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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Timothy 3:4 - 3:4
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
4. ἰδίου. Repeated again in 1Ti 3:5, in contrast to θεοῦ.
καλῶς. A characteristic word of the Pastorals (see on 1Ti 1:8, 1Ti 2:10 above).
προϊστάμενον. We find this verb applied to the officers of the Church also in Rom 12:8; 1Th 5:12, and to πρεσβύτεροι in ch. 1Ti 5:17 (see Introd. p. lxix.).
τέκνα κ.τ.λ. The parallel clause in Tit 1:6 is: τέκνα ἔχων πιστά, μὴ ἐν κατηγορίᾳ ἀσωτίας ἢ ἀνυπότακτα.
ἔχοντα. This is to be taken in subordination to προϊστάμενον: having his children in subjection. For ἐν ὑποταγῇ see 1Ti 2:11. This verse, like 1Ti 3:2, certainly seems to contemplate as the normal, and not merely a permissible, state of things that the ἐπίσκοπος should be a married man whose wife has borne him children.
μετὰ πάσης σεμνότητος. For the form of the phrase see note on 1Ti 2:11. Both the order of the words and the natural sense lead us to connect this clause with ἔχοντα, rather than with τὰ τέκνα. σεμνότης (see note on 1Ti 2:2) is hardly a grace of childhood; we approve it in the προϊστάμενος, but its presence in those over whom his rule is exercised does not afford any convincing proof of his fitness for rule; see on Tit 1:7.