Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

—
—
;
First Timothy V. 9. 12T
again. According to this latter interpretation the expression h>og
dvdpbg yvvTJ might include the widow who had been twice married,
if only everything had been lawfully done. Such artificial and inconceivable
explanations are not less opposed to the simple sense of
the words and the context than to all ecclesiastical tradition on this
point, on which what is said on Tit. i. 6 is to be compared. Why
then—if the apostle is speaking here of special distinction in the
church—might he not require as a qualification what appeared so
necessary, if for no other reason than from a regard to the heathen
(comp. what is said on Tit. i. 6, and here on ver. 14) ? The reason
of this qualification then entirely corresponds to the ground on
which the same qualification is required in presbyters and deacons,
iii. 2-12, and along with it belongs to the dveyKXrjTog and dvemXri-nrog,
which denotes the chief point of view from which the apostle
regards fitness for ecclesiastical distinction. In this respect then
the widow stands on a level with the presbyter and deacon ;
but
this is precisely a proof of the correctness of our interpretation
while, if the apostle were speaking here of poor widows who were to
be supported, the qualification would be unsuitable and contradictory
to the (iovXofiai, ovv, ver. 14. Comp. Tertull. ad. ex. i. 7 : praescriptio
apostoli declarat, cum digamos non sinit praesidere, cum
viduam allegi in ordinationem nisi univiram non concedit (De Wette).
Further, the following qualification fully corresponds to the interpretation
just given : tv epyocg KaXolg p.apTvpovfiiv7], not = through
good works having a good report, but = in good works—as the object
or the sphere (Winer's Gr., § 48, a. 3, p. 345).
On good worJcs,
Tit. ii. 7, and the Gen. Introd., § 4. What Mosheim says on this
is excellent, and proves the correctness of his interpretation "
: The
apostle lays weight on this, in order that such a widow may be publicly
acknowledged as a godly person." In this also there is a correspondence
to what is required of the presbyter ; comp. on 'Tit. i. 6;
1 Tim. iii. 2, seq. Ei ETeKvoTp6(p7]oe can, as Leo observes, hardly be
understood of the bringing up of her own children. The connexion
with what precedes, as well as with what follows, shows that tretcvo.
must here be regarded as a good worh. Such, however, is not the
bringing up of one's own children in itself ; in order to be so, some
such word as KaXCjg must be added ; comp. above, iii, 4, 12. That
bringing up of children, then, which is here described as a good
worh, must be understood of the bringing up of strange children.
This qualification must indeed be pronounced unsuitable in reference
to widows needing support, but aU the more suitable in reference to
a place of distinction in the church. The same remark applies to
the next quahfication if she have lodged strangers, and also to the
two following if she have washed the saints'feet, if she have relieved
the afflicted, which latter, according to ver. 16 and the general usage.