1 Timothy 5:9

We read in the Gospels of the ministry of women (Luke 8:3; Matthew 27:55), and also in the Acts (Acts 9:36). In Romans 16:1 Phoebe, a διάκονος of the Church at Corinth, is mentioned. When we come to the Pastoral Epistles, we find that χῆραι are an organised body, of whose names a register is kept; and in the verses before us (1 Timothy 5:9 ff.) their qualifications are enumerated. Let no one be enrolled as a widow who is less than sixty years of age &c. χῆρα is to be taken as predicate, not as subject; and καταλέγειν (ἄπ. λεγ. in N.T.) means ‘to place on a list.’ Now it is plain that χήρα here cannot stand simply for the desolate and destitute widow, whose maintenance has been the subject of the preceding verses; for the Church would not limit her charity to the needy by strict conditions like those of 1 Timothy 5:9-10. Again these χῆραι can hardly be the same as διακόνισσαι, for the limit of age would be unreasonable in the case of all active workers (although it is true that the Theodosian Code (xvi. 2. 27) at a later period speaks of sixty as the age for a deaconess). They are here πρεσβύτιδες rather than διακόνισσαι. And thus we conclude that we have in this verse the earliest notice of the ordo viduarum, which is often mentioned in sub-Apostolic and early patristic literature. They had a claim to maintenance, and in return were entrusted with certain duties, such as the care of orphans, and were expected to be diligent in intercessory prayer. For instance, Polycarp (Matthew 4) after speaking of priests and deacons, goes on to widows … “an altar of God,” because from their age and comparative leisure they were supposed to give special attention to prayer. A form of prayer for the use of ‘widows’ is found in the Apostolical Constitutions (iii. 13). A notice of them in Lucian (de morte Peregrini 12) in connexion with orphans suggests that they were in his time quite an established institution. The order was at first restricted to αἱ ὄντως χῆραι, but after a time virgins and even young virgins seem to have been admitted, a practice which Tertullian deprecates. Ignatius (Smyrn. 13) speaks of τὰς παρθένους τὰς λεγόμενας χήρας; but this may only mean that from the purity of their lives the enrolled widows might be counted virgins. In any case at this early stage of the Church’s life only αἱ ὅντως χῆραι, desolate widows, were admissible into the order, and the conditions of admission are before us—first, they must be at least sixty years old, and secondly, they must be univirae.

ἑνὸς�. Polyandry was condemned alike by heathen and Jew, and such a reference is here out of the question. The expression plainly means a widow, who has not remarried after her husband’s death, or divorce. Even in Roman society nuptiae secundae were looked on with disfavour, and a univira was highly esteemed. To have married only once was an indication of ἐγκράτεια, and so is required by the Apostle of ecclesiastical persons, women as well as men (see 1 Timothy 3:2 and notes), who should be ‘above suspicion.’ See Luke 2:36. Tertullian’s words ad Uxor. i. 7 explain the passage well: “Praescriptio apostoli declarat … cum viduam adlegi in ordinationem nisi univiram non concedit.” Cp. also Const. Apost. vi. 17, and the passage from Philo de Profugis quoted below on Titus 2:5.