1 Timothy 3:8-13

Deacons and Deaconesses. Certain moral qualities, likewise, are required in deacons. They must be serious, sincere in speech, free from love of wine and (since they administer church funds) from love of money, holding with a pure conscience the truth revealed in the faith. They, too, must be appointed only when, tested by their general conduct in the community, they are found without accusation. (Deaconesses must satisfy similar requirements.) The domestic conditions demanded for bishops apply to deacons also. These varied qualifications are needful because fidelity in their office wins them, among their fellows, both a position of honour and boldness in their faith.

1 Timothy 3:9. mystery: i.e. truth which man could not find for himself, but which, once hidden, is now made known through revelation.

1 Timothy 3:10. blameless: i.e. free from actual charge; without reproach (1 Timothy 3:2) denotes freedom from any rightful ground for accusation.

1 Timothy 3:11. women: i.e. deaconesses (cf. Phœ be, Romans 16:1), not their wives (AV). 1 Timothy 3:11 breaks the connexion between 1 Timothy 3:10 and 1 Timothy 3:12 so abruptly that it either may have been displaced or may represent a marginal gloss (Kö hler).

1 Timothy 3:12. husbands, etc.: 1 Timothy 3:2 *.

1 Timothy 3:13. standing: less probable interpretations than that adopted above are a step in ecclesiastical promotion and status before God.