a
husband to one wife. Literally, “a man of one woman.” This
phrase will recur in the lists of virtues for the bishop and the deacon in 1
Tim 3:2, 12. The closest parallels in profane Greek are the epigram of
Carphyllides (second century b.c.e.: Greek
Anthology 7:260; cf. 324), “I enjoyed one wife (miēs apelausa gynaikos) who grew old with me,” and the astrological
papyrus (third century c.e., PSI 3.6, §158.25–26) that notes a planetary
configuration that makes men blameworthy for “not staying with one wife (me epimenontas miai gynaiki).”
The actual phrase of the PE, however, is not documented
in biblical Greek or in the Ap. Frs., though see Clement of Alexandria, Stromata 1.5; 3.1 (O. Stählin; Leipzig:
Hinrichs, 1906, 2.20.8; 197.12). First Timothy 5:9 contains a mirror image of
the expression, in which the woman admitted to the order of widows is to be the
wife of one husband. In the PE, anēr
always refers to those of the male sex; in the singular it always designates a
married man (1 Tim 2:12); in the plural it may refer to men, whether married or
unmarried (1 Tim 2:8), or to husbands in particular (Titus 2:5). Almost the
same pattern is found with the uses of gynē
in the PE: the singular designates a wife (1 Tim 2:10, 12, 14); the plural
refers to women, regardless of their married state (1 Tim 2:9–10 and 3:11,
where the reference may be to wives or to unmarried women).(Jerome D. Quinn, The
Letter to Titus: A New Translation with Notes and Commentary and An
Introduction to Titus, I and II Timothy, The Pastoral Epistles [AYB 35; New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2008], 79)
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