But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.
If any widow - not "a widow indeed," as having children who ought to support her.
Nephews, х ekgona (G1549)] - 'descendants,' or 'grandchildren.' Nephews in old English meant grandchildren (Hooker, 'Ecclesiastical Polity,' 5: 20).
Let them - the children and descendants.
Learn first - before calling the church to support them.
To show piety at home - by sustaining their widowed mother or grandmother. х Ton (G3588) idion (G2398) oikon (G3624) ' ... toward their own house.'] "Piety means reverential dutifulness; the parental relation representing our heavenly Fathers relation to us. 'Their own' is opposed to the church, to which the widow is comparatively a stranger. She has a claim on her own, prior to her claim on the church; let them fulfill this prior claim by sustaining her, and not burdening the church.
Parents, х progonois (G4269)] - (living) 'progenitors;' i:e., their mother or grandmother. "Let them learn" implies that some widows had claimed church support, though having children or grandchildren able to support them.
Good and 'Aleph (') A C Delta G f g, Vulgate, omit: probably inserted from 1 Timothy 2:3.