A widow should be enrolledIn the early church, the care of widows was a significant concern, reflecting the biblical mandate to care for the vulnerable (
James 1:27). The term "enrolled" suggests an official list or register, indicating a structured approach to providing for widows. This reflects the church's role in social welfare, a continuation of the Jewish tradition of caring for widows (
Deuteronomy 14:29). The enrollment likely involved both material support and a commitment to service within the church community, as seen in
Acts 6:1-6, where the early church appointed deacons to ensure fair distribution of resources to widows.
if she is at least sixty years old
The age of sixty was considered a threshold for old age in the ancient world, marking a transition to a period of life where remarriage was less likely and physical labor more challenging. This age requirement ensured that the church's resources were directed toward those most in need and less able to support themselves. It also reflects a cultural understanding of life stages, where sixty was seen as an age of wisdom and respect, aligning with the biblical emphasis on honoring the elderly (Leviticus 19:32).
faithful to her husband
This phrase underscores the importance of marital fidelity, a value deeply rooted in biblical teaching (Proverbs 31:10-12). The original Greek implies a "one-man woman," suggesting a widow who was devoted to her husband during their marriage. This requirement highlights the moral and ethical standards expected of those receiving church support, ensuring that the widow's life exemplified Christian virtues. It also parallels the qualifications for church leaders, such as elders and deacons, who are similarly described as "one-woman men" (1 Timothy 3:2, 12), emphasizing consistency in character expectations across the church community.
Persons / Places / Events
1.
WidowsIn the early church, widows were often left without support and were a vulnerable group. The church took on the responsibility of caring for them, especially those who were truly in need.
2.
TimothyA young pastor and protégé of the Apostle Paul, Timothy was entrusted with the leadership of the church in Ephesus. Paul wrote this letter to guide him in church administration and pastoral care.
3.
Apostle PaulThe author of the letter, Paul was an apostle who played a significant role in the spread of Christianity and the establishment of churches across the Roman Empire.
4.
EphesusThe city where Timothy was stationed, Ephesus was a major center of early Christianity and a place where Paul had previously ministered.
5.
Early ChurchThe community of believers in the first century who were navigating how to live out their faith and care for one another in a predominantly non-Christian society.
Teaching Points
The Importance of Caring for WidowsThe early church set a precedent for caring for those in need, particularly widows, who were often without support. This reflects God's heart for the vulnerable and marginalized.
Criteria for Church SupportPaul provides specific criteria for enrolling widows, emphasizing the need for discernment and stewardship in church resources. This teaches us to be wise and intentional in our support of others.
Faithfulness in MarriageThe requirement for a widow to have been the wife of one man highlights the value of faithfulness and commitment in marriage, which is a reflection of Christ's relationship with the church.
Age and MaturityThe age requirement of sixty years old suggests a level of maturity and life experience that is valued in the church community. It reminds us to honor and learn from those who have walked faithfully with God for many years.
Bible Study Questions and Answers
1.What is the meaning of 1 Timothy 5:9?
2.What qualifications are required for widows to be enrolled according to 1 Timothy 5:9?
3.How does 1 Timothy 5:9 guide the church's support for widows today?
4.Why is the age of sixty significant in 1 Timothy 5:9?
5.How can churches implement 1 Timothy 5:9 in their care ministries?
6.What other scriptures support the care for widows as seen in 1 Timothy 5:9?
7.What is the significance of the age requirement for widows in 1 Timothy 5:9?
8.How does 1 Timothy 5:9 reflect early church practices regarding widows?
9.Why does 1 Timothy 5:9 emphasize a widow's faithfulness to her husband?
10.What are the top 10 Lessons from 1 Timothy 5?
11.Is there historical or archeological confirmation that early Christian communities enforced the strict widow qualifications described in 1 Timothy 5:9–10?
12.What are the qualifications for elders and deacons?
13.What are the roles and duties of nuns?
14.Was apostle Paul ever married?What Does 1 Timothy 5:9 Mean
A widow should be enrolled• Paul is talking about an official list of widows who receive ongoing care and possibly serve the congregation (see1 Timothy 5:3–4, “Give proper recognition to those widows who are truly in need,”).
• The church had already modeled such organized benevolence inActs 6:1, where daily distribution to widows was coordinated.
•James 1:27 reminds us that “pure and undefiled religion” includes looking after widows in their distress, underlining why this enrollment matters.
• Enrollment is not charity alone; it recognizes a woman’s proven godliness and invites her to a ministry of prayer and service (cf.Luke 2:36–37 and Anna’s life of worship).
If she is at least sixty years old• Sixty marked a life stage when remarriage was culturally unlikely, allowing a widow to devote herself fully to the Lord and the church (contrast verses 11-14, where younger widows are encouraged to marry).
• Age also signals maturity in faith and experience, similar to the expectation for “older women” inTitus 2:3 to mentor younger believers.
•Psalm 71:9 captures this season’s dignity: “Do not cast me off in my old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.” The church answers that prayer by standing with her.
• Practical wisdom: limited resources mean the church must prioritize those least able to provide for themselves—hence the age guideline.
Faithful to her husband• Literally “a one-man woman,” echoing the character requirement for elders (“the husband of one wife” in1 Timothy 3:2).
• Her marriage record demonstrates covenant loyalty, mirroring God’s own faithfulness (Malachi 2:14–16).
•Proverbs 31:11–12 praises the wife whose husband “has full confidence in her,” showing why such integrity matters.
• Living out a lifelong commitment equips her to counsel younger couples (Titus 2:4-5) and model steadfast love to the congregation.
• This criterion also protects the church’s witness; helping those who walk faithfully reinforces the call to holy living (Matthew 19:6).
summaryPaul sets clear, pastoral guidelines: enlist widows who (1) truly need support, (2) have reached an age where single-hearted service is realistic, and (3) display a testimony of marital faithfulness. By doing so, the church honors God’s heart for the vulnerable, stewards resources wisely, and invites seasoned saints to bless the body with prayer, wisdom, and example.
(9)
Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old.--The question respecting the assistance to be afforded to the poor and destitute widows of the great Asian Church reminded St. Paul of an organisation, consisting of widowed women, which had grown out of the needs of Christianity. He would lay down some special rules here to be observed by his friend and disciple. What, now, is this organisation commended to Timothy in these special directions? Here, and here only in the New Testament, do we find it alluded to; but the instructions in this passage are so definite, so precise, that it is impossible not to assume in the days of Timothy and of Paul, in some, if not in all the great churches, the existence of an official band of workers, consisting of widows, most carefully selected from the congregation of believers, of a somewhat advanced age, and specially distinguished for devotion--possessing, each of these, a high and stainless reputation--they were an official band of workers, a distinct order, so to speak; for these widows, formally entered on the Church's list, could not possibly represent those poor and desolate widows, friendless and destitute, spoken of above. The minimum age of sixty years would also exclude many; and the advice of St. Paul to the younger ones to marry again could never have been addressed to women wanting even many years of the requisite "sixty." Were
these poor souls to be formally shut out from receiving the Church's alms? Again, those on the list could never be the same persons whom we hear of as deaconesses (
Romans 16:1, and in the Christian literature of the second century). The active duties of the office would have been utterly incompatible with the age of sixty, the minimum age at which
these were to be entered on the list. We then conclude these "widows" were a distinct and most honourable order, whose duties,
presbyteral rather than
diaconic,apparently consisted in the exercise of superintendence over, and in the ministry of counsel and consolation to, the younger women.--That they sat unveiled in the assemblies in a separate place by the presbyters; that they received a special ordination by laying on of hands; that they wore a peculiar dress--were distinctions probably belonging to a later age.
Having been the wife of one man.--Of the conditions of enrolment in this "order," the first--that of age--has been alluded to; the second--"having been the wife of one man"--must not be understood in the strictly literal sense of the words. It is inconceivable that the hope of forming one of the highly honoured band of presbyteral women depended on the chance of the husband living until the wife had reached the age of sixty years. Had he died in her youth, or comparative youth, the Apostle's will was that the widow should marry again. (See1Timothy 5:14, where St. Paul writes, "I will that the younger women marry," &c.)
The right interpretation of the words is found in some such paraphrase as, "If in her married life she had been found faithful and true." The fatal facility of divorce and the lax state of morality in Pagan society, especially in the Greek and Asiac cities, must be taken into account when we seek to illustrate and explain these directions respecting early Christian foundations.
While unhesitatingly adopting the above interpretation of the words "wife of one man," as faithfully representing the mind of St. Paul, who was legislating here, it must be remembered, for the masses of believers whose lot was cast in the busy world (see his direct command in1Timothy 5:14 of this chapter, where the family life is pressed on the younger widow, and not the higher life of solitude and self-denial), still those expositors who adopt the stricter and sterner interpretation of "wife of one man"--viz., "a woman that has hadonly one husband"--have, it must be granted, a strong argument in their favour from the known honour theunivircae obtained in the Roman world. So Dido, in'n. iv. 28, says--
"Ille meos, primus qui me sibi junxit, amores
Abstulit, ille habeat secum, servetque sepulcher." . . .
Verse 9. -
Let none be enrolled as a widow for
let not a widow be taken into the number, A.V.
Let none be enrolled, etc. The proper translation seems certainly to be (Ellicott, Alford, Huther, etc.),
let a woman be enrolled as a widow not under sixty years old;
i.e.χήρα a is the predicate, not the subject. It follows that the word "widow" here is used in a slightly different sense from that in the preceding verses, viz. in the technical sense of one belonging to the
order of widows, of which it appears from the word
καταλεγέσθω there was a regular roll kept in the Church. We do not know enough of the Church institutions of the apostolic age to enable us to say positively what their status or their functions were, but doubtless they were the germ from which the later development (of which see Bingham, bk. 7.
1 Timothy 4.) took its rise. We may gather, however, from the passage before us that their lives were specially consecrated to the service of God and the Church; that they were expected to be instant and con-slant in prayer, and to devote themselves to works of charity; that the apostle did not approve of their marrying again after their having embraced this life of widowhood, and therefore would have none enrolled under sixty years of age; and generally that, once on the roll, they would continue there for their life.
Enrolled (
καταλεγέσθω); only here in the New Testament or (in this sense) in the LXX.; but it is the regular classical word for enrolling, enlisting, soldiers, etc. Hence our word "catalogue." In like manner, in the times of the Empress Helena, the virgins of the Church are described as
ἀναγεγραμμένας ἐν τῷ τῆς ἐκκλησίαςκανόνι (Socr., 1:17), "registered in the Church's register," or list of virgins.
Under three score years old. A similar rule was laid down in several early canons, which forbade the veiling of virgins before the age of
forty. This care to prevent women from being entangled by vows or engagements which they had not well considered, or of which they did not know the full force, is in striking contrast with the system which allows young girls to make irrevocable vows. The participle
γεγονυῖα, "being," belongs to this clause (not as in the A.V. to the following one), as Alford clearly shows, and as the R.V. also indicates, by putting
having been in italics; though it does not translate
γεγονυῖα in this clause, unless possibly the word "old" is considered as representing
γεγονυῖα. It should
be,
Let none be enrolled as widows,
being under sixty years of age.
The wife of one man; see above,
1 Timothy 3:2, the similar phrase, "the husband of one wife" (which likewise stands without any participle), and the note there. To which may be added that it is hardly conceivable that St. Paul should within the compass of a few verses (see ver. 14) recommend the marriage of young widows, and yet make the fact of a second marriage an absolute bar to a woman being enrolled among the Church widows.
Parallel Commentaries ...
Greek
A widowΧήρα(Chēra)Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 5503:Feminine of a presumed derivative apparently from the base of chasma through the idea of deficiency; a widow, literally or figuratively.should be enrolledκαταλεγέσθω(katalegesthō)Verb - Present Imperative Middle or Passive - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2639:To enter in a list, register, enroll. From kata and lego; to lay down, i.e. to enrol.if she isγεγονυῖα(gegonuia)Verb - Perfect Participle Active - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 1096:A prolongation and middle voice form of a primary verb; to cause to be, i.e. to become, used with great latitude.[at least]ἔλαττον(elatton)Adjective - Accusative Neuter Singular - Comparative
Strong's 1640:Less, smaller; poorer, inferior. Or elatton el-at-tone'; comparative of the same as elachistos; smaller.sixtyἑξήκοντα(hexēkonta)Adjective - Genitive Neuter Plural
Strong's 1835:Sixty. The tenth multiple of hex; sixty.years [old],ἐτῶν(etōn)Noun - Genitive Neuter Plural
Strong's 2094:A year. Apparently a primary word; a year.[the] wifeγυνή(gynē)Noun - Nominative Feminine Singular
Strong's 1135:A woman, wife, my lady. Probably from the base of ginomai; a woman; specially, a wife.of oneἑνὸς(henos)Adjective - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 1520:One. (including the neuter Hen); a primary numeral; one.man,ἀνδρὸς(andros)Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 435:A male human being; a man, husband. A primary word; a man.
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NT Letters: 1 Timothy 5:9 Let no one be enrolled as (1 Tim. 1Ti iTi 1tim i Tm) 
