1 Timothy 5:9

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 1 Timothy 5:3-16

Directions are here given concerning the taking of widows into the number of those who were employed by the church and had maintenance from the church: Honour widows that are widows indeed. Honour them, that is, maintain them, admit them into office. There was in those times an office in the church in which widows were employed, and that was to tend the sick and the aged, to look to them by the direction of the deacons. We read of the care taken of widows immediately upon the first forming of... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 Timothy 5:9-10

5:9-10 Let a woman be enrolled as a widow only if she is more than sixty years of age; if she has been the wife of one husband; if she has earned an attested reputation for good works; if she has nourished children; if she has been hospitable to strangers; if she has helped those in trouble; if she has washed the feet of the saints; if she has devoted herself to every good work. From this passage it is clear that the Church had an official register of widows; and it seems that the word... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 1 Timothy 5:9-10

As we have already said, if not as early as the time of the Pastoral Epistles, certainly in later days, the widows became an accepted order in the Christian Church. Their place and work are dealt with in the first eight chapters of the third book of The Apostolic Constitutions, and these chapters reveal the use that such an order could be and the dangers into which it almost inevitably ran. (i) It is laid down that women who would serve the Church must be women of discretion. Particularly... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 1 Timothy 5:9

Let not a widow be taken into the number ,.... That is, of widows, to be maintained by the church; though some choose to understand these words of the number of such who were made deaconesses, and had the care of the poor widows of the church committed to them; and so the Arabic version renders it, "if a widow be chosen a deaconess"; but the former sense is best, for it appears from 1 Timothy 5:1 that the apostle is still speaking of widows to be relieved: now such were not to be taken... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Timothy 5:9

Taken into the number - Let her not be taken into the list of those for which the Church must provide. But some think that the apostle means the list of those who were deaconesses in the Church; and that no widow was to be admitted into that rank who did not answer to the following character. See on 1 Timothy 5:10 ; (note). Under threescore years - As it might be supposed that, previously to this age, they might be able to do something towards their own support. See on 1 Timothy 5:10 ... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 1 Timothy 5:9

Verse 9 9Let a widow be chosen. He again points out what kind of widows should be taken under the care of the Church; (91) and more clearly than he had formerly done. Not under sixty years of age First, he describes the age, sixty years; for, being supported at the public expense, it was proper that they should have already reached old age. Besides, there was another and stronger reason; for they consecrated themselves to the ministry of the Church, which would have been altogether... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Timothy 5:1-16

I. BEHAVIOR OF TIMOTHY TOWARD THE ELDER AND YOUNGER CHURCH MEMBERS OF BOTH SEXES . "Rebuke not an eider, but exhort him as a father; the younger men as brethren: the eider women as mothers; the younger as sisters, in all purity." A minister has to deal with people differing in age and sex. If he is a young minister like Timothy, he has a difficult part to act. It may happen that one who is very much his cider is guilty of an offence. How is he to conduct himself... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Timothy 5:1-25

I. THE CONDUCT OF TIMOTHY TOWARD ELDERLY MEN . "Reprimand not an elderly person, but exhort him as a brother." The allusion is not to an official elder of the Church, but to any elderly member of it. 1. Such persons might possibly be guilty of serious shortcomings , warranting private admonition, if not the exercise of discipline. Their conduct would have a worse effect than that of more youthful offenders. 2. Timothy must not use sharpness or severity in dealing... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 1 Timothy 5:9

Let none be enrolled as a widow for let not a widow be taken into the number, A.V. Let none be enrolled , etc. The proper translation seems certainly to be (Ellicott, Alford, Huther, etc.), let a woman be enrolled as a widow not under sixty years old; i.e. χήρα a is the predicate, not the subject. It follows that the word "widow" here is used in a slightly different sense from that in the preceding verses, viz. in the technical sense of one belonging to the order of widows, of which it... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - 1 Timothy 5:9

Let not a widow be taken into the number - Margin, “chosen.” The margin expresses the sense of the Greek more accurately, but the meaning is not materially different. Paul does not here specify into what “number” the widow is to be “taken,” or for what purpose she is to be “chosen,” but he speaks of this as a thing that was well understood. There can be no doubt, however, what he means. In the Acts of the Apostles 1 Timothy 6:1 we have this account: “And in those days, when the number of the... read more

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