_THE PASTOR'S BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS WOMEN.--THE CHURCH WIDOW._
"Honour widows that are widows indeed. But if any widow hath
children or grandchildren, let them learn first to shew piety
towards their own family, and to requite their parents: for this is
acceptable in the sight of God.... Let none be enrolled as a widow
under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well
reported of for good works"--1 TIM. v. 3, 4, 9.
The subject of this fifth chapter is "The Behaviour of the Pastor
towards the older and younger men and women in the congregation." Some
have thought that it forms the main portion of the letter, to which all
the rest is more or less introductory or supplementary. But the
structure of the letter cannot easily be brought into harmony with this
view. It seems to be much nearer the truth to say that the
unpremeditated way in which this subject is introduced, cannot well be
explained unless we assume that we are reading a genuine letter, and not
a forged treatise. The connexion of the different subjects touched upon
is loose and not always very obvious. Points are mentioned in the order
in which they occur to the writer's mind without careful arrangement.
After the personal exhortations given at the close of Chapter iv., which
have a solemnity that might lead one to suppose that the Apostle was
about to bring his words to a close, he makes a fresh start and treats
of an entirely new subject which has occurred to him.
It is not difficult to guess what has suggested the new subject. The
personal exhortations with which the previous section ends contain these
words, "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an ensample to them
that believe, in word, in manner of life, in love, in faith, in purity."
Timothy is not to allow the fact that he is younger than many of those
over whom he is set to interfere with the proper discharge of his
duties. He is to give no one a handle for charging him with want of
gravity or propriety. Sobriety of conduct is to counterbalance any
apparent lack of experience. But St. Paul remembers that there is
another side to that. Although Timothy is to behave in such a way as
never to remind his flock of his comparative youthfulness, yet he
himself is always to bear in mind that he is still a young man. This is
specially to be remembered in dealing with persons of either sex who are
older than himself, and in his bearing towards young women. St. Paul
begins with the treatment of older men and returns to this point again
later on. Between these two passages about men he gives directions for
Timothy's guidance respecting the women in his flock, and specially
respecting widows. This subject occupies more than half the chapter and
is of very great interest, as being our chief source of information
respecting the treatment of widows in the early Church. Commentators are
by no means unanimous in their interpretation of the details of the
passage, but it is believed that the explanation which is now offered is
in harmony with the original Greek, consistent with itself, and not
contradicted by anything which is known from other sources.
It is quite evident that more than one kind of widow is spoken of: and
one of the questions which the passage raises is--How many classes of
widows are indicated? We can distinguish four kinds; and it seems
probable that the Apostle means to give us four kinds.
1. There is "the widow indeed (=hê ontôs chêra=)." Her characteristic is
that she is "desolate," _i.e._, quite alone in the world. She has not
only lost her husband, but she has neither children nor any other near
relation to minister to her necessities. Her hope is set on God, to Whom
her prayers ascend night and day. She is contrasted with two other
classes of widow, both of whom are in worldly position better off than
she is, for they are not desolate or destitute; yet one of these is far
more miserable than the widow indeed, because the manner of life which
she adopts is so unworthy of her.
2. There is the widow who "hath children or grandchildren." Natural
affection will cause these to take care that their widowed parent does
not come to want. If it does not, then they must learn that "to show
piety towards their own family and to requite their parents" is a
paramount duty, and that the congregation must not be burdened with the
maintenance of their mother until they have first done all they can for
her. To ignore this plain duty is to deny the first principles of
Christianity, which is the Gospel of love and duty, and to fall below
the level of the unbelievers, most of whom recognized the duty of
providing for helpless parents. Nothing is said of the character of the
widow who has children or grandchildren to support her; but, like the
widow indeed, she is contrasted with the third class of widow, and
therefore we infer that her character is free from reproach.
3. There is the widow who "giveth herself to pleasure." Instead of
continuing in prayers and supplications night and day, she continues in
frivolity and luxury, or worse. Of her, as of the Church of Sardis, it
may be said, "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead"
(Rev. iii. 1).
4. There is the "enrolled" widow; _i.e._, one whose name has been
entered on the Church rolls as such. She is a "widow indeed" and
something more. She is not only a person who needs and deserves the
support of the congregation, but has special rights and duties. She
holds an office, and has a function to discharge. She is a widow, not
merely as having lost her husband, but as having been admitted to the
company of those bereaved women whom the Church has entrusted with a
definite portion of Church work. This being so, something more must be
looked to than the mere fact of her being alone in the world. She must
be sixty years of age, must have had only one husband, have had
experience in the bringing up of children, and be well known as devoted
to good works. If she has these qualifications, she may be enrolled as a
Church widow; but it does not follow that because she has them she will
be appointed.
The work to which these elderly women had to devote themselves was
twofold: (1) Prayer, especially intercession for those in trouble; (2)
Works of mercy, especially ministering to the sick, guiding younger
Christian women in lives of holiness, and winning over heathen women to
the faith. These facts we learn from the frequent regulations respecting
widows during the second, third, and fourth, centuries. It was
apparently during the second century that the order of widows flourished
most.
This primitive order of Church widows must be distinguished from the
equally primitive order of deaconesses, and from a later order of
widows, which grew up side by side with the earlier order, and continued
long after the earlier order had ceased to exist. But it would be
contrary to all probability, and to all that we know about Church
offices in the Apostolic and sub-Apostolic age, to suppose that the
distinctions between different orders of women were as marked in the
earliest periods as they afterwards became, or that they were precisely
the same in all branches of the Church.
It has been sometimes maintained that the Church widow treated of in the
passage before us is identical with the deaconess. The evidence that the
two orders were distinct is so strong as almost to amount to
demonstration.
1. It is quite possible that this very Epistle supplies enough evidence
to make the identification very improbable. If the "women" mentioned in
the section about deacons (iii. 11) are deaconesses, then the
qualifications for this office are quite different from the
qualifications for that of a widow, and are treated of in quite
different sections of the letter. But even if deaconesses are not
treated of at all in that passage, the limit of age seems quite out of
place, if they are identical with the widows.[58] In the case of the
widows it was important to enrol for this special Church work none who
were likely to wish to marry again. And as their duties consisted in a
large measure in prayer, advanced age was no impediment, but rather the
contrary. But the work of the deaconess was for the most part active
work, and it would be unreasonable to admit no one to the office until
the best part of her working life was quite over.
2. The difference in the work assigned to them points in the same
direction. As already stated, the special work of the widow was
intercessory prayer and ministering to the sick. The special work of the
deaconess was guarding the women's door in the churches, seating the
women in the congregation, and attending women at baptisms.[59] Baptism
being usually administered by immersion, and adult baptism being very
frequent, there was much need of female attendants.
3. At her appointment the deaconess received the imposition of hands,
the widow did not. The form of prayer for the ordination of a deaconess
is given in the _Apostolical Constitutions_ (viii. 19, 20), and is
worthy of quotation. "Concerning a deaconess, I Bartholomew make this
constitution: O Bishop, thou shalt lay thy hands upon her in the
presence of the presbytery and of the deacons and deaconesses, and shalt
say; O Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of
man and of woman; Who didst replenish with the Spirit Miriam, Deborah,
Anna, and Huldah; Who didst not disdain that Thy Only begotten Son
should be born of a woman; Who also in the tabernacle of the testimony
and in the temple didst ordain women to be _keepers of Thy holy
gates_;--look down now also upon this Thy servant, who is to be ordained
to the office of a deaconess. Grant her Thy Holy Spirit and _cleanse her
from all defilement of flesh and spirit_,[60] that she may worthily
discharge the work which is committed to her, to Thy glory and the
praise of Thy Christ, with Whom be glory and adoration to Thee and to
the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen." Nothing of the kind is found
for the appointment of a Church widow.
4. It is quite in harmony with the fact that the deaconesses were
ordained, while the widows were not, that the widows are placed under
the deaconesses. "The widows ought to be grave, obedient to their
bishops, their presbyters, and their deacons; and besides these to the
deaconesses, with piety, reverence, and fear."[61]
5. The deaconess might be either an unmarried woman or a widow, and
apparently the former was preferred. "Let the deaconess be a pure
virgin; or at least a widow who has been but once married."[62] But,
although such things did occur, Tertullian protests that it is a
monstrous irregularity to admit an unmarried woman to the order of
widows.[63] Now, if widows and deaconesses were identical, unmarried
"widows" would have been quite common, for unmarried deaconesses were
quite common. Yet he speaks of the one case of a "virgin widow" which
had come under his notice as a marvel, and a monstrosity, and a
contradiction in terms. It is true that Ignatius in his letter to the
Church of Smyrna uses language which has been thought to support the
identification: "I salute the households of my brethren with their
wives and children, and _the virgins who are called widows_."[64] But it
is incredible that at Smyrna _all_ the Church widows were unmarried; and
it is equally improbable that Ignatius should send a salutation to the
unmarried "widows" (if such there were), and ignore the rest. His
language, however, may be quite easily explained without any such
strange hypothesis. He may mean "I salute those who are called widows,
but whom one might really regard as virgins." And in support of this
interpretation Bishop Lightfoot quotes Clement of Alexandria, who says
that the continent man, like the continent widow, becomes again a
virgin; and Tertullian, who speaks of continent widows as being in God's
sight maidens (_Deo sunt puellae_), and as for a second time virgins.[65]
But, whatever Ignatius may have meant by "the virgins who are called
widows," we may safely conclude that neither in his time, any more than
that of St. Paul, were the widows identical with the deaconesses.
The later order of widows, which grew up side by side with the Apostolic
order, and in the end supplanted, or at any rate survived, the older
order, came into existence about the third century. It consisted of
persons who had lost their husbands and made a vow never to marry again.
From the middle of the second century or a little later we find a strong
feeling against second marriages springing up, and this feeling was very
possibly intensified when the Gospel came in contact with the German
tribes, among whom the feeling already existed independently of
Christianity. In this new order of widows who had taken the vow of
continence there was no restriction of age, nor was it necessary that
they should be persons in need of the alms of the congregation. In the
Apostolic order the fundamental idea seems to have been that destitute
widows ought to be supported by the Church, and that in return for this,
those of them who were qualified should do some special Church work. In
the later order the fundamental idea was that it was a good thing for a
widow to remain unmarried, and that a vow to do so would help her to
persevere.
In commanding Timothy to "honour widows that are widows indeed" the
Apostle states a principle which has had a wide and permanent influence
not only on ecclesiastical discipline but upon European legislation.
Speaking of the growth of the modern idea of a will, by which a man can
regulate the descent of his property inside and outside his family, Sir
Henry Maine remarks, that "the exercise of the Testamentary power was
seldom allowed to interfere with the right of the widow to a definite
share, and of the children to certain fixed proportions, of the
devolving inheritance. The shares of the children, as their amount
shows, were determined by the authority of Roman law. _The provision for
the widow was attributable to the exertions of the Church, which never
relaxed its solicitude for the interest of wives surviving their
husbands_--winning, perhaps, one of the most arduous of its triumphs
when, after exacting for two or three centuries an express promise from
the husband at marriage to endow his wife, it at length succeeded in
engrafting the principle of Dower on the Customary Law of all Western
Europe."[66] This is one of the numerous instances in which the Gospel,
by insisting upon the importance of some humane principle, has
contributed to the progress and security of the best elements in
civilization.
Not only the humanity, but the tact and common sense of the Apostle is
conspicuous throughout the whole passage, whether we regard the general
directions respecting the bearing of the young pastor towards the
different sections of his flock, old and young, male and female, or the
special rules respecting widows. The sum and substance of it appears to
be that the pastor is to have abundance of zeal and to encourage it in
others, but he is to take great care that, neither in himself nor in
those whom he has to guide, zeal outruns discretion. Well-deserved
rebukes may do far more harm than good, if they are administered without
respect to the position of those who need them. And in all his
ministrations the spiritual overseer must beware of giving a handle to
damaging criticism. He must not let his good be evil spoken of. So also
with regard to the widows. No hard and fast rule can be safely laid
down. Almost everything depends upon circumstances. On the whole, the
case of widows is analogous to that of unmarried women. For those who
have strength to forego the married state, _in order to devote more time
and energy to the direct service of God_, it is better to remain
unmarried, if single, and if widows, not to marry again. But there is no
peculiar blessedness in the unmarried state, if the motive for avoiding
matrimony is a selfish one, _e.g._, to avoid domestic cares and duties
and have leisure for personal enjoyment. Among younger women the higher
motive is less likely to be present, or at any rate to be permanent.
They are so likely sooner or later to desire to marry, that it will be
wisest not to discourage them to do so. On the contrary, let it be
regarded as the normal thing that a young woman should marry, and that a
young widow should marry again. It is not the best thing for them, but
it is the safest. Although the highest work for Christ can best be done
by those who by remaining single have kept their domestic ties at a
minimum, yet young women are more likely to do useful work in society,
and are less likely to come to harm, if they marry and have children. Of
older women this is not true. Age itself is a considerable guarantee:
and a woman of sixty, who is willing to give such a pledge, may be
encouraged to enter upon a life of perpetual widowhood. But there must
be other qualifications as well, if she wishes to be enrolled among
those, who not only are entitled by their destitute condition to receive
maintenance from the Church, but by reason of their fitness are
commissioned to undertake Church work. And these qualifications must be
carefully investigated. It would be far better to reject some, who might
after all have been useful, than to run the risk of admitting any who
would exhibit the scandal of having been supported by the Church and
specially devoted to Christian works of mercy, and of having after all
returned to society as married women with ordinary pleasures and cares.
One object throughout these directions is the _economy of Christian
resources_. The Church accepts the duty which it inculcates of
"providing for its own." But it ought not to be burdened with the
support of any but those who are really destitute. The near relations of
necessitous persons must be taught to leave the Church free to relieve
those who have no near relations to support them. Secondly, so far as is
possible, those who are relieved by the alms of the congregation must
be encouraged to make some return in undertaking Church work that is
suitable to them. St. Paul has no idea of pauperizing people. So long as
they can, they must maintain themselves. When they have ceased to be
able to do this, they must be supported by their children or
grandchildren. If they have no one to help them, the Church must
undertake their support; but both for their sake as well as for the
interests of the community, it must, if possible, make the support
granted to be a return for work done rather than mere alms. Widowhood
must not be made a plea for being maintained in harmful idleness. But
the point which the Apostle insists on most emphatically, stating it in
different ways no less than three times in this short section (vv. 4, 8,
16) is this,--that widows as a rule ought to be supported by their own
relations; only in exceptional cases, where there are no relations who
can help, ought the Church to have to undertake this duty. We have here
a warning against the mistake so often made at the present day of
_freeing people from their responsibilities_ by undertaking for them in
mistaken charity the duties which they ought to discharge, and are
capable of discharging, themselves.
We may, therefore, sum up the principles laid down thus:--
Discretion and tact are needed in dealing with the different sections of
the congregation, and especially in relieving the widows. Care must be
taken not to encourage either a rigour not likely to be maintained, or
opportunities of idleness certain to lead to mischief. Help is to be
generously afforded to the destitute; but the resources of the Church
must be jealously guarded. They must not be wasted on the unworthy, or
on those who have other means of help. And, so far as possible, the
independence of those who are relieved must be protected by employing
them in the service of the Church.
In conclusion it may be worth while to point out that this mention of an
order of widows is no argument against the Pauline authorship of these
Epistles, as if no such thing existed in his time. In Acts vi. 1 the
widows appear as a distinct _body_ in the Church at Jerusalem. In Acts
ix. 39, 41, they appear almost as an _order_ in the Church at Joppa.
They "show the coats and garments which Dorcas made" in a way which
seems to imply that it was their business to distribute such things
among the needy. Even if it means no more than that Dorcas made them for
the relief of the widows themselves, still the step from a body of
widows set apart for the reception of alms to an order of widows set
apart for the duty of intercessory prayer and ministering to the sick is
not a long one, and may easily have been made in St. Paul's lifetime.
FOOTNOTES:
[58] The Council in Trullo (A.D. 691), the great authority for
discipline in the Greek Church, fixed the age of forty for admission to
the office of a deaconess and sixty for that of a widow.
[59] In the middle recension of the Ignatian Epistles we read "I salute
the keepers of the holy doors, the deaconesses in Christ" (_Ant._ xii.).
"Let the deaconesses stand at the entries of the women" (_Apost. Const._
ii. 57, 58). "For we stand in need of a woman, a deaconess, for many
necessities, and first in the baptism of women," etc.--(_Ib._ iii. 15.)
[60] 1 Cor. vii. 1.
[61] _Apost. Const._, iii. 7.
[62] _Apost. Const._, vi. 17.
[63] _De Virg. Vel._, ix.
[64] _Smyrn._ xiii.
[65] _Strom._, vii. 12; _Ad Uxor._, I. iv.; _De Exh. Cast._, 1.
[66] _Ancient Law_, p. 224.