1 Timothy 5:19

Ver. 19. Against an elder (that is, manifestly, one in the presbyteral office) receive not an accusation, except it be (ἐκτὸς εἰ μὴ, a double negative to strengthen the proviso) upon two or three witnesses, namely, upon their united testimony as the ground of formal proceedings. According to the ancient Jewish law (Deuteronomy 17:6; Deuteronomy 19:5), the testimony of two was required to substantiate a charge against any one, whatever might be his position in society; and various reasons have been suggested why only in the case of a presbyter adherence to the common rule should have been pressed. It will certainly not do to say, with Bengel, that the apostle is here speaking only of receiving an accusation, not of accrediting the charge; for he obviously means receiving it in the sense of making account of it. But the special mission of Timothy must be borne in mind. He had to make inquiries into matters which must often have been of a delicate and somewhat indefinite kind. Occasionally he might be tempted to go upon information which was partial and defective; and he should therefore be the more careful to insist upon sufficient evidence, especially when one in the position of an elder was concerned; otherwise he might entangle the church in worse evils than those he sought to remedy. But this, of course, implied that in all ordinary circumstances the same method should be generally followed; and attention was specially called to the case of presbyters only because a certain deference was due to their position, and the consequences would naturally be of a graver kind should any false step be taken. The sense of ἐπὶ adopted by Winer (§ 48, 8, c), also preferred by Huther, coram, in the presence of, as if the meaning were, that Timothy should only decide on an accusation against an elder when he had two or three others beside him, is grammatically unnecessary (see Ellicott; also Jelf, Gr. § 584), and would give an unnatural turn to the instruction conveyed respecting the cases in question.