1 Timothy 5:13

13 They also learn to waste their time in going around from house to house; but even worse, they learn to be gossips and busybodies, talking of things they should not.

1 Timothy 5:13 Meaning and Commentary

1 Timothy 5:13

And withal they learn to be idle
Being at ease, and without labour, living at the expense of the church: "wandering about from house to house"; having nothing else to do: such an one is what the Jews F26 call (tybbwv hnmla) , "the gadding widow"; who, as the gloss says,

``goes about and visits her neighbours continually; and these are they that corrupt the world.''

Of this sort of women must the Jews be understood, when they say {a}, it is one of the properties of them to be (twynauwy) "going out", or gadding abroad, as Dinah did; and that it is another to be (twyrbd) , "talkative", which agrees with what follows:

and not only idle, but tattlers also;
full of talk, who have always some news to tell, or report to make of the affairs of this, or the other person, or family:

and busy bodies;
in the matters of other persons, which do not concern them:

speaking things which they ought not;
which either are not true, and, if they are, are not to be spoken of, and carried from place to place: this is a very great inconvenience, the apostle observes, arising from the admission of such young widows to be relieved and maintained at the church's charge.


FOOTNOTES:

F26 T. Bab. Sota, fol. 22. 1.
F1 Bereshit Rabba, sect. 45. fol. 40. 3.

1 Timothy 5:13 In-Context

11 But do not include younger widows in the list; because when their desires make them want to marry, they turn away from Christ,
12 and so become guilty of breaking their earlier promise to him.
13 They also learn to waste their time in going around from house to house; but even worse, they learn to be gossips and busybodies, talking of things they should not.
14 So I would prefer that the younger widows get married, have children, and take care of their homes, so as to give our enemies no chance of speaking evil of us.
15 For some widows have already turned away to follow Satan.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.