Interpretation of the First Letter to Timothy

Contents

Only the comments on 1 Tim 3:2 and 3:12 ('husband of one wife') and 5:9-15 (widows and second marriage) are published; the Greek of 5:10-11 is incomplete in the source scan.

1. 3.2Theodoret explains “the husband of one wife” as excluding polygamy, not a second marriage after a wife's death, while a man who put away his first wife and married another is blameworthy.
2. 3.12Theodoret applies his reading of “the husband of one wife” to deacons as well.
3. 5.9Theodoret holds that “the wife of one husband” does not reject a second marriage, which Paul himself permitted, but requires chaste living in marriage.
4. 5.10Theodoret explains that an enrolled widow must have brought up her children in piety, as Abraham did.
5. 5.11Theodoret explains that younger widows are not to be enrolled because, maintained by the church without work, they fall into idleness and break their pledge by wishing to marry.
6. 5.14Theodoret notes that Paul wishes younger widows to remarry, against the Novatianists who reject second marriage, and that his rule was taught by experience.