NOTES for Ti1 5:1-16

All of today’s reading shows us how pragmatic the apostle Paul was, how full of common sense and clear practical judgment. He proposes relying on people who have already proved themselves to be dependable Christians. He thinks it better for young widows to marry than to devote themselves to God. Older widows are better off living among their children and grandchildren. Looked at from the standpoint of ordinary life, these simple pieces of advice may seem excessively rational. But above all, Paul is trying to show us that Christianity is not a state of constant exaltation, that it does not concern only lofty realms, but also entails a real knowledge of human nature.

The attitude toward widows in the Church of the first Christian period was very special. Of course, a widow enjoyed special protection in the Synagogue as well, and the Torah pays special attention to protecting the rights precisely of widows and orphans. This is understandable: widows and orphans, often deprived of the support of their family and clan, were in every respect the most vulnerable.

But in the Church, where the attitude toward marriage was special, the attitude toward widows was also special, though in some respects it resembled the traditional synagogue attitude. Widows in the Church enjoyed special attention and protection. But for the Church there also arose the question of widows' second marriage, its advisability or, on the contrary, inadvisability. Every believing Jew understood that if a widow after her husband's death had the opportunity to marry again, she should do so: after all, it was a matter of fulfilling the commandment given to the first people, be fruitful and multiply.

Family was therefore always very important for believing Jews; family life was in fact considered a religious duty, and voluntarily refusing it was considered strange and impossible. If a widow after her husband's death received the opportunity to marry a second time, she of course had to use it. But in the Church marriage was viewed somewhat differently. On the one hand, the Church always saw in marriage a measure of spiritual fullness that could be compared with the spiritual fullness of the Church as the body of Christ. In fact, marriage was considered the introduction of ecclesial fullness into the home, into family relationships.

On the other hand, precisely for this reason the Church directly forbade divorce, except in cases when one of the spouses proved guilty of adultery. In that case he automatically fell away from the Church as well, where by definition there could be no place for the sexually immoral. And the perception of every marriage as absolutely unique called into question not only divorce, but also remarriage in the case of the death of one spouse. Many widows therefore found themselves in church ministries, no longer remarrying and not striving for a second marriage. But here Paul advises Timothy to be cautious.

After all, the Church still did not forbid a second marriage for widows, and if a widow was young she could well use her presence in church or near-church circles to search for a bridegroom rather than for ministry. Or, worse, to satisfy herself with a kind of substitute family life, finding it in contact with the people with whom the ministry she had supposedly taken upon herself brought her together. From such "ministries" the church community could expect nothing except unpleasant misunderstandings, fraught with possible violation of the seventh commandment, about which Paul warns Timothy.