Widow

Matthew 28:13 (in some texts); Mark 12:40,42,43; Luke 2:37; 4:25,26 , lit., "a woman a widow;" Luke 7:12; 18:3,5; 20:47; 21:2,3; Acts 6:1; 9:39,41; 1—Timothy 5:3 (twice),4,5,11,16 (twice); James 1:27; 1—Timothy 5:9 refers to elderly "widows" (not an ecclesiastical "order"), recognized, for relief or maintenance by the church (cp. 1—Timothy 5:3,16 ), as those who had fulfilled the conditions mentioned; where relief could be ministered by those who had relatives that were "widows" (a likely circumstance in large families), the church was not to be responsible; there is an intimation of the tendency to shelve individual responsibility at the expense of church funds. In Revelation 18:7 , it is used figuratively of a city forsaken.