A good office must be entrusted to good men. — rlv e-T/<rxo?rot/, the bishop) Deacons are directly opposed to bishops, ver. 8 ; therefore the presbyter is included in the bishop ; Acts xx. 28, note. — avsT/Xfjcrrov, blameless) without crime, bad report, and just sus picion ; comp. Tit. i. 6. — sTvai, be) not only during the time of discharging his duty, but at the time when he is being appointed: ver. 10. The order of the virtues, which follow, should be attended to. — ^tag ywaiKog civdpa, the husband of one wife) So ver. 12, ch. v. 9 ; Tit. i. 6. This element of the blameless man's character is put in the first place. It is the ancient nature of marriage, that one man should have one woman. The husband (man) of one wife (woman) is therefore a simple periphrasis of husband ; ch. v. 9, note. The opinion as to successive polygamy1 being forbidden here to bishops, seems formerly to have been drawn from "the Canons of the Apostles ;"2 since the 17th Canon runs thus : " Whosoever after baptism enters into a second mar riage3 or keeps a concubine, he is disqualified from being a bishop." Some have understood it, as if second marriages were forbidden, and certainly the old translation gives this meaning : 4If any one after baptism is joined in wedlock for the second time, etc. ; whence the unfavourable interpretation of the Canon was easily transferred to Paul. But of what importance is it, whether a man has for his help one woman during twenty years, for example, or two after a term of widowhood? But why does Paul, rather taking for granted than requiring that the bishop should have one wife, not add 5) a/a^ov, or be unmarried? Unmarried persons were then rare, nor does he exclude the latter from the sacred office, but yet he assumes that the father of a family was somewhat better fitted for the discharge of these duties: and that, of two candidates, if they be equal in other respects, he who has a wife and virtuous family, is to be preferred to a bachelor, who has less testimony from actual practice (experience), ver. 4, 5 ; for he who is himself bound to discharge the domestic
1 That is, the marrying a second time after the death of the first wife, which was forbidden by the subsequent canons of the Church in less pure ages. — ED.
2 A work of later ages, wrongly so called. — ED.
3 o^val yeipoi; GVft'Tr'hce.x.sis.
4 Si quis post baptisma secundis fuerit nuptiis copulatus.
1 TIMOTHY III. 3. 2r>7
duties, which are here so frequently mentioned, is likely to be more attractive to those who are in like manner attached by ties to the world, and is of advantage to the community by a more popular example : ver. 4. It is to be added to this, that indiscriminate celibacy has rendered many open to blame. The Jews also teach, that a priest should be neither unmarried nor childless, lest he should be unmerciful. — v?jpaX/o!>) vigilant in mind; so ver. 11 [vytpaXiove, which Engl. Vers. renders sober] ; Tit. ii. 2 ; for vfyu is to watch. See on Chrys. de Sacerd., p. 428. This is opposed to slumbering and sloth, which are sins in defect.
jjpw, when it is used alone, denotes both watchfulness and sobriety, and by Metonymy the one is put for the other (comp. 1 Thess. v. 8, Let us be sober, vqfuf/bm) ; but when •ypq'yopeu and vqpu are joined (as at 1 Thess. v. 6), the latter verb has the strict signification, to be sober, and is opposed to
Mtfxstfda/, to be drunk. — ffuxppova) of sound mind [' sober* ',] under self-control. It is opposed to vehemence (impetuosity) of mind, which sins in excess. The derivatives, (tuppovu, cwtppocvv^ K.r.\., have a consonant signification. Comp. Tit. i. 7, 8, where vapoivos (which in Greek implies a bold and rash man, such as drunkards usually are) and <ru<ppuv are opposed to each other. —