I Timothy 3:11 – a problem of translation.
There are times when a simple reading of the scripture in English is not enough. Any English translation, which is a rendering in English of the original Greek from the New Testament, requires the translator to select a word which most closely corresponds to the Greek word.
Often there is a one-to-one correspondence between the words of one language and the words of another. But what if this is not the case? The following example is not hypothetical. Note the discrepancy between the following translations in a section dealing with deacons:
11 Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. [KJV]
11 The women likewise must be serious, no slanderers, but temperate, faithful in all things. [RSV]
11 [a]Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things. (a) I.e.: either deacons’ wives or deaconesses. [NASB]
Note that the KJV speaks of the deacon’s wives, whereas the RSV speaks of women. The NASB clarifies in the footnote, either deacons’ wives or deaconesses.
So here we seem to have a problem. Wives? Women? Deaconesses? Which is it? Which translation is correct? Why is there such a range of possible meanings?
The answer is simple – if not immediately helpful. In the Greek language of the New Testament, γυναῖκας, as it is found in this verse, can mean either ‘woman’ or ‘wife’. Thus Paul in writing to Timothy may be referring to the wives of the deacons, or he may be referring to women in their own right – in which case he is referring to women who are deaconesses.
So how can we know which is the correct meaning? How can we know if Paul is referring to the wives of the deacons or to women in the role of deacons? We have to look into the context and decide which of these ideas fits better with what Paul is saying.
When we do so, we note that Paul says nothing about women with regard to the role of the overseer. If we were to argue that he is demanding of the wife of the deacon that she must have certain spiritual qualities, we might wonder that nothing is said about the wives of the overseers.
If, however, he were referring to women in the role of deacon, it may be that he left them out in a discussion of the role of overseer because he was not including women in that role.
It is this latter understanding that make sense to me. In neither case, then, does Paul express expectations of the wives of those in leadership. However, in the case of the deacon, Paul expresses his expectations of women who fill that role of leadership.
The foregoing explanation, while answering the meaning of the Greek, does not address the issue of what we are to understand by ‘overseer’ or ‘deacon’. Nor does it provide a simple answer to the modern issue of roles of women in the church. That would require thinking through other scriptures, which is not my intent in this discussion.
The moral of the story is this: Thoughtful Bible study sometimes requires digging beyond the words as we read them in our English Bibles.
– SSXG