Younger Women who Chose to Stay Single
« Part 1. The Different Kinds of Widows in Ephesus
« Part 2. Ordinary Widows and Enrolled Widows
« Part 3. Official Widows in Early Church Documents
In part 4, I continue my series on the Ephesian widows and look at the younger widows who are mentioned in 1 Timothy 5:11-15. These younger women seem to be Paul’s main concern in 1 Timothy 5.
Here are verses 11-15 in the Christian Standard Bible.
11 But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when they are drawn away from Christ by desire, they want to marry 12 and will therefore receive condemnation because they have renounced their original pledge. 13 At the same time, they also learn to be idle, going from house to house; they are not only idle, but are also gossips and busybodies, saying things they shouldn’t say. 14 I want younger women to marry, have children, manage their households, and give the adversary no opportunity to accuse us. 15 For some have already turned away to follow Satan.
The Younger Women and Their Pledge (1 Tim. 5:11-12)
The women in 1 Timothy 5:11-12 were single and under 60 years of age. Some, perhaps most, may have been considerably younger than 60. Moreover, at least some of them, if not all, may have never been married and were not “genuinely” or “truly” widows (ontōs chēras).[1]
(In part 1, I explained that the Greek word translated as “widows” in 1 Timothy 5 can also refer to women who are living independently of a father or husband, and may not be true widows.)
Jouette Bassler writes that “widow” in 1 Timothy 5:11-15 “seems to refer to the life of renunciation of the bearer of the title more than her marital history.” Bassler adds that “chastity, not widowhood, was the determinative feature.”[2]
Virgins who had committed to lifelong celibacy were often a distinct group from enrolled Widows in the early church. However, Charlotte Methuen notes that in a number of sources which predate the third century, Virgins and Widows were sometimes combined.[3] This is especially clear in Ignatius’s letter to the Smyrneans (Ign. Smyrn. 13.1)
1 Timothy 5:12 indicates that the enrolled Widows in Ephesus made a pledge (pistin).[4] Polycarp used the same word when he reminded the Widows in Philippi to be prudent about their pledge (pistin) to the Lord (Pol. Phil. 4:3). This pledge is usually understood as a promise to remain single, celibate, and committed to serving the church.
Paul believed that being single enabled Christians to minister without distractions, so he recommended the single life. But he knew that it wasn’t for everyone and could be difficult to sustain.[5] So he warned Timothy against admitting young, and even middle-aged women, as enrolled Widows, especially as this enrolment required a pledge or vow.
Paul anticipated that, more so than the widows over 60 years of age, some younger women might later develop a longing for marriage and sex.[6] If they married, their pledge would be broken.[7] Paul regarded such a broken vow as a serious matter that could incur condemnation (1 Tim. 5:12).[8]
What were the Younger Widows Doing? (1 Timothy 5:13)
To understand what the younger women were doing, and why it was a problem, we need to look at a few Greek words used in 1 Timothy 5:13.
Argai: “Idle” or “Useless”?
The younger single women had no husband or children to care for and no homes to manage. They had time on their hands, and some of them were spending it in unproductive ways. The word argai (“unemployed, idle, useless”) is used twice in verse 13; this behaviour was a problem![9] In other texts, such as James 2:20, 2 Peter 1:8, and Wisdom 15:15, the word more clearly has the sense of “useless.” Gordon D. Fee interprets argai in 1 Timothy 5:13 as meaning that these women were “doing nothing constructive, but that their activities are actually destructive.[10]
Perierchomenai tas oikas: “Going Around the Houses”
The idle women were “going around the houses” and speaking nonsense.[11] It’s not clear what “going around the houses” actually refers to. Some commentators believe this phrase refers to pastoral visits that were part of the ministry of official Widows.[12] But it’s also possible that the younger women were “speaking nonsense” in church meetings.
Many congregations in the first and second centuries used the homes of relatively wealthy people as a base for all kinds of meetings. For example, in Acts we are told that the new church in Jerusalem met in houses as well as in the temple courts (Acts 2:46; 5:42). One congregation in Rome met in the house of Priscilla and Aquila (Rom. 16:5). In the Lycus Valley, congregations met in the houses of Nympha (Col. 3:15) and Philemon (Phlm. 1:1-2).
According to Acts 20:20, Paul taught publicly when he was in Ephesus, but also house to house. Later in Ephesus, women were the targets of false teachers who infiltrated houses (2 Tim. 3:6). In Crete, whole houses (house churches?) were being upset because of similar false teaching (Tit. 1:10-11; 2 Tim. 2:17-18).
Whether “going around the houses” refers to pastoral house calls, visiting different house churches,[13] or to more casual social outings, the women’s speech was influential and problematic.[14]
Phlyaroi: “Gossips”?
English translations of 1 Timothy 5:13 typically describe the younger widows as “gossips and busybodies” who were “saying things they shouldn’t say.” This description can give the impression that the women were being a nuisance with their gossiping. But their speech was even more troubling.
Despite almost all English translations using the word “gossips” to translate the Greek word phlyaroi, “gossips” probably doesn’t capture the intended sense. Craig Keener has looked at “every use of the term in extant Greek literature, along with relevant contexts” and concludes that “the sense is generally ‘nonsense,’ with an emphasis on false or improper teaching in didactic contexts.”[15]
Accordingly, the New International Version describes the women as “… busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to” (1 Tim. 5:13 NIV).
I’ve written more about the word phlyaroi here.
Periergoi: “Busybodies”?
The word “busybodies” (periergoi: peri + ergoi) expands on the idea of perierchomenai (peri + erchomenai) which occurs in the phrase “going around the houses,” and it expands on the idea of argai (alpha privative + ergai). Unemployed women were going around the houses of Ephesus and meddling.
A similar play on words is used in 2 Thessalonians 3:1. Here a verb related to periergoi is used for people who were unemployed (negative adjective + ergazomai). These Thessalonian Christians had chosen not to work and were “being busybodies” (periergazomai: peri + ergazomai). The younger single women in Ephesus had similarly chosen not to be involved in the activities expected of respectable first-century women and were being busybodies.
Periergos can also mean “sorcery” and “magic arts.”[16] It is used in Acts 19:19 in the context of magic in Ephesus. Since Ephesus is the backdrop of Acts 19 and of 1 Timothy, it seems reasonable to read the same meaning of periergos in both texts.[17] But magic is more clearly the context of Acts 19:19 than of 1 Timothy 5:13. And I don’t think the women, who are themselves described as periergoi, were using magic or speaking about it. The first chapter of 1 Timothy 1 indicates that the “other teaching” that was plaguing Ephesus was a Jewish heresy, and that the false teachers were mishandling the law (cf. Tit. 1:14).
With 1 Timothy 5:13 in mind, Gordon D. Fee, following C.K. Barrett and Dibelius and Conzelman, writes that the ideas reflected in 2 Thessalonians 3:11 “seem much closer to the mark” than the idea of magic and incantations.[18]
“Satan” or an “Adversary”?
Rather than magic, what is mentioned in 1 Timothy is “Satan,” or “the adversary.”[19] Some single women in Ephesus had turned from the message Paul had preached and instead followed Satan (1 Tim. 5:15). Satan, or “the adversary,” is also mentioned in the first chapter of 1 Timothy in the context of the false teachers Hymenaeus and Alexander (1 Tim. 1:20). Later in the letter, Paul describes their Jewish ascetic teaching, which includes forbidding marriage, as “doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:3). The nonsense speech and officious meddling of some of the younger widows was helping to spread this false teaching in Ephesus.[20]
It seems a number of younger single women were deeply involved in the heresy. Jouette Bassler writes,
The circle of widows seems to have provided a natural avenue of defection to the heretics, who advocated a similar lifestyle. Indeed, verse 15, with its reference to “straying after Satan,” indicates that several widows had already chosen that path.[21]
Paul’s Solution (1 Timothy 5:14)
John Barclay writes that the younger women “exemplify and perhaps promote an alternative model of Christianity, committed not to marriage, child-rearing and household management, but to the single, celibate life that undercuts the household model.”[22]
In 1 Timothy 5:14, Paul gives Timothy his solution to this immediate problem. Verse 14 addresses a specific issue in the Ephesian church and was not given as general advice. Note that Paul does not advise that the other single women in 1 Timothy 5, including genuine widows, get married, etc.
“Get Married and Have Kids”
Paul wanted the younger single women—he doesn’t use the word “widow” in verse 14—to get married, have kids, and manage a home. These three activities were cultural norms for respectable Roman women. However, Bassler states that the instructions in verse 14 also have “a distinctly anti-ascetic thrust that was probably intended to counter the influence of the heretical camp.”[23]
The reason behind the directives in 1 Timothy 5:14-15 is clearly stated: it was so that an opponent to Christianity would have no reason to insult or disparage the Ephesian Christians.[24] As mentioned in part 1 of this series, several times in 1 Timothy, Paul gives instructions about socially respectable behaviour that will not cause the church and her witness to be disgraced (1 Tim. 2:2, 9; 3:2-7; 5:14; 6:1-2; cf. Tit. 2:5; 2:8).[25] But there was also a theological angle to it. Unlike what some were teaching, Paul wanted the Ephesian women to know that marriage, sex, and procreation do not jeopardise salvation.
The Greek word behind “to have children” is teknogonein.”[26] The related noun occurs previously in 1 Timothy, in 2:15, where Paul says that a woman will be saved (i.e. she won’t lose her salvation) if she has children. Like the married woman in 1 Timothy 2, Paul wanted the younger single women in 1 Timothy 5 to give up their celibate lifestyle. Note also that bringing up children, teknotropheō, is a qualification for the older official, enrolled Widows.
I’ve written about what “she will be saved through childbearing” in 1 Timothy 2:15 means here.
“Manage a Household” (1 Timothy 5:14)
The Greek word behind “to manage a household” is oikodespotein.[27] The etymology of this word is oikos = house + despotēs = master. The RSV, and a few other older English translations, render this word quite strongly in 1 Timothy 5:14: “to rule their households.”
Oikodespotein refers to the oversight and management of running a largish household, and in the first century, an oikodespotēs (male) and a despoina (the female equivalent) had a great deal of authority over their slaves and servants, and also their own children, including grown children.[28]
It was an ordinary expectation in the Roman world that the despoina oversee the day-to-day running of her household, including overseeing and participating in home-based industries such as the manufacture of clothing which involved spinning, weaving, and sewing.
Oikodespotein does imply a strong sense of leadership and responsibility, but Paul was not saying anything unusual or revolutionary in 1 Timothy 5:14.[29] Furthermore, oikodespotein does not refer to what many of us today call “housework.” A conservative estimate is that one-third of the population of the Roman Empire were slaves, and the kind of women who Paul was referring to in 1 Timothy 5:14, when they married, would have had slaves for the more tedious and unpleasant domestic duties.
To sum up, Paul wanted the younger single women in Ephesus who were getting into mischief to abide by first-century social conventions “and give the adversary no opportunity to accuse us.” This concern is squarely behind 1 Timothy 5:14.[30]
So far in this series, I’ve looked at Paul’s concern for the welfare of genuine widows, the qualifications for senior enrolled Widows, and the problem with the younger single women. In the final part, here, I look at the kind of woman Paul refers to in 1 Timothy 5:16 and her important role in the early church.
Footnotes
[1] Charlotte Methuen, Jouette Bassler, Lyn Kidson, and John M.G. Barclay, among others, believe the younger Ephesian widows were most likely never-married young women.
Methuen, “The ’Virgin Widow’: A Problematic Social Role for the Early Church?” The Harvard Theological Review 90.3 (July, 1997): 285-298;
Bassler, “The Widows’ Tale: A Fresh Look at 1 Tim 5:3-16,” Journal of Biblical Literature, 103.1 (March, 1984);
Kidson, “Real Widows, Young Widows, and the Limits of Benefaction in 1 Timothy 5:3–16,” Australian Biblical Review 70 (2022): 83–10;
John M.G. Barclay, “Household Networks and Early Christian Economics: A Fresh Study of 1 Timothy 5.3–16.” NTS 66.2 (2020): 268–287.
[2] Bassler, “The Widows’ Tale,” 35.
[3] Methuen, “The ‘Virgin Widow,’” 287.
[4] Pistin (from pistis) can also be translated as “faith.” I suggest the sense of “pledge” fits the context of 1 Tim. 5:13. However, Barclay observes that the same word is used repeatedly in the Pastoral Epistles in warnings “against abandoning or undermining faith” (1 Tim. 1:19; 4:1; 5:8; 6:10, 21; 2 Tim 2:18). Barclay, “Household Networks,” 280.
[5] Asceticism, including celibacy, is an underlying theme of 1 Timothy (1 Tim. 2:15; 4:3). Celibacy is also behind Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 7 (1 Cor. 7:7, 9). Cynthia Long Westfall notes that Paul’s instructions in 1 Timothy 5:11 are similar to those in 1 Corinthians 7:2, and she writes that for Paul, marriage “is a distraction from service but a pragmatic necessity, given the reality of human sexuality.” Westfall, Paul and Gender (Baker Academic, 2016), 227. Pheme Perkins suggests that Paul’s advice against remarriage in 1 Corinthians 7:40 may have contributed to the crisis which he addresses in 1 Timothy 5. Perkins, Pastoral Epistles (Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible; Eerdmans, 2021)
[6] I. Howard Marshall comments, “The desire to (re)marry (v. 11) may seem to be incompatible with the heresy reflected in 4.3 [“they forbid marriage”], but, human nature being what it is, it would not be surprising if adherents to other aspects of the heresy eventually found the sexual urge too strong for them.” Marshall, Pastoral Epistles (ICC; T&T Clark, 1999), 580, note 17.
[7] Perhaps this vow was made to Jesus as bridegroom. Barclay writes, “The notion of virgins as ‘brides of Christ’ is attested only later (e.g. Tertullian, Or. 21-22; Virg. 16) but is a natural extrapolation from the Pauline texts cited above, and may be reflected in 1 Tim. 5:12, if the language there has sexual connotations.” Barclay, “Household Networks,” 280, note 48.
[8] It is not clear where this condemnation comes from. Was it from the church? Was it from Christ or God?
[9] The same Greek adjective occurs at the very end of Titus 1:12 where it is often translated as “lazy.” Furthermore, in the previous verse, Titus 1:11, the phrase “teaching things that they shouldn’t (διδάσκοντες ἃ μὴ δεῖ) echoes the phrase in 1 Timothy 5:13, “speaking things that they shouldn’t (λαλοῦσαι τὰ μὴ δέοντα). The last word in both phrases are forms of the verb dei which has the sense of “what is necessary.”
[10] Fee, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus (Understanding the Bible Commentary Series; Baker, 2011), 122. (His use of italics.)
[11] Thornton writes, “The participial phrase, περιερχόμεναι τὰς οἰκίας (‘going about the houses’), clarifies the meaning of ἀργός. The issue is not that these women are inactive; the issue is that, though they travel from house to house, they do nothing for the benefit of the inhabitants.”
Dillon T. Thornton, “’Saying What They Should Not Say’: Reassessing the Gravity of the Problem of the Younger Widows (1 Tim 5:11–15)”, JETS 59.1 (2016): 119–129, 125. (Online source: etsjets.org)
[12] For example, David Brown understood “going about” as referring ostensibly to church duties. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, 1 Timothy, in A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments (Hendrickson, 2008), 495. (Online at Internet Archive.)
Dibelius and Conzelmann say that the phrase “refers to pastoral house calls … such calls were among the widows’ duties.”
Dibelius and Conzelmann, The Pastoral Epistles (Hermeneia; Fortress Press, 1972), 75.
[13] The same verb perierchomai can mean “itinerant,” as is the case for the itinerant Jewish exorcists in Ephesus (Acts 19:13).
[14] Yet another interpretation of perierchomenai tas oikas (“going around the houses”) is that the young women were “couch surfing.” Young Christian women who had cut ties with their non-Christian families effectively orphaned themselves and would have had to rely on the hospitality of church members. A large number of “homeless” young women would have been a problem.
Barclay seems to think that the younger women were genuinely orphaned. He writes that the phrase “likely indicates that [the young women] move from household to household for periods in residence, since (at least after the death of their parents) they have no house of their own.” And “They are unproductive because they are mobile: they do not have the stable base from which to contribute to the Christian system of benefaction-exchange.” Barclay, “Household Networks,” 281.
[15] Craig S. Keener, Paul, Women and Wives (Hendrickson, 2004), xix, note 17.
[16] See Marianne Bjelland Kartzow’s discussion on periergos in her book, Gossip and Gender: Othering of Speech in the Pastoral Epistles (BZNW 164; Walter de Gruyter, 2009), 149-151. (Online Source)
[17] The accusative neuter plural of periergos with the definite article, ta perierga, is used in Acts 19:19 for the practice of something, namely the practice of magic arts by some Ephesians.
The nominative feminine plural form, periergoi, is used in 1 Timothy 5:13 to describe some people, namely some younger Ephesian women.
These different forms reflect different usages which can affect their meanings.
George Abbott-Smith notes this difference in his Greek-English lexicon.
I. Of persons;
1. over careful.
2. curious, meddling, a busybody: I Ti 5:13.
II. Of things;
1. over-wrought.
2. superfluous.
3. curious, uncanny; τὰ π., curious arts, magic: Ac 19:19 (v. Deiss., BS, 3235.).†
I wonder if periergos is used in 1 Timothy 5:13 in much the same way that it’s used by Josephus in Against Apion 1.16 (1.3): περίεργος δʼ ἂν εἴην … Whiston translates this as “And I should spend my time to little purpose …” “Futile, useless” are senses given in LSJ’s entry on periergos.
In writings after the first century, periergos sometimes meant “magician,” but this was not a usual sense in the first century and previously.
[18] Fee, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus (Understanding the Bible Commentary Series; Baker, 2011), 125.
[19] The word “Satan” (satanas) occurs in 1 Timothy 1:20 and 5:15 with a definite article. Rather than being a proper noun or a personal name, the sense in these two verses may be “the adversary” or “the accuser.” Whether this adversary was human or the devil, the word satanas, loaned from Hebrew, insinuates a diabolical connotation.
[20] Dillon T. Thornton argues that the “younger widows had been recruited by false teachers in Ephesus and were promulgating their deviant doctrine.” Thornton, “‘Saying What They Should Not Say,’” 120.
Thornton also credibly argues that the false teachers and younger women were making money from their ministry. (A PDF of his paper is online here.)
The Didascalia Apostolorum 15. 3.6 (p. 133-134) also connects gadabout widows with making money:
A widow must not therefore stray or run about among the houses. For those who are gadabouts and without shame cannot be still even in their houses; for they are no widows, but “wallets,” and they care for nothing else but to be making ready to receive. (Source: Early Christian Writings)
[21] Bassler, “The Widows’ Tale,” 37.
[22] Barclay, “Household Networks,” 282.
[23] Bassler, “The Widows’ Tale,” 39.
[24] The same “opponents” word (present middle-passive participles of antikeimai, usually with an article) is used elsewhere in the New Testament for human opponents to Jesus (Luke 13:17), to his disciples (Luke 21:15), and to Paul (1 Cor. 16:9; Phil. 1:28; 2 Thess. 2:3-4).
[25] In a footnote, I cite more verses where Paul encouraged socially respectable behaviour: see here.
[26] In both 1 Tim. 5:13 and 1 Tim. 2:15, teknogonein and teknogonia don’t specifically refer to childbirth. (There is another Greek word that typically means “to give birth.”) Referring to the noun teknogonia, Lynn Cohick writes that it “is rather elastic and can indicate pregnancy, delivery or raising the child.” Cohick, Women in the World of the Earliest Christians (Baker Academic, 2009), 138.
Accordingly, most English translations have “bear children” or “have children” in 1 Tim. 5:13. The NET Bible has “raise children.” Paul wanted the younger women to get married and become parents. I’ve written more about teknogonia and teknogonein in a footnote here.
[27] “Master of the house” and “householder” are the only two definitions of oikodespotēs given in Bauer and Danker’s lexicon, BDAG (p. 695). Oikodespotēs occurs in the Synoptic Gospels with these senses: Mt 10:25; 13:27, 52; 20:1; 21:33; 24:43; Mk 14:14; Lk 12:39; 13:25; 14:21; 22:11.
[28] The feminine of despotēs is depoina. This Greek word was used for a female master or mistress, that is, “the lady of the house.”
[29] For example, an ancient letter attributed to a female philosopher, pseudonymously named Theano, states, “Indeed, to you younger women authority has been given by custom to rule over the household slaves once you have been married …”
Quoted by Annette Bourland Huizenga in her book Moral Education for Women in the Pastoral and Pythagorean Letters: Philosophers of the Household (Koninklijke Brill, 2013), 50.
[30] Social respectability for the sake of the gospel is also behind Paul’s words about the young women in Titus 2:4-5. I’ve written about the virtues in Titus 2 here.
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The Ephesian Widows (Series)
Part 1. The Different Kinds of Widows in Ephesus
Part 2. Ordinary Widows and Enrolled Widows
Part 3. Official Widows in Early Church Documents
Part 5. Female Patrons of Virgins and Widows
Explore more
Were the Young Ephesian Women Gossiping? (Phlyaroi)
How does Titus 2:4-5 apply today?
“Workers at home” or “keepers at home” in Titus 2:5? (and oikodespotein)
Real Examples of “Titus 2” Women in the Roman World
What does “saved through childbearing” mean?
Is Motherhood the highest calling for women?
Beauty, Marriage, Motherhood and Ministry
Wives, Mothers & Female Masters in NT Household Codes
A Note on Tertullian’s “On the Veiling of Virgins”
The “Little Women” in 2 Timothy 3:6-7
Celibacy in 1 Corinthians 7
At Home With Priscilla and Aquila
8 thoughts on “The Ephesian Widows (Part 4)”
PLEDGE. I’m doubtful about the idea that Christian widows in Ephesus made a ‘pledge’ not to remarry (1 Tim. 5:12). ‘Pistis’ is the ordinary word for ‘faith’, used hundreds of times in the NT. To translate it as ‘pledge’ in this one instance, we would need some evidence that points in that direction. We don’t have any such evidence in the NT, or in Polycarp’s letter to the Philippians (where the ordinary meaning ‘faith’ fits well, and there is no sign of any pledge not to remarry). Ignatius’ passing reference to virgins who are called widows is a slender basis for drawing any relevant conclusion.
If a widow had to pledge not to remarry in order to qualify for financial support from the church, wouldn’t such a policy increase the long-term financial burden on the church to no good purpose, contrary to the approach seen in 5:3–4, 8, 16?
I haven’t found an English version before the 20th century which adopts the pledge theory. I wonder if this idea came from scholars who regarded 1 Timothy as a document from the second or third century, and so read back later practices into it?
Hi Andrew,
The ordinary, genuine widows did not need to make a pledge or vow to receive support from the church.
In part 2, I wrote, “Paul wanted the widows to be cared for by their families or, failing that, the church. No age restrictions are given for the widows who are to be cared for by the church, and they need not necessarily be enrolled into the church order of Widows.” And, “Nowhere in the New Testament is aid restricted to people who had to prove themselves in some way.”
Also, to be clear, for single women who were actually widowed, the pledge to be enrolled was a pledge not to remarry; for other single women (“widows”) who had never been married, it was a pledge to not marry at all.
Pistis often refers to faith or faithfulness (see footnote 4). And pistis, and the Latin fides, is also often used with the sense of faithfulness in inscriptions extolling the virtues of wives. Nevertheless, I’ve seen it used with a sense of “pledge” in my reading. (I wish I’d paid more attention to this and recorded these instances somewhere. I didn’t think I’d need to prove this sense.) But “pledge” is an ordinary meaning of pistis, and this meaning makes good sense of 1 Timothy 5:13 and Pol. Phil. 4:3.
I don’t rely on translations to support my interpretations, but “pledge” is used in 1 Timothy 5:12 in these translation: ASV, CSB, LEB, NAB, NASB, NET, NIV, NLT, NRSV, RSV, etc. Several translations use the word “promise(d),” the CEB use the word “commitment,” and a couple of translations use the word “vow.”
https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Timothy%205%3A12
https://biblehub.com/1_timothy/5-12.htm
And the idea that periergoi means “practitioners of magic” or “magicians” in 1 Timothy 5:13 has zero support here:
https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Timothy%205%3A13
Overall, English translations have not done a great job with the passage on widows. Some issues are:
~ adding the phrase “in need,” or something similar, when speaking about genuine widows (e.g., 1 Timothy 5:3 CEB, CSB, NET, NIV, NLT).;
~ the near consensus of translating phlyaroi as “gossips”;
~ adding words that mean “relatives” or “family” in 1 Timothy 5:16;
~ a textual variant in 1 Tim. 5:16, adopted in the Textus Receptus, and translated in the KJV and a few other English translations.
I’ve been thinking deeply about 1 Timothy 5:3-16 for over a year, close to two, and the way I read it, including the “pledge” translation, isn’t influenced in any way by thinking that 1 Timothy was written in the second, let alone third, century. I’m slightly alarmed at how quickly virginity, celibacy, and denouncing marriage became issues in even the mid-first century church as per 1 Corinthians 7.
As it happened, today I came across a fable recorded by Babrius that uses pistis in the context of giving a pledge.
Fable 100 (or 99) about the Lion and Eagle
Teresa Morgan’s translation:
An eagle, flying down to a lion, suggested they join forces.
“Why not?” said the lion. “But you will need to give me your primary wing feathers to ensure that you do not renege on your pledge (pistis). How can I trust you as a friend if you do not stay with me?”
Morgan, Roman Faith and Christian Faith: Pistis and Fides in the Early Roman Empire and Early Churches (Oxford, 2015), 56.
TO MARRY OR NOT? Scholars have struggled with the seeming contradiction between 5:11-12 (incurring condemnation for desiring to marry, Greek gameō) and 5:14 (Paul says they should marry, Greek gameō), especially since the false teachers had forbidden marriage (4:3). Here’s my suggestion:
“Some have suggested that they are looking to marry an unbeliever, but Paul’s remedy in verse 14 does not specify marriage to a believer. In view of the remedy, which is to marry and settle down, it seems more likely that Paul is employing a wordplay, using gameō in verse 11 in its sense of taking a lover. Since Timothy already knows the situation, Paul will be confident that Timothy will understand his meaning. The desire to take a lover would fit with the use of katastrēniaō and also with Paul’s emphasis on sexual purity in this letter . . .” True Complementarity: The way of Christ for men and women, 588 (due out in Oct 2026). Note the similarity to Paul’s thought in 1 Cor. 7:9.
The way I read 1 Timothy 5, I don’t see a contradiction: marrying is only a problem for women who had made the decision to live celibate lives.
I don’t see any suggestion that Paul was worried that the younger women might later marry unbelievers. I’m also finding the suggestion that Paul’s concern might be that younger women would take lovers difficult to readily accept. Rather, the concern was that they marry which, if they had vowed to be celibate, would bring condemnation.
Regarding 1 Corinthians 7:9, “burning” with passion and taking a lover are not the same thing. But Paul did encourage marriage if the “burning” became too difficult to handle. I mention 1 Corinthians 7 in footnote 5.
I’m curious about this comment: “Paul’s emphasis on sexual purity in this letter.” Which verses in 1 Timothy encourage sexual purity? I get the sense that Paul wanted the Ephesians to tone down their enthusiasm for celibacy and other expressions of asceticism (cf. 1 Tim. 4:3ff). He wanted “holiness with moderation” (1 Tim 2:15).
BUSYBODIES OR PEOPLE WHO PRACTICE MAGIC? Ephesus was a great centre for magic. Special magic words were “Ephesian letters”. On statues, Artemis had bags of magic materials hanging on her chest. In 2 Timothy, Paul compares some false teachers in Ephesus to the ancient magicians Jannes and Jambres (2 Tim. 3:8). This comparison is a strong indication that false teachings in Ephesus include the practice of magic. In 2 Tim 3:13 Paul uses a word which has the primary meaning “sorcerer”.
The inclusion of magic in the false teachings is not inconsistent with an interest in the Jewish law (1 Tim. 1:7), since we have evidence from Acts of a Jew who was a sorcerer and false prophet (Bar-Jesus/Elymas, Acts 13:6–10; compare 8:9–24; and see also Ezek. 13:17–23).
I have a discussion on the Ephesia Grammata and on Ephesus as a centre for magic here:
https://margmowczko.com/1-timothy-212-in-context-2/
However, I see no hint that 1 Timothy was written in response to issues related to magic. But I totally agree that “Jewish” and “magic” or “sorcery” are not mutually exclusive.
https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/327/oa_edited_volume/chapter/2530863
Jannes and Jambres are used in 2 Timothy 3:8-9 as examples of people who opposed Moses and who opposed truth. The idea of opposition, more so than them being magicians, seems to be Paul’s point.
I’m happy to be corrected on this, but I don’t think periergos was commonly used to mean “magician” in the first century, and previously. Though it does seem to have had this meaning in later Hellenistic writings.
Just putting this quotation from Paul Trebilco.
“… we note too that the opponents forbid marriage (1 Tim 4:3), and that the widows are clearly (now) unmarried. Since it was unusual in Greco-Roman culture for a young women whose husband had died, or a young women who had never been married to remain unmarried, (some of) these women seem to have been choosing not to marry or remarry, in accordance with the opponents’ activity of “forbidding marriage” (1 Tim. 4:3). If some of these women were themselves teachers, then they are exemplifying their own teaching. And as they teach from house to house, they are probably advocating celibacy as part of their teaching, and so are seeking to increase the size of the widows’ group and the number of adherents to this alternative teaching within the community.
[…]
All these points indicate that some widows were themselves among the teachers opposing the Pastor, and thus were teachers in the community of the addresses. […] Given the amount of time the Pastor devotes to this issue of women who are involved in teaching (in 1 Tim 2:11-15 and 5:3-16), it seems likely that women were among the official teachers and so that some women were currently leaders in the community. Against this background, we can discuss 1 Tim 2:8-15.”
Aa Paul Trebilco’s book, The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius. Much of pages 19-29, which is on Artemis, can be read on Google Books.