1 Timothy 5.16-Wealthy Christian Women Are To Financially Support Those Who Are Widows In Their Own Households
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday August 23, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 5:16-Wealthy Christian Women Are To Financially Support Those Who Are Widows In Their Own Households
Lesson # 112
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 5:16.
In 1 Timothy 5:16, the apostle Paul closes this section on the care of widows by instructing Timothy and the Ephesian church to have Christian women who have the means to do so, take responsibility in supporting financially those who are widows indeed.
1 Timothy 5:16 If any woman who is a believer has dependent widows, she must assist them and the church must not be burdened, so that it may assist those who are widows indeed. (NASB95)
“If any woman who is a believer has dependent widows” is composed of the conditional particle ei (εἰ) (ee), “if” and this is followed by the nominative feminine singular form of the indefinite pronoun tis (τις) (teece), “any” and the nominative feminine singular form of the adjective pistos (πιστός) (pee-stoce), “woman who is a believer” and the third person singular present active indicative form of the verb echo (ἒχω) (eh-ho), “has” and then we have the accusative feminine plural form of the noun chera (χήρα) (hear-dah), “widows.”
In 1 Timothy 5:16, Paul is employing the figure of “asyndeton” in order to emphasize the command here in 1 Timothy 5:16 in the sense that he wants Timothy and the Ephesian Christian community to dwell upon it and obey it.
This figure emphasizes the importance of this command for the Christian community in Ephesus.
The conditional particle ei introduces a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
The idea behind the first class condition is not “since” but rather, “if-and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that, then...”
This would encourage Paul’s audience to respond and come to the conclusion of the apodosis since they already agreed with him on the protasis.
Therefore, Paul is employing the first class condition as a tool of persuasion with his audience. Paul’s audience would respond to his protasis.
Here the protasis is “if and let assume that it is true for the sake argument that a Christian woman has in her household widows who are in need financially.”
The audience would respond that there were Christian women who did have widows who were in need financially.
The apodasis is “(then) that she must assist them.”
The indefinite pronoun tis is used as an adjective since it is modifying the substantive use of the adjective pistos, “believing woman” and thus refers to a Christian woman without further identification.
It speaks of no particular Christian woman.
She is hypothetical.
The adjective pistos is in the feminine and refers to those women have been converted to Christianity by exercising faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Specifically, it is referring to well to do or wealthy Christian women in Ephesus.
This is indicated by several factors.
First of all, the noun chera in the protasis in this passage is in the plural meaning that this hypothetical Christian woman possesses more than one widow in her home.
This would indicate that she is wealthy since to support more than one widow in one’s home, you would have to be well off financially.
Another factor that strongly suggests that τις πιστὴ, “any woman believer” is a reference to wealthy Christian women is Paul’s statement in 1 Timothy 2:9.
The command in 1 Timothy 2:9 clearly implies that there were Christian women in Ephesus who were wealthy since only those women who were wealthy could afford to adorn themselves with extravagant hairstyles as well as with gold and pearls and extravagantly expensive clothing.
This command would not apply to a Christian woman who was poor or even middle class.
In 1 Timothy 5:16, the verb echo refers to those widows who reside in the household of some Christian woman and thus denotes “possessing” widows in one’s household whether they are a sister, mother, or grandmother or one she has befriended.
The noun chera in 1 Timothy 5:16 is in the plural form and means “widows” referring to a woman whose husband has died.
The context indicates clearly that it refers to widows who are in need of financial aid.
The plural form of the word implies that the hypothetical Christian woman in view in the protasis possesses financial wealth since the word is speaking of possessing more than one widow in their household and to support more than one widow in one’s home, one must have more than enough means to do so.
1 Timothy 5:16 If any woman who is a believer has dependent widows, she must assist them and the church must not be burdened, so that it may assist those who are widows indeed. (NASB95)
“She must assist them” is composed of the third person singular present active imperative form of the verb eparkeo (ἐπαρκέω) (ehpar-kehowe), “she must assist” which is followed by the third person dative feminine plural form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) (awf-toce), “them.”
In 1 Timothy 5:16, the verb eparkeo refers to wealthy Christian women financially “helping” Christian widows in their households.
The customary present imperative form of the verb eparkeo is a “customary present imperative” that expresses a general precept that wealthy Christian women must financially support those widows in their households.
The fact that Paul addresses these wealthy Christian women to help the widows in their own homes implies that there was a problem among many Christian women in Ephesus in not providing financially for the widows in their homes and were burdening the church as a result.
Undoubtedly, there were many wealthy women who did support the widows in their own homes and of course there must have been some that did not otherwise he would not addressed this issue in the first place.
Thus it is best to view this present imperative as Paul, simply communicating a general precept of the Word of God and the Lord and the apostles’ teaching without reference to whether there was a violation of this command or not.
“And the church must not be burdened” is composed of the conjunction kai (καί) (keh), “and” which is followed by the negative particle me (μή) (me), “not” which is negating the third person singular present passive imperative form of the verb bareo (βαρέω) (vah-veh-owe), “must be burdened” and then we have the articular nominative feminine singular form of the noun ekklesia (ἐκκλησία) (ek-klee-see-ah), “the church.”
The conjunction kai is epexegetical meaning that it is introducing a prohibition that “explains” in another way or from a different perspective the previous command.
Here in 1 Timothy 5:16, the verb bareo describes wealthy Christian women “burdening” financially the Ephesian Christian community because of not supporting the widows in their own homes and instead letting the church fulfill this responsibility for these widows.
So the word describes an oppressive financial burden upon the Ephesian Christian community because of these wealthy Christian women not taking responsibility for the widows in their own households.
This verb’s meaning is negated by the negative particle me, “not,” which serves to deny any idea of wealthy Christian women in Ephesus neglecting this responsibility.
These two words form a prohibition that denies any idea of these wealthy Christian women failing to fulfill their responsibility to provide financially for the widows in their own homes.
The customary present imperative form of the verb bareo is used of a general precept indicating that wealthy Christian women must not financially burden the church by not financially support the widows in their households.
It denotes that they are to be characterized as not financially burdening the church by not supporting those widows who live in their homes.
“So that it may assist those who are widows indeed” is composed of the conjunction hina (ἵνα) (ee-nah), “so that” and then we have the articular dative feminine plural form of the noun chera (χήρα) (hear-dah), “those who are widows” and this is followed by the adverb ontos (ὄντως) (on-dose), “indeed” and then we have third person singular aorist active subjunctive form of the verb eparkeo (ἐπαρκέω) (ehpar-kehowe), “it may assist.”
The conjunction hina is employed with the subjunctive mood of the verb eparkeo, “it may assist” in order to form a purpose clause that emphasizes the “intention” of the preceding prohibition.
This indicates that hina is introducing a clause that presents Paul’s purpose for prohibiting wealthy Christian women from burdening the church financially because of not financially supporting the widows in their own homes.
The noun chera refers to the widows who meet the qualifications presented by Paul in 1 Timothy 5:5 and 9-10.
The adverb ontos means “truly” and is describing a widow who does not have children or relatives to support them financially and materially.
The word contains the idea that she is a widow in the truest sense meaning that she meets the qualifications presented by Paul in 1 Timothy 5:5 and 9-10 making her eligible for financial aid from the church.
It does not however deny that others are widows in the normal sense of the word but rather it is used to signify those who qualify for the church’s care.