What Does 1 Timothy 5:10 Mean?
Good works bear witness to her, if she has nurtured children, if she has opened her house to strangers, if she has washed the feet of the set-apart ones, if she has come to the aid of the pressed, if she has followed after every good work.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints’ feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work.THE KEY
Goodness becomes visible here as care that reaches another person in their actual need.
THE MEANING
Good work takes shape as children are raised, strangers are welcomed under a roof, the feet of those set apart are washed, and people pressed by trouble are supported. The verse presents goodness as care that meets another person where their need is felt.
THE ROOT
ἐπήρκεσεν
epērkesen
GROWS FROM
ἀρκ-
ark-
To be enough or sufficient; in ἐπαρκέω (eparkeō), to aid or support.
The verb translated “relieved” is ἐπαρκέω (eparkeō, aid or support), built on ἀρκέω (arkeō, be enough or suffice): help meets what is lacking. The people being helped are θλιβομένοις (thlibomenois, those pressed or distressed), so the care reaches the point where pressure is felt.
ALSO GROWS
arkeō: Be enough; suffice.
ἀρκέω
Its sense of sufficiency sheds light on relief as aid that meets a need.
arketos: Sufficient; enough.
ἀρκετός
This related form carries the same idea of what is enough, giving support a concrete shape.
ἐξενοδόχησεν
exenodochēsen
GROWS FROM
ξεν- (xen-) + δοχ- (doch-)
Stranger or guest + receive; to receive a stranger as a guest.
“opened her house to strangers” in this verse is exenodochēsen. The word is formed from ξένος (xenos, stranger or guest) and δέχομαι (dechomai, receive or welcome). The stranger remains a stranger, yet is received as a guest: hospitality changes the relation without erasing the person’s difference.
ALSO GROWS
xenos: Stranger; guest.
ξένος
The same word can name the outsider and the person welcomed into a home.
dechomai: Receive; welcome.
δέχομαι
It shows lodging as an act of reception, not just a place to sleep.
ἔνιψεν
enipsen
GROWS FROM
νιπτ-
nipt-
Wash, especially a part of the body.
“washed” in this verse is enipsen. The Greek verb is νίπτω (niptō, wash), the same verb used for washing feet in John 13. The shared word lets this practical act of care echo the pattern of mutual service named there.
ALSO GROWS
niptō: Wash.
νίπτω
This is the verb used here and in Jesus’ teaching about washing one another’s feet.
niptēr: Washbasin.
νιπτήρ
This related word appears in John 13:5, where a basin is used for washing feet.
THE PATTERN
Goodness takes concrete form when the needs of vulnerable people are met through welcome, provision, and care.
He executes judgment for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him bread and a cloak.For I hungered, and you gave me food; I thirsted, and you gave me drink; I was a stranger, and you gathered me in.Clean and unstained service before God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widowed in their being pressed, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.THE THREAD
If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.The Greek verb for “washed” is νίπτω (niptō, wash) in both verses. Here it is one of the works that makes care visible; in John, the same act becomes a pattern of washing one another’s feet.
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