Setting Things In Order

1) This position implies that the man seeking any office of service to the church could only have had one marriage, and his wife must be living. Neither of the words “married,” “only,” or “once" is part of the original Greek Text: “the husband of one wife," 1 Timothy 3:2. I need help to speak authoritatively about why the Translators rendered this Text in such a manner.

2) According to this position, “the candidate can only have been married once, and his wife must still be living." It forbids a man or woman to remarry after their spouse dies if he and his new spouse “desires the office of an elder or deacon,” 1 Timothy 3:1. Both are ineligible, having been “married more than once.” At the same time, requiring a man to be a "husband," not “single,” to be considered for church leadership. What a sad situation this position would put the church in if this is what Paul had in mind! Heaven forbids such is the case! Beloved in the Lord,

3) I understand that the elder whose wife dies while serving as a “bishop” could willingly step down from his church leadership position. However, Paul did not mention either of these painful conditions. Nor is there any command, example, or necessary inference to either of these circumstances in Paul’s instruction to Timothy or Titus. (We should speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where it is silent). Let’s consider this interpretation of the phrase,

4) From the NRSV of our Text. It reads: “Now a bishop must be above reproach, married only once," 1 Timothy 3:2, NRSV, page 720. The New Greek / English Interlinear New Testament does not reflect this interpretation. Observe,

a) This exact phrase in the NRSV Interlinear reads: “(For) the overseer…to be…of one wife a husband,” 1 Timothy 3:2. This Interlinear does not contain in Greek Text translated as: "only married once." But instead, "of one wife a husband." This is an interpretation, not a translation of the Greek Text. The note in the margin refers to the Greek: “Note, I, Gr the husband of one wife, from the "Textus Receptus" of 1970.

b) The Interlinear Greek New Testament presents the Greek Text of the New Testament with an English translation, or “interlinear gloss,” beneath each Greek word. [See introduction to the Greek-English Interlinear ESV New Testament, Page ix]. This was not the case with the interpretation: “Married only once,” 1 Timothy 3:2, NRSV, page 720.

5) The phrase: “married only once” is absent in the Greek Text of my Interlinear. The absence of the phrase in Greek prohibits “interlinear glossing” into a comparative English word beneath the Greek Text during translation. [This phrase is “written within the margin”]. Therefore, it could not have been Paul's meaning regarding this characteristic.

b. The second position is "that the elder can be a single or unmarried man.” This position undoubtedly is different from Paul's meaning of this phrase. The Text states the bishop must be married having one wife; thus, “he cannot be a single man.” This office requires that the man seeking the office of a bishop or deacon must be “the husband of one wife.” The single man, whether not ever being married or through the death of his wife (a widower): is not permitted to hold the office of an elder or deacon in the Lord’s church. This position indeed conflicts with the Text of emphasis and the context of the scriptures in which it is embedded. Therefore, it differed from the idea the Holy Spirit had in mind when revealing these characteristics to Paul.