Daily Devotions
1 Timothy
"Likewise, their wives must be reverent..."
Text: 1 Timothy 3:11
A CHALLENGING TEXT TO READ
We have a challenging word to read and interpret in the following text.
“Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers,
temperate, faithful in all things.”
1 Timothy 3:11
1. Why do we call this a challenging text?
a) It has to do with the word “wives”.
b) More particularly “their wives”:-
i) In the NKJV text the possessive pronoun “their” is put in italics.
ii) This is to alert the reader that the possessive pronoun was not originally there.
iii) It was inserted by the translators to represent their interpretation of the text.
2. An alternative translation may be suggested
a) The word “wives” is simply the word “women”.
b) It may of course be possibly translated “wives”.
c) But the alternative must be given due consideration.
i) It may thus be rendered “woman (female) deacons”.
ii) The context would suggest that women serving as deacons are in mind.