1 Timothy 5.1-Paul Addresses Timothy's Proper Conduct With Respect To Older And Younger Men In The Christian Community
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday July 20, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 5:1-Paul Addresses Timothy’s Proper Conduct With Respect To Older And Younger Men In The Christian Community
Lesson # 94
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 5:1.
In 1 Timothy 5:1, Paul instructs his young delegate Timothy as to how to conduct himself with regards to both older and younger men.
1 Timothy 5:1 Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers. (NASU)
“Do not sharply rebuke an older man” is composed of the dative masculine singular form of the adjective presbuteros (πρεσβύτερος) (prezveetah-roce), “an older man” which is followed by the negative particle me (μή) (me), “not” which is negating the second person singular aorist active subjunctive form of the verb epiplesso (ἐπιπλήσσω) (ehpee-pleece-soe), “do sharply rebuke.”
The adjective presbuteros is not referring to overseers, i.e. pastor-teachers or those with the gift of administrations, i.e. leadership as it does in 1 Timothy 5:17 and 19.
Rather the word in verse 1 is describing males in the Christian community who were older, which is indicated by the fact that the plural form of the word appears in verse 2 with reference to the older women in the Christian community.
1 Timothy 2:11-15 and 1 Timothy 3:1-7 make clear that women were prohibited from exercising authority and teaching men in the local assembly.
Thus, the feminine form of presbuteros in verse 2 is referring to older women and not women pastors, i.e. overseers.
Therefore, presbuteros in 1 Timothy 5:1 is referring to the “older men” in the Christian community.
Now, the question arises as to what age is a man considered to be “older?”
The answer to this question can be inferred from our study of 1 Timothy 4:12.
In this verse, the noun neotes, “youth” refers to Timothy’s youthful age who at the time Paul wrote 1 Timothy would have been in his late twenties to mid thirties.
Supporting this idea is that the cognate noun of neotes, neos was used of fully grown men of military age (W.M. Ramsay, The Teaching of Paul in Terms of the Present Day; London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1913; cited by Mounce).
Polybius uses neos to describe Flaminius as young because he was thirty.
Also, Irenaeus uses the word to describe Jesus as being a young man when He suffered on the cross. (Adv. Haer. 2.22.5; cited by Mounce, page 259)
So the idea of neos supports the conclusion that Timothy was in his late twenties to mid thirties.
In the ancient world, a man was considered “neotes” up to the age of forty-six.
Knight writes “Polybius (18.12.5) speaks of Flaminius as ‘young’ because he is only thirty, and Irenaeus (Haer. 2.22.5) explicitly says that one could be called ‘young’ up to forty (cf. Bernard, Simpson, Kelly).
Simpson points out that in Aulus Gellius (10.28) soldiers ‘are reckoned young men up to forty-six.’” (Knight, George W. III, The Pastoral Epistles: A Commentary on the Greek Text; pages 205; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan/Cambridge, U.K., The Paternoster Press; Bletchley)
Therefore, we can infer from this that a man was called presbuteros once he reached his forties or was forty-six years of age or older.
The verb epiplesso is used in a figurative sense of “rebuking severely” for disciplinary reasons an older man in the Christian community.
It refers to sharply criticizing or reprimanding an older man in the Christian community as a result of ungodly conduct.
The verb’s meaning is negated by the negative particle me, “not,” which denies any idea of Timothy sharply reprimanding an older man in the Christian community.
The aorist subjunctive form has the force of a general precept and makes no comment as to whether Timothy was in fact guilty of severely reprimanding older men in the Christian community.
However, Paul’s statement in 1 Timothy 1:3 and 4:6 indicate that Timothy was carrying out everything he wrote in this epistle including this prohibition.
Thus, the prohibition here in 1 Timothy 5:1 is simply a reminder to Timothy to continue doing what they talked about before Paul left for Macedonia.
Furthermore, Paul would not have delegated Timothy such a difficult task as the one in Ephesus unless he felt confident that his young delegate could carry out everything he required of him.
Therefore, the aorist subjunctive form of epiplesso and the negative particle me are simply forming a reminder to Timothy to continue doing what Paul told him to do before he left for Macedonia.
So the subjunctive mood of epiplesso is a prohibitive subjunctive forbidding the occurrence of Timothy severely reprimanding an older Christian man.
1 Timothy 5:1 Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers. (NASU)
“But rather appeal to him as a father” is composed of the adversative conjunction alla (ἀλλά) (ah-lah), “but rather” which is followed by the second person singular present active imperative form of the verb parakaleo (παρακαλέω) (para-kah-leh-owe), “appeal to” and the comparative particle hos (ὡς) (oce), “as” and the accusative masculine singular form of the noun pater (πατήρ) (pah-tear-ed), “father.”
This strong adversative conjunction alla is introducing a command that stands in direct contrast with the previous prohibition for Timothy to not severely reprimand an older Christian man.
Therefore, the emphatic contrast is between Timothy severely reprimanding an older Christian man and treating older Christian men as if they were his father, with all honor and respect.
The verb parakaleo means “to appeal” and in context it denotes Timothy asking earnestly that an older Christian man abandon ungodly behavior in contrast to severely reprimanding him for this behavior.
He is to “appeal” to older Christian men as if they were his own father, thus they were to be treated with the utmost respect and with honor.
Paul wants Timothy to appeal to the older Christian men when they are conducting themselves in an ungodly fashion in the sense of bringing to their attention that such behavior is wrong but doing so by treating them with honor and respect so as to illicit a positive response to such an appeal.
The present imperative form of the verb parakaleo is a “customary present imperative” whose force is for Timothy to simply continue making it his habit of appealing to older Christian men as if they were his father.
Paul’s statement in 1 Timothy 1:3 and 4:6 indicate that Timothy was carrying out everything he wrote in this epistle including this command.
Therefore, the present imperative is simply a reminder to Timothy to continue doing what Paul told him to do before he left for Macedonia.
The comparative particle hos functions as a preposition and marks the manner in which Timothy was to treat older Christian men.
He was to treat them as if they were his own biological father.
Thus, the implication is that he was to treat them with the utmost respect and with great honor since this was the case in Graeco-Roman society and the Jewish family in the first century.
The noun pater means “father’ and refers one’s biological male parent.
Thus, Paul is telling Timothy to treat older Christian men as if they were his own biological father.
“To the younger men as brothers” is composed of the accusative masculine plural form of the adjective neos (νέος) (nayoce), “the younger men” and the comparative particle hos (ὡς) (oce), “as” and the comparative particle hos (ὡς) (oce), “as” and the accusative masculine plural form of the noun adelphos (ἀδελφός) (ah-thel-foce), “brothers.”
The noun neos means “younger” and refers to Christian men who have not reached the age of forty or forty-six which marked an older man.
It is not referring to men younger than Timothy but those who were younger in comparison to those who were considered older by Graeco-Roman and Jewish society.
Once again, the comparative particle hos functions as a preposition and marks the manner in which Timothy was to treat younger Christian men.
He was to treat them as if they were his own biological brothers.
The idea behind the word is that Timothy is to treat younger Christian men as his peers and not as inferiors.
This however, does not diminish his authority as a pastor or as Paul’s delegate to the Ephesian Christian community.
The noun adelphos is in the plural and is used in a literal sense meaning “brothers” and refers to a male sibling with at least one parent in common.
It refers to a male from the same womb as the reference person or persons.
In other words, it refers to a male having the same father and mother as the reference person (Louw and Nida, 10.49).
Here it refers to a male who is related to Timothy in the sense that they share the same mother or father or both.
Therefore, Paul is instructing Timothy to treat younger Christian men as if they were his own biological brothers.