What Does 1 Timothy 5:9 Mean?
Let a widow be enrolled who has reached sixty years, the wife of one man.
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
Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man,THE KEY
“Taken into the number” is enrollment language: widowhood becomes a recognized place on a community’s support list, with explicit boundaries.
THE MEANING
This verse sets a clear boundary around a widow-support list: a woman is enrolled only if she is at least sixty and has been the wife of one man. Care here takes the form of a recognized place on a list, and the stated conditions shape who is included.
THE ROOT
καταλεγέσθω
katalegesthō
GROWS FROM
λεγ-
to gather or select; in καταλέγω, to enter on a list
“enrolled” in this verse is katalegesthō. The Greek word describes enrollment, so the phrase carries the sense of being formally placed on a community’s register. The verse frames support as something organized and counted, with eligibility criteria that determine who is included.
ALSO GROWS
katálogos: a list or register
κατάλογος
Its shared stem makes the register behind the enrollment language visible.
syllegō: to gather or collect
συλλέγω
It echoes the act of bringing people together into an identified group.
χήρα
chēra
GROWS FROM
χηρ-
bereft or deprived; here, widowed
“widow” in this verse is chēra. The Greek word belongs to a family that names widowhood as a continuing condition of loss. The verse begins its list with that condition, then makes formal recognition of it depend on the stated qualifications.
ALSO GROWS
chēreia: widowhood
χηρεία
It names the condition that the verse uses to define who may be enrolled.
chēreuō: to be widowed
χηρεύω
It presents widowhood as a lived condition, not merely a label.
THE PATTERN
Care for widows becomes visible when a community recognizes their needs and makes provision concrete.
He executes judgment for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him bread and a cloak.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.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
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.Acts uses the same Greek word for widows, χῆραι (chērai), and places them at the center of a community’s care. Together, the verses show that who is counted shapes whether practical support reaches her.
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