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!

In working through the Pastoral Epistles, one runs across 1Ti 4.16:

Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.

This sort of phrasing is also seen in some writings of the Apostolic Fathers:

I do not think that I have given trivial advice about self-restraint. And whoever takes my advice will have no regrets, but will instead save both himself and me, the one who has given the advice. There is no small reward for the one who converts a person who is going astray toward destruction, that he may be saved. (2Cl 15.1, Ehrman)

Do not be deceived, my brothers; those who corrupt their households will not inherit the kingdom of God. If then those who do such things according to the flesh die, how much more the one who corrupts the faith of God through an evil teaching, the faith for which Jesus Christ was crucified? Such a person is filthy and will depart into the unquenchable fire; so too the one who listens to him. (IEph 16.1-2, Ehrman)

There are others, of course, and they're listed in the article. What I've done is create a few very general patterns (based on morphology of portions of the phrase in 1Ti 4.16) and searched other corpora for that pattern. The PDF article simply lists semi-relevant instances that I culled from the 100+ hits located in corpora such as the Apostolic Fathers, OT Pseudepigrapha, Works of Philo and Works of Josephus.

I've created an 8-page PDF file (approx 500kb) that has the contents of the Pastoral Epistles from a transcription of Codex Alexandrinus. You'll need to rotate the document in order to read it in your browser.

The entire transcription of Alexandrinus' New Testament, in PDF, is available from bibles.org.uk

I've created an 8-page PDF file (approx 600kb) that has the contents of the Pastoral Epistles from a photographic facsimile of Codex Sinaiticus. The facsimile is based on photograph taken by Kirsopp Lake in the summer of 1908 in St. Petersburg.

The entire facsimile edition of Sinaiticus, in PDF, is available from bibles.org.uk

I don't believe I've posted a link to this before.

About a year and a half ago, I was able to locate a relatively inexpensive copy of P.N. Harrison's The Problem of the Pastoral Epistles.

One of the appendices of this book is a hand-written edition of the Pastoral Epistles, in Greek, in Souter's 1912 edition (with Westcott & Hort variants noted at the foot of the page). I've placed scans of these pages online for those interested in consulting them when looking at issues of authorship in the Pastoral Epistles:

P.N. Harrison's Marked-up Edition of the Pastorals

Here's a sample page:

Enjoy!

I've been interested in the distribution of semantic domains (among content-bearing words) in the Pastoral Epistles for awhile. When I was making my so-called "lexical notes", I assigned a Louw-Nida domain/article number to each instance of each verb, noun, and adjective.

I finally got around to writing code to count the instances of each domain per section. The section is the section as defined by the NA27 printed text. Here's an example from First Timothy §1 (1Ti 1.1-2):

• Domain 93, Names of Persons and Places: 8 occurrences
• Domain 12, Supernatural Beings and Powers: 4 occurrences
• Domain 25, Attitudes and Emotions: 2 occurrences

I provide numbers for everything with two or more occurrences in a given section. Please note that I have not double-checked my Louw-Nida domain assignment and I know there are a few mistakes in there. But the general trends should properly relate what's going on in each section.