Commentary on 1 Timothy 3.1–4.13

“A human saying: if anyone desires the office of bishop, he desires a good work.” Since a bishop must be of good life, whoever desires the office of bishop therefore desires a good work. For in desiring this he seems to seek a good life, provided he does not turn aside from what is set out in what follows, lest he seem to have done this out of ambition or desire for money. (Verse 2.) “For a bishop must be blameless.” He describes what a bishop ought to be, so that no one should seek the office of bishop unless he is trustworthy and able to abstain from everything contrary, so that he may not be unworthy of his profession. “The husband of one wife.” Although it is not forbidden to have a second wife in number, yet, for one to be worthy of the office of bishop, he ought to spurn even lawful things because of the loftiness of the order itself; for one who desires that see ought to be better than the rest.

“Sober, chaste, orderly, hospitable, apt to teach, not given to wine, not a striker but gentle, not quarrelsome, not harsh, but ruling his own house well, having children in subjection with all chastity.” He says that such a man, who keeps these good things he lists, ought to be made bishop. For these are the marks of episcopal dignity. But if anyone, pursuing the better things, has dedicated both his body and his soul to God so as not to join himself in marriage, he will be all the more worthy. For he set down the lesser so that no one should doubt about the better.

“But if anyone does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?” It is plain that he can become a fit ruler of the people if he has first governed his own house rightly; for “he who is faithful in the least is faithful also in much” (Luke 16:10).

“Not a recent convert, lest, puffed up with pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil.” It is true that those new in the faith are apt to be lifted up with pride, especially if they receive an order; for he is inflated by novelty and power, thinking himself worthier than the rest. For seeing honor conferred on him in the first year of his birth, he thinks that he has been called not so much for his own progress as for that of others, as though he were giving a benefit to religion rather than receiving one from it; and lifted up by this, he runs into the devil’s snare. For having found an occasion in his pride, Satan throws him down headlong. And so we read in Solomon: “God resists the proud” (Prov 3:34). Hence too the same apostle says in another letter: “Whoever thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself” (Gal 6:3). And the Lord: “Whoever exalts himself,” he says, “will be humbled” (Luke 14:11).

“He must also have a good testimony from those who are outside.” Following the Lord’s meaning, he says that a future bishop must have a good testimony from outsiders; for he who is faithful in the least is faithful also in much, as the Lord says. And: “If you have not been faithful in what is another’s, the mammon, who will give you what is yours?” (Luke 16:11–12). So that there is no doubt that one who is found not at all faithful in worldly matters and human dealings will not be fit in divine matters either; but if he has shown good faith to men, much more will he to God. “Lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.” If a bishop does not keep the fear of God before his eyes but accommodates himself to the times, God abandons him as faithless and a false prophet, and he will appear unsightly and stained to all, because he does otherwise than he preaches, accusing himself by his own words, since he has been assigned to Satan’s flock; for he proves that he preaches the truth when he strives to do it as well. So the one who receives the house of God to rule must be chosen with great care; for if fit stewards of earthly things are sought, how much more of heavenly things!

“Deacons likewise chaste, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not devoted to shameful gain, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also be tested first, and so let them serve without reproach.” He who gives such precepts about choosing deacons, who are plainly the ministers of the priests, what kind of bishops does he want, if not, as he himself says, blameless, having no public business, no shameful and base gains? For he knows that men trade in order to make gains, and do not profess anything other than what they do. And he says these gains are shameful if one devotes oneself to profits under a godly profession; for he is found to be base while he displays himself as pure. Yet after the bishop he placed the ordination of the diaconate. Why, unless because the ordination of bishop and presbyter is one? For each is a priest, but the bishop is first; so that every bishop is a presbyter, but not every presbyter a bishop; for the bishop is the one who is first among the presbyters. Indeed he indicates that Timothy was ordained a presbyter; but because he had no one above him, he was a bishop. Hence he also shows how he is to ordain a bishop; for it was neither right nor permitted that an inferior should ordain a greater; for no one gives what he has not received.

“Women likewise chaste, not given to discord, but sober, faithful in all things.” Because he commands that a bishop be made holy, and equally a deacon, he does not want the people to be unlike either of them; since the Lord says: “Be holy, because I too am holy” (Lev 19:2). And so he wants the women too, who seem inferior, to be without reproach, so that the household of God may be clean. But the Cataphrygians, seizing an occasion for error because he addresses women after the deacons, maintain with vain presumption that they too ought to be ordained deaconesses, although they know that the apostles chose seven deacons. Was no woman found fit then, when we read that there were holy women among the eleven apostles? But, so that the heretics may seem to build up their notion from the words and not the sense of the law, they rely on the apostle’s words against the apostle’s sense; so that, whereas he commands that a woman be silent in church, they on the contrary claim even the authority of ministry in the church.

“Let deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well; for those who have served well gain a good standing for themselves and much confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.” What he had said less fully about the ordination of the diaconate he now adds. He shows that they too ought to be husbands of one wife, so that those chosen for the ministry of God are men who have not gone beyond what God established. For God decreed one wife for a man, with whom he is blessed; for no one is blessed with a second. If they have governed their children and their houses well, that is, their slaves or household, they can become worthy of the priesthood and have confidence before God, so as to know that they can obtain what they ask, restraining themselves henceforth from the use of a woman. For in former times levites or priests were allowed to have wives for use because they were free from ministry or priesthood for much of the time (for there was a multitude of priests and a great number of levites, and each served the divine ceremonies at a fixed time according to the institution of David (1 Chr 6:31–32); for he established twenty-four courses of priests to serve by turns; hence Abijah held the eighth course, in whose turn Zechariah performed the priesthood, as is contained in the book of Chronicles (1 Chr 23:4; 24:10)), so that, at the time when it was not their turn to serve at the altar, they looked after their houses; but when the time of ministry approached, having been purified for some days, they went to the temple to offer to God. Now, however, there must be seven deacons and some presbyters, so that there are two in each church, and one bishop in a city; and therefore all ought to abstain from intercourse with a woman, because they must be present in church daily and have no interval in which to be lawfully purified after intercourse, as the ancients did. For the offering must be made every week, even if not daily for travelers, yet at least twice a week for residents; even if there are not lacking sick people to be baptized almost daily. For the ancients were allowed it because for long periods they were not seen in the temple but were private persons. For if he commands lay people to abstain for a time for the sake of prayer, so that they may be free for prayer, how much more levites or priests, who must pray day and night for the people entrusted to them! They ought, then, to be purer than the rest, because they are God’s agents. (Verses 14–15.) “I write these things to you, my son Timothy, hoping to come to you soon; but if I am delayed, so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.” As far as his own knowledge went, he expected to see him soon; but because something else often pleases God, whose providence is known to him alone, therefore, he says, in case I am delayed, I write to you, so that you may know how to order the church, which is the house of God; so that, while the whole world is God’s, the church is nevertheless called his house, whose ruler today is Damasus. For the world is in transgression, troubled by various errors; therefore it must be said that the house of God, and the truth, is there where he is feared according to his will. For his servants who profess this concerning him, which he himself deigned to teach, lest his words perhaps be denied to be his, he sealed these things with mighty works which can be done by no one else, so that unbelief, being convicted by them, may perish without excuse. For the foundation of this truth is signs and wonders. (Verse 16.) “And by the confession of all, great is the mystery of this godliness.” He says that none of the faithful fails to marvel at the mystery of the truth preached in the church, which he calls godliness; for to those who acknowledge his magnanimity and clemency he grants eternal and divine gifts, besides the remission of sins, which he bestows here in the present. “Which was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached to the gentiles, believed in this world, taken up in glory.” He says that the mystery of God, which is Christ, was manifested in the flesh, which lay hidden in the spirit. For the Son of God, who was in secret with God, born a man, declared by work and preaching that he was the creator; and this is to be justified in the Spirit: that he who was in the flesh shone forth by works and power as to who he was; then that he appeared to angels, no longer in the form of humility but in power. For he was seen humble in appearance through the flesh only until, death conquered, he rose from the dead and the majesty was seen of him who, born as a man, was not man alone; so that the angels, recognizing the mystery which before lay hidden, manifested in the flesh, bending the knee to him as to God, might give thanks, because they learned the truth, which was preached to the gentiles that they might be freed from error; in which the world makes progress, so as not to be condemned. “It was believed in the world.” For the mystery of God was believed in the world for this reason, that its faithlessness might not be able to deserve pardon for error, as the Lord says of the Jews: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they will have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22). “It was taken up in glory.” Because what they despised as weak and unsightly was taken up in glory; for after the cross the Savior, his person and power manifested, openly ascended in glory into heaven, the clouds serving him.

“But the Spirit says plainly that in the last times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, in the hypocrisy of liars who have their conscience seared, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful and those who have known the truth; because every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected which is received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” He does not keep silent about the future things the Holy Spirit revealed to him, for the instruction and caution of the churches, so that the churches, forewarned, may be careful not to be entrapped by men of this kind. For what could he have foretold with a plain voice so clear and so open, for avoiding, or rather condemning, the men of this pestilent teaching, than to call their assertion deceitful and a feigned teaching of demons; so that, when the words of this assertion are heard, it might be known that this teaching, which the Holy Spirit had foretold, was composed by the devil, which asserts falsehoods about the incarnation of the Savior, and which is now marked out in the Marcionites (although they have almost died out), in the Patricians, or above all in the Manichees? For these both deny that Christ was born, and forbid marriage, and teach abstinence from foods. He says their conscience is seared, that is, corrupted by pretense; for as a branding iron spoils leather and inflicts a mark, so deceit marks out for perdition the conscience that, by the guile of ill will, knows one thing and professes another. For he denies that these are now changed so as to be saved; for as a brand cannot be changed, so neither can their mind be amended; for nothing is worse than pretense. For these are such as were those Jews who, understanding that Christ worked by the power of God, said that he did these things by Beelzebub. For in order to treat the maker of man badly, though they cannot deny that they were born, they yet forbid marriage and take flesh away from Christ; and to go further in insulting him, they teach abstinence from the things he established for our use, so that by being despised these may seem evil and devised by an evil author. Hence the apostle shows that all things made by God are good, provided they are taken with thanksgiving; for they will be unclean to one who does not praise the Creator in them. For one who takes them in such a way as to treat their author badly cannot profit well by them.

“Setting these things, then, before the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of faith and of the good teaching which you have followed.” What is so true, what so clear and far-seeing, as that Christian discipline be handed on uncorrupted, so that its fruit may be praised as fertile and firm on the Lord’s threshing floor; that is, that on the day of judgment it may not be judged reprobate and to be burned with fire? This belongs to a good teacher and a fit minister of our Lord Jesus Christ; since he says that he was nourished in the words of faith and of good teaching, which he asserts he followed from infancy. For one who was thoroughly steeped in all the books of the Hebrews, on receiving the faith, became a perfect teacher.

“But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and train yourself for godliness. For bodily training is of little use, but godliness is useful for all things, having the promise of the present life and of that to come.” Profane words are understood as contrary ones; old wives’ fables are certain ravings. These are commonly drawn into contention by the voices of some who make a din, so that a discussion is held as it were on an empty matter whose only effect is vanity. He warns that one should turn away from things that are contrary, and likewise from those that are old wives’ tales, put together with a certain vanity; for there are some who in heat of mind throw themselves into disputes of this kind. But he urges that attention be given to godliness, because it has great profit. For those who devote themselves to mercy, repaying their elderly parents, will not lack God’s help in the present life and will have immortality with glory in the future. He says that bodily training is of little use; for fasting and abstaining from foods, while the authority of the Creator remains, profits little unless godliness is added to it, whose works are helped by the prayers of many toward winning the Lord’s favor. Indeed the gospel word testifies that those who are generous to the brothers and serve them in various ways advance to eternal life, but those who refuse this work go into eternal fire (Matt 25:41). Bodily training is nothing other than bridles for the flesh. If, then, someone, because mercy is a great thing, yet suffers the slipperiness of the flesh, what will become of such a one? Without doubt he will be beaten, because the one ought to have been done and the other not neglected (Luke 11:42). But if he had only bodily training, he will suffer everlasting punishments, as the Lord promised in the gospel (Matt 25:41); for the whole sum of our discipline is in mercy and godliness. Yet the fleshly have one kind of bodily training and the spiritual another: the fleshly nourish their bodies with fattening and feasts, so that with quick motion they advance to perdition; but the spiritual temper their bodies with fasts and abstinence, so that, made sluggish toward desires, they may be worthy of the future resurrection. For the latter chastises the body for the sake of the future hope, while the former pampers it out of despair of the future, caring for it for a time, so that it is moved the more quickly to sin.

“A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we labor and suffer persecutions, because we hope in the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially of the faithful.” It is plainly worthy and to be accepted to suffer persecutions for the hope that is in God; for in the present life hope is perishable, but in God’s promise it is firm and stable. For he is the salvation of all, because from him and through him all live, as far as the present life is concerned; but as far as the promised salvation is concerned, the faithful. For to those who acknowledge him he has promised that after this life, which ends in death, he will give another, which will flourish in immortality. That is why he says, “especially of the faithful.” (Verses 11–12.) “Command and teach these things. Let no one despise your youth, but be an example of the faithful in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in chastity.” Timothy was young as far as age goes, but in character and conduct old and grave. He admonishes him so that his progress might be in every way an example of good works; so that a grave discipline might be seen as wonderful in a young man, so that his acts excused his age and he was held not as a youth but as an elder; and that older men might blush unless they showed themselves grave in conduct and character after his pattern, while the young might have one of their own age as teacher. A wonderful young man was most holy Timothy, by whose example undisciplined youth is to be restrained and the irreverence of elders punished.

“Until I come, attend to reading, exhortation, and teaching. Do not neglect the grace that is in you, which was given you through prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery.” He wants him to be intent on and devoted to the practice of reading, so that he strives with all care and diligence to exhort and teach. Exhortation is when we stir people to good work with a gentle word; teaching, when we make known to the minds of the hearers what lies hidden. For if the ruler of the people pays no heed to these things, he neglects the grace given him; for he is made leader of the people for this purpose, to bear the care of their salvation by admonishing and teaching, so that his ordination may bear fruit; God certainly appointed him for this, to advance the salvation of his people. Whoever, then, placed in this authority, has been negligent will be held a despiser of God, called least in the kingdom of heaven; for one who does not deign to teach will not be able to do (Matt 5:19). Yet he indicates that grace is given to the one ordained through prophecy and the laying on of hands. Prophecy is that by which one is chosen as a future fit teacher; and the laying on of hands is the mystical words by which the one chosen is confirmed for this work, receiving authority, with his conscience as witness, so that he dares to offer sacrifice to God in the Lord’s stead. (Verses 15–16.) “Meditate on these things, be in them, that your progress may be manifest to all. Attend to yourself and to teaching; persist in them. For by doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.” He admonishes him to be a pattern to all not only in good works but also in the practice of teaching. For he indicates that the progress of his practice ought to appear not in teaching only but also in deeds; for a good tree bears good fruit (Matt 12:33); likewise good teaching cannot have bad works; so that when good works are seen, they may be understood to be the fruit of a divine teaching, and the hearers may make progress. For they understand that what is said is true and to be feared when they see it kept with great reverence by the very one who leads. This profits the ruler of the people in two ways: he will receive the reward both of his own good works and of his hearers; just as, if he is negligent, he will have to give account both for himself and for them.