1 Timothy 5:19 - Exposition

Except at the mouth of for but before , A.V. An elder ; here clearly a presbyter, as the context proves. Receive ( παραδέχου ); give ear to , entertain ; as in Acts 22:18 , "They will not receive thy testimony." At the mouth of , etc. There is a reference to the law in Numbers 35:30 ; Deuteronomy 19:15 , and elsewhere (to which our Lord also refers, John 8:17 ), and St. Paul applies the principle of the law to Timothy's dealings with presbyters who might be accused of not "ruling well." He was not to encourage delatores , secret accusers and defamers, but if any one had a charge to make against a ruler, it was to be done in the presence of witnesses ( ἐπί with a genitive). A doubt arises whether" the witnesses" here spoken of were to be witnesses able to support the accusation, or merely witnesses in whose presence the accusation must be made. The juxtaposition of the legal terms κατηγορία and ἐπὶ μαρτύρων favors the strict meaning of μαρτύρων , witnesses able to support the κατηγορία . And, therefore, the direction to Timothy is, "Suffer no man to accuse a presbyter unless he is accompanied by two or three witnesses who are ready to back up the accusation." The italic the mouth of , in the R.V., is not necessary or indeed justified. There is no ellipsis of στόματος . ἐτὶ δύο ᾒ τριῶν μαρτύρων , " before two or three witnesses," is good classical Greek.