1 Timothy 3:11
The women in like manner chaste, not slanderers, but sober, faithful in all things.
Open 1 Timothy 3:11 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Mulieres similiter pudicas, non detrahentes, sobrias, fideles in omnibus.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- γυναῖκας ὡσαύτως σεμνάς, μὴ διαβόλους, νηφαλίους, πιστὰς ἐν πᾶσιν.
Haydock's commentary
Women, &c. By the Greek again, sober, grave, &c. By these women are commonly understood such as had made a vow of not marrying, and who assisted at the baptism of women; (Witham) i.e. deaconesses, who were women charged with the assistance, and sometimes with the instruction, of persons of their own sex. (Bible de Vence)
Not given to detraction,5 or calumnies, as in the Greek. A necessary admonition. (Witham)
5 Non detrahentes, me diabolous.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, 1 Timothy 3:8-10
Ver. 11 . “Even so must the women be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.” Some have thought that this is said of women generally, but it is not so, for why should he introduce anything about women to interfere with his subject? He is speaking of those who hold the rank of Deaconesses.
St Jerome Against Jovinianus, Book I
35. “The bishop, then, must be without reproach, so that he is the slave of no vice: “the husband of one wife,” that is, in the past, not in the present; “sober,” orbetter, as it is in the Greek, “vigilant,” that is νηφάλεον ; “chaste,” for that is themeaning of σὼφρονα ;“distinguished,” both by chastity and conduct: “hospitable,” so that he imitates Abraham, and with strangers, nay rather in strangers, entertains Christ; “apt to teach,” for it profits nothing to enjoy the consciousness of virtue, unless a man be able to instruct the people intrusted to him, so that he can exhort in doctrine, and refute the gainsayers;“not a drunkard,” for he who is constantly in the Holy of Holies and offers sacrifices, will not drink wine and strong drink, since wine is a luxury. If a bishop drink at all, let it be in such a way that no one will know whether he has drunk or not. …