What Does 1 Timothy 5:19 Mean?
Do not take up an accusation against an elder, unless it rests upon two or three witnesses.
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
Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.THE KEY
The verse places the weight of an accusation in corroborating witnesses, not in the force of the charge itself.
THE MEANING
A charge against an elder gains standing through the testimony of two or three witnesses. The verse makes corroboration part of how the accusation is received.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that one accusation by itself establishes an elder’s guilt.
THE ROOT
μαρτύρων
martyrōn
GROWS FROM
μαρτυρ-
martyr-
witness; testify
The Greek word for witnesses belongs to the same word family as testimony and testifying. The verse ties the standing of an accusation to witness-bearing testimony.
ALSO GROWS
martys: witness
μάρτυς
The witnesses are people who bear testimony to the matter.
martyria: testimony
μαρτυρία
This branch names the testimony through which a claim is supported.
martyreō: bear witness, testify
μαρτυρέω
It makes explicit the act that gives witness its weight.
παραδέχου
paradechou
GROWS FROM
δέχομαι
dechomai
receive; accept
“receive” in this verse is paradechou. The sentence turns on receiving the accusation: a charge is not treated as established merely because it is voiced. The verb places the threshold for acceptance alongside the requirement for witnesses.
ALSO GROWS
dechomai: receive, accept
δέχομαι
This is the basic word family behind the verse’s act of receiving.
paradechomai: accept, receive
παραδέχομαι
This is the form used in the verse, making acceptance itself the point of the rule.
apodechomai: welcome, accept
ἀποδέχομαι
This related form keeps the focus on a claim being received.
THE PATTERN
A matter gains standing through corroborating witnesses rather than a single voice.
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.But if he does not hear you, take along with you one or two more, so that upon the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may stand.This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand.THE THREAD
One witness shall not rise up against a man for any crookedness, or for any falling short, in it he misses the mark; upon the mouth of two witnesses, or upon the mouth of three witnesses, the word shall stand.Deuteronomy names the two-or-three-witness threshold by which a matter is established. This verse applies that same structure to receiving an accusation against an elder, tying its standing to corroborating testimony.
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