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1Ti_5:11. Νεωτέρας δὲ χήρας παραιτοῦ ] νεωτέρας is not here strictly comparative in reference to 1Ti_5:9 (Wiesinger: “widows under sixty years”); it is rather a positive, as in 1Ti_5:1-2 (so, too, van Oosterzee).
παραιτοῦ ] in opposition to καταλεγέσθω , 1Ti_5:9 (and in opposition to τίμα in 1Ti_5:3); yet in such a way that, according to the analogy of the passages, 1Ti_4:7, 2Ti_2:23, Tit_3:10, Heb_12:25, it denotes not only that they are to be omitted from the καταλέγεσθαι , but also that they are to be avoided personally. Luther: “the young widows, however, get rid of.”[181] The reason for this injunction is given by the apostle in the next words: ὅταν γὰρ καταστρηνιάσωσι τοῦ Χριστοῦ γαμεῖν θέλουσιν ] The meaning of the verb is variously given by expositors. Several take it as equivalent to “be voluptuous, lust after,” and so refer it to sexual relation, appealing to Rev_18:9, where στρηνιᾷν is used along with πορνεύειν . But this collocation does not prove that the verbs are related in sense, all the less that in the passage πορνεύειν is not used literally. Even in Rev_18:3, στρῆνος has not the meaning of sexual desire, but more generally of “wantonness.” There is no justification, therefore, for de Wette’s translation: “to feel sexual desire,” and that of Jerome (Ep. 123, al. 11, ad Agcrochiam al. Gerontiam): quae fornicatae sunt. Others maintain here the more general meaning of the word luxuriari (Wiesinger; van Oosterzee also translates: “if they have become luxurious,” but explains it of voluptuous desire, of the pruritus libidinosus). Since the word στρῆνος also occurs in the sense of violent desire for something (Lycophr. 438, see Pape, 5, s.v.), Plitt explains στρηνιᾷν as equivalent to “go in pursuit of the satisfaction of one’s desires,” but without saying what desires are here meant. In Pape, the word is explained as equivalent to “be insolent” ( στρῆνος = “insolence”); so, too, in Stephanus ( καταστρηνιάω = insolentius et lascivius me gero adversum); similarly Theophylact: καθυπερηφανεύεσθαι . It will be most correct to adhere to the meaning “be luxurious.” In all these various explanations the prefix κατα is taken in the sense of hostile opposition, and the genitive τοῦ Χριστοῦ regarded as the object to which those widows are opposed by their στρηνιᾷν . This reference of κατα is in entire accordance with Greek usage; comp. in the N. T. the words: καταδυναστεύω , κατακαυχάομαι , καταναρκάω , κατασοφίζομαι . Hofmann’s explanation completely diverges from these: “After such widows have let the Saviour have their whole desire, after they have delighted in Him, they wish to marry.” For this interpretation of καταστρηνιᾷν Χριστοῦ , Hofmann appeals to Psa_37:4, where the Hebrew äÄúÀòÇðÌÅâ òÇìÎéÀäÉåÈä (“rejoice in God, delight in God”) is translated in the LXX. by καταστρυφᾷν τοῦ κυρίου . But to this there are three objections—(1) This interpretation of καταστρυφᾷν in a good sense is quite singular in nature; (2) καταστρυφᾷν cannot without proof be considered identical with καταστρηνιᾷν ; and (3) ὅταν is explained simply by “after that,” whereas it properly means: “in case that, so soon as.” ὍΤΑΝ may indeed be sometimes rendered by “after that;” but whereas the latter only expresses the relation of time, ὍΤΑΝ is only used in such cases of an inner relation. In the present case it shows that the ΘΈΛΕΙΝ ΓΑΜΕῖΝ is something which has its ground or presupposed condition in the ΚΑΤΑΣΤΡΗΝΙᾷΝ of the widows. But how can it be imagined that delight in the Lord gives any ground whatever for the desire of marriage?
Besides, the whole context compels us to take ΚΑΤΑΣΤΡ . in a bad sense.[182]
γαμεῖν θέλουσιν ] We must not overlook the fact that Paul does not say simply γαμοῦσιν ; he wishes here to bring out the direction in which their thoughts turn. If a widow received the honourable distinction of καταλέγεσθαι , she had to recognise it as her duty to devote her life henceforth to her office, to her works of love for the church. These she must regard as her life-vocation. But in young widows the worldly desire was roused only too easily, so that they put aside their life-vocation, and sought only their own satisfaction in forming a new marriage, thereby withdrawing themselves from the work for the church. Their thoughts were therefore turned to something else than the things to which their position in the church directed them.[183]
[181] Baur at an earlier period (Die Sog. Pastoralbriefe, p. 47) construed νεώτεραι χῆραι grammatically together, and only—very arbitrarily, it is true—maintained that these χῆραι are distinguished from those in ver. 9 by being only virgins (and not ὄντως χῆραι ) bearing the name of χῆραι . Later (Paulus, d. Ap. J. Chr. p. 497) he expressed the opinion that νεωτέρας and χήρας are not to be taken together, that the one is the subject rather, the other the predicate, and that the words accordingly have the sense: “Younger persons of the female sex do not receive into the list of the χῆραι .” This only adds to the arbitrariness of the historian, the arbitrariness of the exegete.
[182] Even earlier expositors rejected the strange opinion which Heydenreich adopts, that “ στρηνιᾷν in its root-signification and origin παρὰ τῷ στερεῖν καὶ ἀποσπᾷν τὰς ἡνίας means, cast off the reins, he or become unbridled.”—Quite as wrong is the inversion of thought which Heinrichs takes up, saying: clarius mentem expressisset Ap. inverso ordine: ὅταν γὰρ γαμεῖν θέλωσιν , καταστρηνιῶσι τοῦ Χριστοῦ ; for γαμεῖν θέλουσιν is a consequence of the καταστρηνιᾷν , not vice versâ.
[183] It is to be noted that Paul does not speak of the θέλειν γαμεῖν on the part of the widows as necessarily a καταστρηνιᾷν τοῦ Χριστοῦ . He is not uttering any general principle; he is dealing only with the actual circumstances which were occurring among the widows under discussion.