Let us read verses 11-16
11 But the younger widows refuse: for when they
have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they will
marry;
12 Having damnation, because they have cast off
their first faith.
13 And withal they learn to be idle, wandering
about from house to house; and not only idle, but
tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which
they ought not.
14 I will therefore that the younger women marry,
bear children, guide the house, give none occasion
to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
15 For some are already turned aside after Satan.
16 If any man or woman that believeth have widows,
let them relieve them, and let not the church be
charged; that it may relieve them that are widows
indeed.
Here is the Barclay commentary...
THE PERILS OF IDLENESS
1 Timothy 5:11–16
Refuse to enroll the younger women as widows, for
when they grow impatient with the restrictions of
Christian widowhood, they wish to marry, and so
deserve condemnation, because they have broken the
pledge of their first faith; and, at the same time,
they learn to be and bear children, and run a house
and home, and give our opponents no chance of abuse.
For, even as things are, some of them have turned
aside from the way to follow Satan. If any believing
person has widowed relations, let such a person help
them, and let not the Church be burdened with the
responsibility, so that it may care for those who
are genuinely in the position of widows.
A PASSAGE like this reflects the situation in
society in which the early Church found itself.
It is not that younger widows are condemned for
marrying again. What is condemned is this. A young
husband dies; and the widow, in the first bitterness
of sorrow and on the impulse of the moment, decides
to remain a widow all her life and to dedicate her
life to the Church, but later she changes her mind
and remarries. That woman is regarded as having
taken Christ as her bridegroom. So, by marrying
again, she is regarded as breaking her marriage vow
to Christ. She would have been better never to have
taken the vow.
What complicated this matter very much was the
social background of the times. It was next to
impossible for a single or a widowed woman to earn
her living honestly. There was practically no trade
or profession open to her. The result was
inevitable; she was almost driven to prostitution in
order to live. The Christian woman, therefore, had
either to marry or to dedicate her life completely
to the service of the Church; there was no half-way
house.
In any event, the perils of idleness remain the
same in any age. There was the danger of becoming
restless: because a woman did not have enough to do,
she might become one of those individuals who drift
from house to house in an empty social round. It was
almost inevitable that such a woman would become a
gossip: because she had nothing important to talk
about, she would tend to talk scandal, repeating
tales idle and to run from house to house. Yes, they
can become more than idle; they can become gossips
and busybodies, saying things which should not be
repeated. It is my wish that the younger widows
should marry, from house to house, each time with a
little more embellishment and a little more malice.
Such a woman ran the risk of becoming a busybody:
because she had nothing of her own to hold her
attention, she would be very apt to be over
interested and over-interfering in the affairs of
others.
It was true then, as it is true now, that, as the
hymn-writer Isaac Watts had it, ‘Satan finds some
mischief still for idle hands to do.’ The full life
is always the safe life, and the empty life is
always the life in peril.
So, the advice is that these younger women should
marry and engage upon the greatest task of all,
rearing a family and making a home. Here we have
another example of one of the main thoughts of the
Pastoral Epistles. They are always concerned with
how Christians appear to the outside world. Do they
give any opportunity to criticize the Church or
reason to admire it? It is always true that ‘the
greatest handicap the Church has is the
unsatisfactory lives of professing Christians’ and
equally true that the greatest argument for
Christianity is a genuinely Christian life.
~The Barclay Commentary
Now to the other commentaries.
Depending on the commentary used, the verses can be
separated into five phrases:
1] And withal they learn to be idle
2] Wandering about from house to house
3] Tattlers also
4] And busy-bodies
5] Speaking things which they ought not
1] And withal they
learn to be idle
Withal — “at the
same time, moreover.”
~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
And withal - In
addition to the prospect that they may marry again,
there are other disadvantages which might follow
from such an arrangement, and other evils to be
feared which it is desirable to avoid.
~Barnes Notes
They learn to be idle
- That is, if supported by the church, and if
without the settled principles which might be
expected in those more aged and experienced, it may
be feared that they will give themselves up to an
indolent life. There would be a security in the age
and established habits of these more advanced in
life, which there could not be in their case. The
apostle does not mean that widows are naturally
disposed to be idle, but that in the situation
referred to there would be danger of it.
~Barnes Notes
Withal, they learn to be
idle - They have not that gravity which is
required for this work of visitation and
ministration laid upon the "widows indeed," but
wander from house to house to gossip.
~People's New Testament
Learn — usually in a
good sense. But these women’s “learning” is
idleness, trifling, and busybodies’ tattle.
~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
And withal they learn to be
idle - Being at ease, and without labour,
living at the expense of the church: "wandering
about from house to house"; having nothing else to
do: such an one is what the Jews call אלמנה שובבית,
"the gadding widow"; who, as the gloss says,
"Goes about and visits her neighbours continually;
and these are they that corrupt the world.''
Of this sort of women must the Jews be understood,
when they say, it is one of the properties of them
to be יוצאניות "going out", or gadding abroad, as
Dinah did; and that it is another to be דבריות,
"talkative", which agrees with what follows:
~John Gill
And withal they learn to be
idle - They do not love work, and they will
not work. ~Adam Clarke
They learn (μανθάνουσιν)
To be taken absolutely, as 1 Corinthians 14:31; 2
Timothy 3:7. They go about under the influence of an
insatiable curiosity, and meet those who “creep into
houses and take captive silly women” (2 Timothy
3:7), and learn all manner of nonsense and error.
Quoted verses:
1 Corinthians 14:31
For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may
learn, and all may be comforted.
2 Timothy 3:7
Ever learning, and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth.
~Vincent's Word Studies
2] Wandering about from
house to house
Wandering — Greek,
“going about.”
~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
From house to house
— of the members of the Church (2 Timothy 3:6).
“They carry the affairs of this house to that, and
of that to this; they tell the affairs of all to
all” [Theophylact].
~Jamieson, Fausset,
Brown
Quoted verse:
2 Timothy 3:6
For of this sort are they which creep into houses,
and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led
away with divers lusts,
Wandering about from house
to house - A natural consequence of supposing
that they had nothing to do, and a practice not only
profitless, but always attended with mischief.
~Barnes Notes
Wandering about from house
to house - Gadding, gossiping; never
contented with home; always visiting.
~Adam Clarke
3] Tattlers also or
"and not only idle, but tattlers"
tattlers — literally
“trifling talkers.” In 3 John 1:10, translated
“prating.” ~Jamieson,
Fausset, Brown
Tattlers also -
Literally, “overflowing;” then overflowing with
talk; praters, triflers. They would learn all the
news; become acquainted with the secrets of
families, and of course indulge in much idle and
improper conversation. Our word “gossipers” would
accurately express the meaning here. The noun does
not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. The verb
occurs in 3 John 1:10; rendered, “prating against.”
~Barnes Notes
Quoted verse:
3 John 1:10
Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds
which he doeth, prating against us with malicious
words: and not content therewith, neither doth he
himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them
that would, and casteth them out of the church.
~Barnes Notes
And not only idle, but
tattlers also - full of talk, who have always
some news to tell, or report to make of the affairs
of this, or the other person, or family:
~John Gill
And not only idle -
If it went no farther, this would be intolerable;
but they are tattlers - tale-bearers; whisperers;
light, trifling persons; all noise and no work.
~Adam Clarke
4] And busy-bodies
And busy-bodies -
see the notes on 2 Thessalonians 3:11. The word
means, probably, “working all round, overdoing,” and
then “an intermeddler.” Persons who have nothing to
do of their own, commonly find employment by
interesting themselves in the affairs of their
neighbors. No one likes to be wholly idle, and if
anyone is not found doing what he ought to do, he
will commonly be found engaged in doing what he
ought not.
Quoted verse
2 Thessalonians 3:11
For we hear that there are some which walk among
you disorderly, working not at all, but are
busybodies. ~Barnes
Notes
And busy bodies - in
the matters of other persons, which do not concern
them: ~John Gill
Busybodies - Persons
who meddle with the concerns of others; who mind
every one’s business but their own.
~Adam Clarke
Busybodies —
mischievously busy; inconsiderately curious (2
Thessalonians 3:11). Acts 19:19, “curious,” the same
Greek. Curiosity usually springs from idleness,
which is itself the mother of garrulity [Calvin].
~Jamieson, Fausset,
Brown
Quoted verses:
2 Thessalonians 3:11
[mentioned above]
Acts 19:19
Many of them also which used curious arts brought
their books together, and burned them before all
men: and they counted the price of them, and found
it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
5] Speaking things
which they ought not
Speaking — not
merely “saying.” The subject-matter, as well as the
form, is involved in the Greek word [Alford].
~Jamieson, Fausset,
Brown
Speaking things which they
ought not - Revealing the concerns of their
neighbors; disclosing secrets; magnifying trifles,
so as to exalt themselves into importance, as if
they were entrusted with the secrets of others;
inventing stories and tales of gossip, that they may
magnify and maintain their own consequence in the
community. No persons are commonly more dangerous to
the peace of a neighborhood than those who have
nothing to do. ~Barnes
Notes
Speaking things which they
ought not - which either are not true, and,
if they are, are not to be spoken of, and carried
from place to place: this is a very great
inconvenience, the apostle observes, arising from
the admission of such young widows to be relieved
and maintained at the church's charge.
~John Gill
Speaking things which they
ought not - Lies, slanders, calumnies;
backbiting their neighbors, and everywhere sowing
the seed of dissension.
~Adam Clarke
Which they ought not
— (Titus 1:11).
Quoted verse:
Titus 1:11
Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole
houses, teaching things which they ought not, for
filthy lucre's sake.
~Jamieson, Fausset, Brown |