Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
1 Timothy 5:17-25, Double honor, two witnesses, the elect angels and a little wine
Elders who lead well deserve double honor and pay; charges against them need two or three witnesses; Paul charges Timothy before God, Christ and the elect angels to act without favoritism, to lay hands on no one hastily, and to take a little wine.
1 Timothy 5:17-25, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul says elders who lead well, especially those who preach and teach, deserve double honor, and he backs this with the saying about not muzzling an ox and the saying that workers earn their pay. Accusations against an elder need two or three witnesses, and those who keep sinning are to be rebuked publicly as a warning. He charges Timothy before God, Christ and the chosen angels to act without favoritism, not to appoint anyone in haste, and to take a little wine for his stomach.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/elders\/","n":"Elders","s":"Older men respected for wisdom led Israel's villages in the Old Testament and still led Jewish communities and synagogues in the first century, usually as a group. The first churches took over the pattern, calling their elders overseers too, with deacons beside them.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/witnesses-and-advocates\/","n":"Witnesses and advocates in court","s":"Jewish law convicted no one on a single witness: it demanded two or three, examined them closely and gave little weight to the word of women. Courts also had accusers and advocates, and Jewish pictures of God's heavenly court gave those roles to Satan and to defenders of Israel.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/laying-on-of-hands\/","n":"Laying on of hands","s":"Hands laid on a person to bless, to heal, or to set someone apart for a task, the way Moses laid hands on Joshua. In the early church it went with prayer, the gift of the Spirit and sending people out.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/celibacy-and-asceticism\/","n":"Celibacy and self-denial","s":"Nearly everyone in the ancient world thought people should marry and have children. A few, from Cynic philosophers to some Essenes, refused marriage for a higher calling, and some in Corinth thought holiness meant giving up sex even within marriage.","r":""}
Honor could include payment, and double pay was given to soldiers who served well (Keener and his notes); Wright holds that the word here "most naturally refers in this passage to money", and Carson, Moo and Morris that elders were to be paid. Paul joins Deuteronomy 25:4 to a saying of Jesus found in Luke 10:7; the CSB Study Bible takes this as treating Jesus' words as Scripture, while Wright calls it a reference to his teaching that only looks like a biblical quotation. Two or three witnesses were among the firmest rules of Jewish law, and public reproof came only after private attempts failed (Keener and his notes). Calling on witnesses, divine or angelic, made a charge binding, and the angels are elect as opposed to fallen (Keener and his notes; the CSB Study Bible). Laying hands on an untested elder made the ordainer answerable if he fell (Keener; Wright). Most people drank watered wine with meals; Timothy may have abstained to avoid the ascetics' criticism (Keener and his notes) or, Wright suggests, as a stern self-discipline. Carson, Moo and Morris cite this advice as a mark of a personal letter.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Timothy 5:17, 5:18, 5:19, 5:20, 5:21, 5:22 and 5:23
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Timothy 5:17, 5:18, 5:19, 5:20, 5:21 and 5:23
- CSB Study Bible, notes on 1 Timothy 5:18 and 5:21-22
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters, comment on 1 Timothy 5:17-25
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 15, The Pastoral Epistles: 1 Timothy, Destination, and The Contribution of 1 Timothy
