Paul’s
Qualifications for Woman Elders
I Tim 5:2-8 The elder (Greek: Presbuteras – Presbyters [This is the Greek name for those who sat on the Sanhedrin Luke 7:3] – who Christ declares to sit in the seat of Moses) women (Women Elders! – This term is used here and in the book of Titus. This position is listed here and in Titus with some of their duties described.) as (Behave themselves as loving and nurturing) mothers; the younger (women are to behave themselves) as sisters, (Greek A-Delphas – [Bible Scholars Note: In Genesis 4 A-Delphos is used 5 times in regard to Cain and Able being brothers of the same mother, rather than cousins or kinsmen.] ) with all purity. Honour widows that are widows indeed. (This is a statement as impossible as it may seem that in the early church they did not simply take one’s word for widowhood – but needed to prove all things, to see if they be so..) But if any widow have children (Tekna) or nephews (Ek-Gona -- Others she raised on her knees.) Let them (These widows) learn first to shew piety at home (This would seem to be submitting to their husband’s parents), and to requite their parents: (And if that does not work out she is to return then to her Pro-Gunois, her First Parents) for that is good and acceptable before God. (A widow was to dwell with his parents, or return to her Pro-Gunois) Now she that is a widow indeed, and desolate (Without those who she can return to), trusteth in God, and continueth in supplications and prayers night and day.(To meet her daily needs is a widow indeed) But she that liveth in pleasure Spata-losa (Spata is not in the Lexicon or in Kittles, It is used 1 time in the Septuagint Ezekiel 16:49 – (Euthenia Espataluo) As Abundance of Idleness. Latin Vulgate reads: Dwells in Self-indulgent – However the word Spata is in a online Latin Lexicon and it means: metal beaten flat as into a broad sword; a flat stirrer; a batten for beating woof; a splint; or a palm spathe; [The English for this is clearly spatula – The second part of this word: Spata-Losa Lo-Loidoros reviling and railing [We see here that this instead is speaking of” The contentious woman spoken of in Proverbs as being the “destroyer of households.”] Proverbs 25:24, Proverbs 26:21, [Proverbs 27:15-16 –This is the passage that Paul is citing from the Septuagint which reads quite different. Paul is speaking of a woman here that with her contention and reviling that is beating her household in pieces – this is something that Job Attributes to Eve as having caused Adam to fall.) ] Proverbs 22:10) is dead while she liveth. (As Eve was after she partook of the fruit.) And these things (Word things not in Greek) give in charge, (Par-aggelle Flow with the Angels –This word is used with the taking of Communion) that they may be blameless. But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house(hold), he hath denied (nullified) the(ir) faith, and is worse than an infidel.
I
Tim 5:9-10 Let not a widow be taken into the number (That the number of those that
church provides for, the church is obligated of its own congregation to care
and provide for the sick, the weak, the elderly, widows, orphans and the
fatherless.) under threescore years old, (60 years old) having been the wife of one man.(This would seem to indicate
that divorced and re-married women were not uncommon in the early church. –despite
what was spoken in the church of Corinth) Well
reported of for good works (Elsewhere this is spoken of as” “being of good report.”) if she have brought up children (Listing this as a requirement
– reaffirms the Commandment of childbirth as a duty of all married women in 1
Timothy 2:15. ), if she have lodged
strangers (Ezeno-doxesen Zenilo –
Hospitality, Strangers, or Guests. Doxa – Glory, Glories in the care of strangers. This is to make the stranger
part of her broken household. As the poor widow woman did with Elijah) if she have washed the saints' (Christian brethren’s thus making herself a
servant of all.) feet, if she have relieved (Shared what little she has
with –this is evocative to widows mites. Not with the church as tithes but
with) the afflicted, (The early church was not
tithe and offering driven) if she have diligently followed (Ep-E-Kolou-Thesen, Epi-
To spring forth from, Eu Joyous or Joyfully, Kolou that which is good or fruitful, Thesen
To produce or make, Let her Joy spring forth from every good fruit that she produces.) every good work. (It would seem the Apostle has a mental image here of Joseph as a
super-abundant overflowing fruitful bough running over the walls here.)
Paul the Apostle is declaring here that the average Christians those
that are half-asleep half-hearted and lukewarm would NEVER be accepted as a
Church supported widow. The qualifications of such hold a very high and Godly
standard. – The elderly widows were hired as Women Elders They were fed and
housed and were set in to teach the younder.
When is a Chera (widow) not a Chera (widow)?
2
Samuel 20:3 And
David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his
concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed
them, but went not in unto them.(Never
had relations or saw them again) So they were shut up unto the day of their death,
living in widowhood. (Greek Chera – Zosai -- Widowhood while
their husband was alive.)
The word Chera in classic Greek does not mean widow, it
is a specific widow that was left desolate, forsaken, abandoned and empty.
In
Matthew 15:22 And, behold, a woman of
Canaan came out (Greek
I Timothy 5:11-15 But the younger widows
refuse: (to
house and support) for when they have begun to wax wanton against (V:14 shows this is a mistranslation. The Greek word here is: Kata-Streniasosn -- Drawn down into submission to the command of) Christ, (that) they (Missing Greek word Desire) (and so) will (in obedience) re-marry; (This has to do with women’s
obligation to be fruitful and multiply – to raise up seed unto the Lord, and to
take what the devil meant for evil-fruitlessness and bring it into Godly
fruitfulness – to the Glory of God.) Having damnation, (Mistranslated Greek Krina: To Judge, To Discern, or To
Separate -- divorced ) because they (their unbelieving husbands or
wives) have cast off their first faith. (The context speaks here of
divorce rather than being a widow –in particular young women who’s
unbelieving husbands cast them aside and left them desolate. forsaken. abandoned
and empty – and because of the reproach of the gospel they are rejected by
their husband’s household and their own.) And
withal (free
church support) they (would) learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; (Partaking of free church support –Otherwise known as trafficking
on the Gospel)
and not only idle, but tattlers also and busy bodies, speaking things
which they ought not. I will therefore that the younger women (made widows while their
unbelieving husbands yet liveth) (re)marry, bear children,
guide the house, give none (pertaining to God’s grace in giving them as second household and
a second set of children) occasion to (becoming again)
the adversary (Greek Anti-Kei-Menos Anti In place of, Coitus Seed Menos To abide under the influence or rulership of [Using the word Anti-Kei-Menos
Paul’s is citing Isaiah 41:11 (Anti-Kei-Mai – KJV interprets this as: Incensed
against Septuagint interprets this as
Adversaries The Greek here is Anti – Coite
- Matos) This
term also refers to the seed of the serpent spoken of in Genesis 3:15 Seed Greek
Se-Permatos Se-Su Thy kindred Perimatos – Awaited for, To wait for. Peri
– is in the genitive case which means it is the central point of activity Maten [Classical Greek] To be idle, To dally, To loiter,
To linger ) to speak reproachfully. (To
condemn them. [by their having created them]) For
some (households
and children not raised in the righteous fear of God)
are already turned aside after Satan.
Paul is stating her that the work of the adversary is as it was in the beginning in the garden. The preventing of Adam and the woman from creating a new entity through their becoming one in the flesh – The Household of Faith.
It was within this container of the Household of Faith that God was to have His seed raised up.
Here we can see this mission was accomplished in Christ the second and last Adam Christ successfully built his household for three and a half years during his ministry and in the end had 11 spiritual offspring (The Apostles) that had been raised in His own image and likeness. Paul speaks repeatedly of our being apart of Christ’s household.
What God desired in Adam and the woman he late fulfilled in Abram and Sarai for these succeeded in creating a household were the Lord and the fear of the Lord was instructed to all the servants and shepherds so that these indeed knew the Lord just as Abrahm and Sarah did – and this is demonstrated in the nameless selfless servant who when in the place of Abraham and performed all of his tasks flawlessly as if it had been Abraham himself doing these things. It was into that household of faith or household of faithfulness that the son of promise was given.
As there was a failing in the garden to attain this -- which is
later called by Moses the priesthood of all believers -- this was never attained in
For more insight into this read The Meno of Abiding located on the Sex and Family page.