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1Ti_5:3. From this to 1Ti_5:16 we have instructions regarding the widows of the church.
χήρας τίμα ] Theodoret, Theophylact, Pelagius, and most recent expositors, among others, de Wette and Wiesinger, refer τίμα to the support of the widows by money. De Wette explains τίμα directly as “care for them, support them,” adding, “he is speaking of support from the church-purse.” Wiesinger, on the other hand, remarks: “We do not say that τιμάω means ‘support’ exactly, but it means an honouring which was to manifest itself in supporting them.” In proof of this view, appeal is made to the passages in Act_6:1; Act_28:10; Mat_15:4-6; but wrongly. In the two last passages the meaning “support with money” can only arbitrarily be given to τιμᾷν (see Meyer on Act_28:10); and though the widows were supported by the church, as we learn from Act_6:1 (comp. also Ignatius, ad Polycarp. chap. iv.; Justin Martyr, Apolog. i. 67), we cannot from that draw any inference as to the meaning of τιμᾷν . But even the context does not necessitate us to specialize the meaning. Granted that all that follows referred only to money-support to be given to the widows, why should not these special exhortations be introduced by one of a more general nature? Besides, the support mentioned being the business of the church, and not of Timothy alone, the apostle—according to the analogy of καταλεγέσθω (1Ti_5:9)—would not have written τίμα , but χῆραι τιμάσθωσαν . Hence, with several old and some recent commentators, such as Matthies, van Oosterzee, Plitt, Hofmann, we should retain the usual meaning of τιμᾷν . Their support by the church is simply a consequence and proof of the τιμᾷν .
τὰς ὄντως χήρας ] is added to define more precisely what widows Paul was thinking of, viz. those who are widows in the true and proper sense of the word (Luther: right widows). Ὄντως is used as an adjective only here in the N. T. (Plato, Phaedr. 260a: τὰ ὄντως ἀγαθά ). What kind of widows are meant thereby, we are to infer from what follows.