What Does 1 Timothy 5:16 Mean?
If any steady woman has widows, let her come to their aid; and let not the assembly be weighed down, so that it may come to the aid of the widows who truly are widows.
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
If any man or woman that believeth have widows, let them relieve them, and let not the church be charged; that it may relieve them that are widows indeed.THE KEY
Care is directed where support can reach: a believer sustains widowed dependents, leaving the assembly’s care for those truly without support.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks to how care is carried now: when a believer has widowed dependents, that believer supports them, while the assembly remains able to care for those who are truly alone. It recognizes both the need for support and the importance of directing it where no household support is available.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the assumption that shared care must carry every need, even when someone close can provide support.
THE ROOT
ἐπαρκείσθω
eparkeísthō
GROWS FROM
ἐπαρκέω (eparkeō), built on ἀρκέω (arkeō)
To aid or support; at its base, to suffice or be enough.
“come to their aid” in this verse is eparkeísthō. The verse uses the same verb for supporting widowed dependents and for the assembly’s support of widows indeed. Its base carries the sense of sufficiency, so the care described is help that meets a real need.
ALSO GROWS
arkeō: To be sufficient or enough.
ἀρκέω
This base sense shows support as help that meets what is needed.
eparkeō: To give aid or provide support.
ἐπαρκέω
This is the verb used for both acts of care in the verse, linking household support with the assembly’s support.
βαρείσθω
bareísthō
GROWS FROM
βαρ-
bar-
Weight, heaviness; βαρέω (baréō) means to weigh down or burden.
“be weighed down” in this verse is bareísthō. The wording pictures the assembly as carrying weight. Paired with the verb for providing support, it shows care being distributed according to where help is already available, so the assembly can carry the needs that remain.
ALSO GROWS
báros: A weight or burden.
βάρος
It makes the sense of being charged concrete: the assembly is not meant to carry a burden that can be borne within a household.
barýs: Heavy or burdensome.
βαρύς
The verse’s concern is not whether need exists, but where its weight can be carried.
THE PATTERN
Care is sustained when responsibility is shared and support reaches those who need it.
For the one in want shall never be gone from the midst of the land. Therefore I command you, saying, "You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to the one in want and to the bowed down, in your land."And in those days, when the disciples multiplied, a grumbling of the Greek-speakers against the Hebrews arose, because their widows were overlooked in the daily serving.Carry one another's weights, and so you fill up the instruction of the Anointed One.THE THREAD
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.The Greek verb ἐπαρκέω (eparkeō, “to support”) appears here as “relieved” and again in 5:16 as “relieve.” A widow is first described as someone who supported the afflicted; the same word then describes support being provided to widows. Giving and receiving belong to the same movement of care.
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