Week 48 Timothy
I like the two Timothy letters because they talk quite a bit about life in the church – its organizational set-up & management guidelines & instructions for leadership & teaching content & church demographics…like that.
Anyway one of the things I noticed was that Paul gave Timothy details about a specific cohort called deacons. He said deacons:
Must be men of dignity…
Not given to double-talk…
Not addicted to wine…
Not fond of sordid gain.
It seems pretty clear that Paul was talking about men in verses eight-nine-ten – men who were deacons – and he talked about them again in twelve-thirteen. But for some reason he started talking about women in verse eleven. That seemed weird and out-of-place until I noticed a marginal reference that said the women Paul was talking about in eleven were either deacons’ wives or deaconesses (which I guess could mean female deacons who were married to male deacons or unmarried female deacons or married female deacons who weren’t married to deacons). That made sense. Paul said that these women:
Must likewise be dignified…
Not malicious gossips…
Temperate…
Faithful in all things.
The two lists – one for men & one for women – line up pretty well. In fact they line up pretty-well enough that I wonder why Paul didn’t just make an inclusive list. But I don’t have much time to wonder. My first question about why-women-in-verse-eleven has a possible answer. So that’s good enough for now.
Note: quotes from 1 Timothy 3:8 & 11 (NASB). NLT margin also says women deacons.