Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Timothy · About this commentary
Those Who Serve Well
1 Timothy 3:11-13
11 Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, and faithful in all things. · WEB
One verse addresses women in the middle of the deacon list, and the Greek does not settle which women are meant.
Verse 11 begins with the same phrase that introduced the deacons — in the same way — and then addresses women, using a noun that in Greek means either women in general or wives, with no article to decide it and no possessive pronoun attached.
So the verse can be read as describing deacons' wives, or as describing women who serve in the same capacity. Translations divide, and the difficulty is in the Greek rather than in the translators. What the language leaves open stays open.
What can be observed is the shape of the verse. Its four requirements — dignified, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things — run parallel to the men's list rather than being derived from it, and nothing in them concerns a husband. A verse purely about wives would be the only such entry in a passage otherwise entirely about officeholders.
Verse 12 then returns to the deacons with the household requirement, matching the overseers'.
And verse 13 supplies the only promise in the chapter, which is the more interesting for being attached to the lesser office. Those who serve well gain a good standing for themselves, and something more: great boldness in the faith. The word is the one used for frank open speech, and the letter offers it to people whose qualification did not include teaching.
held with reason What this mark means