1 Timothy 5:13

13 And also they learne to goo from housse to housse ydle ye not ydle only but also tryflynge and busybodyes speakynge thynges which are not comly.

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 The yonger widdowes refuse. For when they have begone to wexe wantone to the dishonoure of Christ then will they mary
12 havynge damnacio because they have broke their fyrst fayth.
13 And also they learne to goo from housse to housse ydle ye not ydle only but also tryflynge and busybodyes speakynge thynges which are not comly.
14 I will therfore that ye yonger weme mary and beare childre and gyde the housse and geve none occasio to ye adversary to speake evill
15 For many of them are all redy turned bake and are gone after Satan.
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