμαρτίαν , ἀλλὰ μηδὲ ὑποψίαν , φησὶ , δῷς · ἐπ ιδὴ γὰρ αἱ πρὸς τὰς νεωτέρας γενόμεναι ὁμιλίαι δυσκόλως διαφεύγουσιν ὑποψίαν , δεῖ δὲ γίνεσθαι παρὰ τοῦ ἐπισκόπου καὶ τοῦτο , διὰ τοῦτο ἐν πάσῃ ἁγνείᾳ προστίθησι .—On the words ὡς ἀδελφάς , Bengel briefly and aptly says: hic respectus egregie adjuvat castitatem.
[171] Comp. Athenagoras, Leg. pro Christ. p. 36: καθʼ ἡλικίαν τοὺς μὲν υἱοὺς καὶ θυγατέρας νοοῦμεν , τοὺς δὲ ἀδελφοὺς ἔχομεν καὶ ἀδελφάς · καὶ τῆς προβεβηκόσι τὴν τῶν πατέρων καὶ μητέρων τιμὴν ἀπονέμομεν .