1 Timothy 3:11 - Exposition

Women in like maturer must for even so must their wives , A.V. ; temperate for sober , A.V. Women . What is meant by these "women"? Certainly not women in general, which would be quite out of harmony with the context. The choice lies between

This last, on the whole, is the most probable. The male deacons had just been spoken of, and so the apostle goes on to speak of the female deacons (at διάκονοι , Romans 16:1 ). He conceives of the deacon's office as consisting of two branches—

and gives appropriate directions for each. It must he remembered that the office of the early deacon was in a great measure secular, so that there is nothing strange in that of the deaconess being coupled with it. The retrain in 1 Timothy 3:12 to the male deacon is in favor of understanding "the women" of the deaconesses, as showing that the subject of the diaconate was not done with. Chrysostom (who says, "He is speaking of those who hold the rank of deaconesses") and all the ancient commentators, and De Wette, Wiesinger, Wordsworth, Alford, and Ellicott among the moderns, so understand it (see following notes). Grave ( σεμνὰς ; see 1 Timothy 3:8 , note). Not slanderers ( μὴ διαβόλους , corresponding to the μὴ διλόγους of 1 Timothy 3:8 ). This use of διάβολος , which is the classical one, is peculiar in the New Testament to the pastoral Epistles (see 2 Timothy 3:3 ; Titus 2:3 ). Temperate ( νηφαλίους ; see 1 Timothy 3:2 , note). It corresponds here to the μὴ οἴνῳ πολλῷ προσέχοντας of 1 Timothy 3:8 . Faithful in all things ( πιστὰς ἐν πᾶδιν ). This seems to refer specially to their being the almoners of the Church charities, and so favors the explanation of "women" as meaning deaconesses. πιστός means especially "trusty" ( Matthew 24:45 ; Matthew 25:21 ; Luke 12:42 ; Luke 16:10 , etc.).