This sample covers 1Ti 5.17-19.

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.” Do not admit a charge against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses. (1Ti 5.17-19, ESV)

I'm almost hesitant to post this as my thoughts on this section are far from resolved. I'm most confused by the concept of "double honor". Does it involve monetary compenasation?

Also, what really was the structure of the church at this point? How do overseers (ἐπίσκοπος) and elders (πρεσβύτερος) relate to each other? Are all overseers elders, but not all elders overseers?

You'll see that I have many notes to myself in the footnotes, and I discuss sorts of things that I don't typically discuss in these studies. This is just me working through issues on paper, much of it will likely be cut in future revisions that are more "word study" focused.

Please see my overview post for further details on what this is all about.

Comments via email or through the commenting system here are appreciated.

Thanks!

This sample covers 1Ti 5.9-10 and 1Ti 5.11-16:

Let a widow be enrolled if she is not less than sixty years of age, having been the wife of one husband, and having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work. But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith. Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not. So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander. For some have already strayed after Satan. If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, let her care for them. Let the church not be burdened, so that it may care for those who are really widows. (1Ti 5.9-16, ESV)

This is actually covered as two parts (vv. 9-10 and vv. 11-16) of a larger section (vv. 3-16).

Please see my overview post for further details on what this is all about.

Comments via email or through the commenting system here are appreciated.

Thanks!

This sample covers 1Ti 5.3-8:

Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, but she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives. Command these things as well, so that they may be without reproach. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1Ti 5.3-8, ESV)

This is actually covered as two parts (v. 3 and vv. 4-8) of a larger section (vv. 3-16).

Please see my overview post for further details on what this is all about.

Comments via email or through the commenting system here are appreciated.

Thanks!

This sample covers 1Ti 5.1-2:

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father. Treat younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like sisters, in all purity. (1Ti 5.1-2, ESV)

Please see my overview post for further details on what this is all about.

Comments via email or through the commenting system here are appreciated.

Thanks!

As some out there know, I've been writing as I've been working my way through the Pastoral Epistles. I've recently finished a first draft of notes on 1Ti 5. When I finish a chapter, I've been in the habit of inviting friends to my house to critique on I've written. We usually meet every other week. The meeting consists of dinner, which I make, of course! After achieving satiety, we stay sittin' 'round the table and dig into the text for the evening. It is a very fun time.

This time through, I thought it might be nice to allow others to offer feedback on what I've written. So I'd like to make each session's text available as a PDF file on this web site for y'all to download and review. If you'd like to offer feedback, then please do so! You can email, you can write a word doc or something else and send it to me (I prefer PDF; word docs may contain nasty viruses), or even just leave some comments on this site.

I should say a bit about what I'm writing. It isn't commentary, per se. I've settled into a long-term examination of the Pastorals, and I'm convinced it will take multiple passes through the text at several levels. This is my third pass; at current rate I anticipate it will take a few more years to finish.

My first pass was to do a translation. It took two months, as I recall. I'm not altogether happy with it, and plan on updating it at some future point; it is online.

My second pass was just to work through definitions of all verbs, nouns and adjectives in the Pastorals (this is online as well), that took about 10 months, as I recall.

My third and present pass is at the level of word studies. I realize some think that there is much danger in word studies, but when done responsibly they are a necessary part of exegeting a text. I'm interested in the meaning of words in context, not of words as unattached things or abstract concepts devoid of context. My method has been to examine similar usage in like contexts in the NT, the LXX, and other literature (Apostolic Fathers, Josephus, Philo, Pseudeipgrapha, etc.); commenting on the other similar usages for insight to the specific instance in the Pastorals. This pass feels at times like a commentary, but is really intended to examine words and phrases in current, specific context as a necessary precursor to the next pass-thru. The next pass (in a few years) will likely involve more commentary-like examination though it will be at a sentence/paragraph/discourse level.

So I hope to, every other week for the next 10 weeks (so, five posts), be posting a PDF sample of my examination of a chunk of chapter 5. This first chunk will be over 1Ti 5.1-2. The first chunk will be posted shortly. Please note these chunks reflect a rough draft, complete with occasional notes to myself in the footnotes, so go easy on me.

Again, I'm doing this primarily for a wider range of feedback. So if you read it and have thoughts (positive or negative, I can take it) please do email and let me know what you think.

Andrew D. Rowell of the blog called First Move Thyself posts a Bibliography of Key Biblical Commentaries for Women in Ministry Issues. In his list, he has a section of commentaries on the Pastoral Epistles divided into subcategories of Complementarian and Egalitarian.

I stumbled across the website of Andreas Kostenberger (http://biblicalfoundations.org/) while browsing around for other things. Included on the site are PDF editions of several reviews he has written.

• Reviews on Paul the Apostle, including reviews of the ICC Pastoral Epistles volume by I. Howard Marshall and the WBC Pastoral Epistles volume by William Mounce.
• Reviews on the Roles of Women in the Church, along with other articles and some dictionary articles he has written on the topic.

Upon reading the site front page, I'm also led to believe that a second updated edition of his book Women in the Church: A Fresh Analysis of 1Ti 2.9-15 will be released in 2005 under the title Women in the Church: An Analysis and Application of 1Ti 2.9-15. Also, apparently Dr. Kostenberger is the author of the upcoming New Expositor's Bible Commentary volume (published by Zondervan) on the Pastoral Epistles. This volume as well is currently scheduled for a 2005 release.

Peter Kirby, of Early Christian Writings fame, sent me an email with a note that he is starting to gather material for a set of notes on the Pastoral Epistles. On his own blog, he writes:

I have begun to create a set of notes on the interpretation of the Pastoral Epistles. I have completed the first two sections of it (and part of the third). I plan to do a section or two per day. After I have finished making notes, I plan to write an introduction, treating at least the issues of authorship, date, provenance, and occasion. At that time I may, or I may not, write the kind of free flowing prose that is usually termed "commentary."

Check it out and make sure to offer him some feedback. My own work in the Pastorals is from a little different angle — I'm staying away from formal commentaries on purpose for now unless I'm really stuck and can't figure out what's going on. I'll most likely make a later pass in which I will interact with commentaries and review what I've written.

Peter appears to be compiling salient bits from various sources and interspersing them with his own thoughts. If he keeps it up (and I have no reason to think he won't) the resultant resource should end up a nice site to check out when working through a passage in the Pastorals.

Thanks, Peter!

I just did a Google search for Pastoral Epistles. At the top of the page was a link to the Google Print edition of Donald Guthrie's Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (hopefully that link works for you).

Weird. I hadn't thought about how to categorize that sort of stuff.

George W. Knight's NIGTC volume is, as far as I am concerned, the best available critical commentary available that seriously interacts with the Greek text.

Mounce (WBC) is good. Knight is better. Knight deals directly with morphological and syntactical issues when necessary and doesn't have the broad structure of WBC to bog him down. He doesn't get into the contemporary citations so much, but again the focus helps him. If you plan to work through the Greek text, then Knight (combined with SIL's Exegetical Summaries) is your friend.

This volume of the Hermeneia series is valuable for its citations of the Apostlic Fathers and other early Christian materials. But it is handy for other things too.

The Greek text is interacted with to great detail and several other works are cited. In many instances, English translations of cited Greek are provided, which is helpful if one's Greek skills are not as sharp as they once were.

After one has done his initial study of the text, if his study is serious he should next interact with Dibelius and Conzelmann.

Ellicott's commentary hails from the late 19th century, but don't let that scare you away. The commentary is on the Greek directly. I'm not sure of the Greek edition, though. I'd thought it was Tischendorf's editio octava maior, but I can't confirm that at present. Perhaps it is Textus Receptus.

Either way, Ellicott's work is worth examining, primarily because he really is commenting critically on the language. He also brings in readings from Latin, Syriac and Gothic and examines them along with the Greek where he deems appropriate. He references readings from various uncial texts frequently. There are several references to classical Greek works as well.

His Revised Translation is his attempt to update the KJV. Most helpful in this translation is his apparatus of alternate English readings, with several English versions represented.

I have only consulted the first edition of this book (published 1957). A second edition is currently available.

Guthrie's work is accessible and clear. This commentary should be near the top of the list for those embarking on a study of the Pastorals, particularly if a technical commentary (e.g. WBC, Hermeneia, NIGTC) is seen as overkill.

From the preface:

I have been conscious of many difficulties in approaching my task of commenting upon these letters. Over a considerable period serious doubts have been cast upon their authenticity by many scholars and this has tended to decrease their authority. I have felt obliged to make a thorough investigation of these objections, and the results are given as fully as space will permit in the Introduction. A special examination has been mde of the linguistic problem. Because of the technical nature of this study, the conclusions reached are gien in an Appendix.

Gordon Fee's NIBC volume is a solid entry in the list of commentaries on the Pastoral Epistles. The text is readable and clear yet not condescending.

Fee doesn't comment on the original language, but he's obviously done the homework in that area. If you're someone who doesn't get into Greek but wants a serious, in-depth look at the Pastoral Epistles, then Fee's commentary may be what you're looking for.

From the preface:

The basic concern throughout is with exegesis, an exposition of Paul's intent in writing these letters to Timothy and Titus in their historical context.

I have not read much of this commentary. I do know that Houlden does not hold to Pauline authorship. In most issues, the commentary appears to be concise and to the point. The overall perspective seems similar to the perspective of Dibelius and Conzelman in the Hermeneia volume on the Pastoral Epistles.

Jacket Copy:

The author of these letters, I Timothy, II Timothy and Titus, seeks through pastoral advice to protect the heritage of Paul from partisan distortions. This commentary situates the letters int he period after Paul's death, when the church was divided by problems of identity and doctrine. Professor Houlden employs careful, exacting scholarship as he demonstrates how these are also problems which trouble the church today.

This book is part of SIL's Exegetical Summary series. It works throught the text, phrase by phrase, pointing to different lexicons and translations of the phrase at hand. It also points to the opinion of different commentaries.

The book is extremely helpful for one who is working through the text at the phrase level. It serves as an index to both commentaries and lexicons. In addition, the text asks (and answers) several questions along the way.

This book is part of SIL's Exegetical Summary series. It works throught the text, phrase by phrase, pointing to different lexicons and translations of the phrase at hand. It also points to the opinion of different commentaries.

The book is extremely helpful for one who is working through the text at the phrase level. It serves as an index to both commentaries and lexicons. In addition, the text asks (and answers) several questions along the way.