1 Timothy 5.2-Paul Addresses Timothy's Proper Conduct With Respect To Older And Younger Women In The Christian Community
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday July 21, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 5:2-Paul Addresses Timothy’s Proper Conduct With Respect To Older And Younger Women In The Christian Community
Lesson # 95
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 5:1.
The apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 5:2 continues his thought from 1 Timothy 5:1 by addressing Timothy’s proper conduct with respect to older and younger women in the Christian community in Ephesus.
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, 2 the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity. (NASU)
“The older women as mothers” is composed of the accusative feminine plural form of the adjective presbuteros (πρεσβύτερος) (prezveetah-roce), “the older women” which is followed by the prepositional use of the comparative particle hos (ὡς) (oce), “as” and the accusative feminine plural form of the noun meter (μήτηρ) (me-tear), “mothers.”
The apostle Paul employs the figure of ellipsis meaning that he is deliberately omitting the second person singular present active imperative form of the verb parakaleo (παρακαλέω) (para-kah-leh-owe), “appeal to” although it is clearly implied from verse 1.
In 1 Timothy 5:1, 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.
It also denotes Timothy asking earnestly that younger Christian men abandon ungodly behavior in contrast to severely reprimanding them.
He is to “appeal” to younger Christian men as if they were his own brothers.
Now, here in 1 Timothy 5:2, this verb again means “to appeal” but this time is used with respect to Timothy’s proper conduct toward both older and younger women in the Christian community.
It denotes therefore, that when the need arises, Timothy is to ask earnestly older Christian women to abandon ungodly behavior in contrast to severely reprimanding them.
It denotes that he is to ask earnestly younger Christian women to abandon ungodly behavior in contrast to severely reprimanding them.
He is to “appeal” to older Christian women as if they were his own mother and younger Christian women as if they were his sisters.
The verb speaks of appealing to someone in the sense of bringing to their attention ungodly behavior in their life but doing so in such a way that it invokes a positive response.
When the need arises, Paul wants Timothy to appeal to the older and younger Christian women 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 women as if they were his mother and younger Christian women as if they were his sister.
Paul’s statements in 1 Timothy 1:3 and 4:6 indicate that Timothy was carrying out everything he wrote in this epistle including this command in 1 Timothy 5:2.
Thus, this command here in 1 Timothy 5:2 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 present imperative is simply a reminder to Timothy to continue doing what Paul told him to do before he left for Macedonia.
The adjective presbuteros is in the feminine form referring to older women who were either forty years of age and older or forty-six and older.
The comparative particle hos functions as a preposition and marks the manner in which Timothy was to treat older Christian women.
He was to treat older Christian women as if they were his own biological mother.
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 meter means “mother” and refers to someone who is another’s biological female parent. Motherhood was highly regarded in ancient Greece.
The Old Testament taught the Israelites to honor their mother (Exodus 20:12).
This is reiterated in the New Testament (Matthew 15:4; Mark 7:10; Ephesians 6:2).
So in 1 Timothy 5:2, Paul is instructing Timothy to continue making it his habit of appealing to older women as if they were his own biological mother.
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, 2 the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity. (NASU)
“And the younger women as sisters” is composed of the accusative feminine plural form of the adjective neos (νέος) (nayoce), “the younger women” and the prepositional use of the comparative particle hos (ὡς) (oce), “as” and the accusative feminine plural form of the noun adelphe (ἀδελφή) (ah-thel-fee), “sisters.”
The adjective neos is in the feminine gender and means “younger women” referring to Christian women who have not yet reached the age of forty or forty-six, which marked an older women.
It is not referring to women younger than Timothy but those who were younger in comparison to those who were considered older by Graeco-Roman and Jewish society.
Once again, as was the case the first time it appeared in 1 Timothy 5:2, the comparative particle hos functions as a preposition and marks the manner in which Timothy was to treat younger Christian women.
He was to treat them as if they were his own biological sisters.
The idea behind the word is that Timothy is to treat younger Christian women 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 adelphe refers to a female having the same father and mother as the reference person (Louw and Nida, 10.50).
It refers to a female who comes from the same womb as the reference person (BDAG, page 18).
Therefore, in 1 Timothy 5:2, Paul is teaching Timothy to continue making it his habit of appealing to younger Christian women as if they were his own biological sisters.
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, 2 the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity. (NASU)
“In all purity” is composed of the preposition en (ἐν), “in” and its object is the dative feminine singular form of the adjective pas (πᾶς), “all” which is modifying the dative feminine singular form of the noun hagneia (ἁγνεία) (ahg-nee-ah), “purity.”
The noun hagneia refers to Timothy conforming his behavior to the holy standards of the gospel with regards to women in the Ephesian Christian community.
It refers to conforming one’s behavior to the holy standards of the gospel with regards to sexual behavior.
The term speaks of Timothy experiencing sanctification or in other words experiencing that which is true of him positionally, namely that he is crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Christ.
It makes plain that Timothy is to be an example for believers by being sexually pure so as to gain their respect.
The word is the object of the preposition en, which functions as a marker of manner denoting that sexual purity was the manner in which Timothy was to conduct himself with respect to younger Christian women.
The adjective pas means “absolute” in the sense of perfectly embodying sexual purity.
Thus, Paul wants Timothy to perfectly embody sexual purity with respect to younger Christian women.