Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

130 First Timothy S^. 11-13.
that in tlie fourtli centur}' and later, tlie passage came to be understood
of deaconesscSj and to be applied without distinction to those
ecclesiastical widows.
Ver. 11.— " But younger widows refuse ; for when they are become
wanton against Christ they will marry." Newr^'pa^, as opposed
to those in ver. 9, means widows under sixty years of age ;
and in like manner -rrapaLrov (comp. on Tit. iii. 10) as oi)posed to
KaraXtyeaOai, signifies they are not to be entered on the list. The
reason is—it is to be feared that they will marry again. Tanelv,
as 1 Cor. vii. 39, of marrying agafn. They luish to marry, as the
consequence of having become ivanton against Christ.— Irprjndd),
properly : to be over-strong (from orpiji'og, strength) ;
the Lat.
luxuriari ; and Kara— " against," as elsewhere KaraKavxdaOai is
used by the apostle, Rom. xi. 18. This wantonness is opposed
to their duty towards Christ. The sense is given in the main correctly,
though too strongly, by Jerome, in the words : quje fornicata6
sunt in injuriam \dri sui Christi. On Karaa-p., comp. Rev.
xviii. 7, 9.
Ver. 12 shews what is implied in this ivishing to marry : ^xovaai
Kpina, etc. Kp/'/za signifies here also, as at iii. 6 (comp. on the
passage) judicium ; in wishing to marry they have brought upon
themselves this judgment of God, so that it weighs like a load upon
them, viz., that they have broken their first faith. The expression
TTiariv dOe-rnv has already by the Fathers been explained to mean
not the falling away from the faith, but the violation of a promise
made not to marry again. THotlv r/ji' ovvO/jktjv XiyEi, observes Chrysostom,
and similarly others, comp. in De Wette, Heydenreich, etc.;
and so almost all the more recent expositors. The expression dOereh',
which is also used of something objectively fixed, and is generally
found in this very connection (comp. Passow) as also the epithet
TTpcjTTjv, and the connexion with ver. 11, confirm this view. If those
widows did not bind themselves, cither aloud or in silence, on
their
enrolment, to remain always widows, then their wish to marry again
cannot be called a forsaking their first foith. But if they did this,
then there can be no question as to what is meant by -puWr] ttioti^.
And this (pialification of not marrying again is already implied in
the tvbg dvdpbg yvv/j. Lco well : vidufc ilhu yufidv Ot/Mvaat fidem
dabant sponso. Sed quia ad ordineni viduarum ccclesiasticarum
pertinebant, jam sponsic quasi erant, nimirum Christo. Plane igitur
fidem quam primum dederant Christo, nunc fallebant. Mosheim
has shewn that we are not here to undei-stand an inviolable vow in
the later sense.
Ver. 13.—By way of confirming the -rrapaiTov, the apostle here
mentions another thing to be feared in younger widows, namely,
idleness with its natural consequences. There is some difficulty in