Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

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116 1 First Timothy V. 1-16.
sex. In vers. 3-1 G the apostle treats more fully of how he is to act
with regard to the widows, and more especially, in vers. 3-8, with
regard to the widows in general, and in vers. 9-16 to those who are
to receive the ecclesiastical distinction of the viduatus. In vers.
17-19 he treats of the Trpoecrrwre^- rrpeaiSvrepoi in contradistinction
to those mentioned in i. 1. In vers. 20-25 of his conduct
towards members of the church who fall into sin, their punishment
and restoration, with which is interwoven an admonition to Timothy
himself.
Vers. 1, 2.—Rebuke not a npeofSvrepog—elderly person—but admonish
him as a father ;
younger persons as brethren ;
TrpeafSvTepag
—elderly women—as mothers ;
younger as sisters, in all purity. On
the connexion with the preceding, Leo well observes : quam supra
scripsisset, nemiui licere ex juventute Timothei ejus despicieudi occasionem
sumere, nunc jam ijDsum hortatur Timotheum, ut semper
memor sua? vt6T7]Tog ; ita se gerat erga seniores uti revera deceat
virum juniorem. That TrpeaftvTepog here, as in Acts ii. 17, is not the
official name, but merely the designation of age, is evident from its
being opposed to vecj-epovg and -pea^vrtpag^ as also from ver. 17,
where presbyters properly so-called are first spoken of. The expression
imTrXTJaoecVj projjerly to strike upon = " to rebuke sharply," only
here. As it is a stronger expression than tXejx^'-'^, and iTzirqidco is
neither equivalent to it, nor is itself used oftener than once by the
apostle (2 Tim. iv. 2), nothing remains of tSchleieriuacher's objection
except that the word is just a ana^. Xey., like many other expressions
in the other epistles, and a very appropriate word. The same
applies, as Planck has already remarked, to his objections against
ovTOjg, ver. 3, against tKyova, ver. 4, which Schleicrmachcr himself
sufficiently explains from the Septuagint. The TrapandXei cjg
nartpa is op^wsed to trrnrX. His zeal in the fulfilment of his
office must not come into collision with the reverence due to age ;
and, with regard to those who are younger, must not lead to the
violation of that equality which is not removed by his office. In
accordance with the position which naturally belongs to him is the
servant of Jesus Christ to fulfil his official duties, which have regard
to the care of souls. The opposite of this is the Kvpievecv.
The words w;iVA all jJuritt/ are, with the most of commentators, to be
referred specially to the last point. Chrysostom : /iT/cJt- vnoxpiav,
Vers. 3-16. Of the widows.—The passage is difficult, and is
variously interjiretcd by different commentators. The principal difference
consists in this—that some separate vers. 3-8 from ver. 9,
seq., and regard the former section as containing directions of a
more general kind witli respect to the duties of widows in their
every-day life, and according to their circumstances, the latter as