One Wife Husband

1 Timothy 3:2 NLT

So a church leader must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife. He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach.

I. How do we understand “mias gynaikas andra”?

Popular interpretations of “one wife husband”

Must be married (Emphasis on husband)

One wife only

One wife at a time (Polygamy)

Must be faithful to wife (Assuming he is married)

For our purposes - The understanding of divorce and remarriage is not a direct interpretation, but one of Biblical and theological inference. There is a greek word of divorce and remarriage … Paul would have used … Must not be divorced and remarried. It is inference.

The understanding of not allowing a single man to be a Pastor would be unlikely for Paul encouraged Christians not to get married for it will be better for the purpose of ministry. (The Roman Catholic directive for unmarried priests - 1 Corinthians 7:32-35)

The one wife only would exclude men who had a wife but she died. Widowers. Unlikely because Paul did encourage those who are widowed to remarry. (1 Corinthians 7:8-9)

Polygamy. It is unlikely that this would be the case. Scholars do suggest that the practice of having more than one wife was not the norm. But it was the norm for men to have concubines and sexually engage with prostitutes and others.

The best way to understand “one wife husband” is fidelity in marriage. The elder must be a faithful husband. The phrase is used again to establish marrital faithfulness in 1 Timothy 5:9

1 Timothy 5:9 NLT

A widow who is put on the list for support must be a woman who is at least sixty years old and was faithful to her husband.

- Enos andros gunay… “one husband wife”. The opposite of what Paul wrote in 1 Timothy. It cannot mean polyandry because she is a widow. Why would Paul encourage widows to remarry only to disqualify them when they become widows. Can’t mean must be married, because she is a widow. There can be no current marriage implication such as divorce and remarriage… she is a widow. Even in Roman times the latin word univira “one husband” was used to signify a type of wife… she was a one husband kind of woman and it meant faithfulness. Paul intended the woman to be the kind of woman known to be faithful to her husband. See then the elder is to be one who is known for being faithful to his wife. No concubines, no prostitutes, no adultery, no affairs… no messing around with women in the church.

-Also if the inference does mean a divorced and remarriage in 1 Timothy 3 then why would that not be applied to 1 Timothy 5 which would then mean that a woman who was divorced and remarried would be disqualified to receive aid from the church.

- The NLT 2nd, and the NIV translate it faithful to his wife.

- NT scholars - George Knight, Hayne Griffin, Donald Guthrie, William Hendrickson, RCH Lenski, John Lange, Kent Hugues, John Stott, Bryan Chappell, Craig Keener, HD Spence, Knute Larson.

-John MacArthur. RC Sproul. CJ MacMahon. Michael Ross. Got questions. Sam Storms.