Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man,
'As a widow (i:e., of the ecclesiastical order of widowhood: a female presbytery), let none be enrolled (in the catalogue) who is less than sixty years old. These were not deaconesses, who were chosen at a younger age (forty was fixed at the council of Chalcedon), and who had virgins (in a later age called widows) as well as widows among them, but a band of widows set apart, though not yet formally and finally, to the service of the church. Traces of such a class appear in Acts 9:41. So Dorcas herself. As it was expedient (note, 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6) that the presbyter or bishop should have been but once married, so also she. There is a transition to a new subject. The reference cannot be, as in 1 Timothy 5:3, to providing church sustenance for them, for the restriction to widows above sixty would then be harsh, since many might need help at a much earlier age; also the rule that the widow must not have been twice married, especially since he himself (1 Timothy 5:14) enjoins the younger widows to marry again; also that she must have brought up children.
Moreover, 1 Timothy 5:10 pre-supposes some competence, at least in past times; so poor widows would be excluded, the very class requiring charity. Also 1 Timothy 5:11 would then be senseless, for their re-marrying would be a benefit, not an injury, to the church, as relieving it of their sustenance. Tertullian, 'De velandis Virginibus,' 100: 9; Hermas, 'Shepherd,' b. 1: 2; and Chrysostom, 'Homily' 31, mention such an order of ecclesiastical widowhood, each not less than 60 years old, resembling the presbyters in the respect paid to them, and in some of their duties: they ministered with sympathizing counsel to other widows and to orphans-a ministry to which their experimental knowledge of the feelings and sufferings of the bereaved adapted them-and had a general supervision of their sex. Age was a requisite in presbyters, as it is here stated to have been in presbyteresses, with a view to their influence on the younger of their sex. They were supported by the church, but not the only widows so supported (1 Timothy 5:3-4). Three classes of widows occur:
(1) The ordinary widow; (2) The widow indeed - i:e., destitute;
(3) The presbyteral widow.
Wife of one man - in order not to throw a stumblingblock in the way of Jews and pagan, who regarded with disfavour second marriages (note, 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6). This is the force of "blameless," giving no offence, even in matters indifferent.