Paul's claim to apostleship puts him on a level with the Twelve, whom Jesus had named 'apostles' (Lk 6:13).

This formula was used on official notices, meaning 'by order of' and suggests a royal command which must be obeyed.

Used literally of children born of wedlock, legitimate. Paul may have wanted to reinforce Timothy's authority since, his father being a Greek, Jewish law will have regarded him as illegitimate.

Possibly a word Paul coined; cf. Gal 1:6; 2 Cor 11:1. The norm of doctrine is described as 'the faith', 'the truth', 'the sound doctrine', 'the teaching' and 'the good deposit', indicating that a body of doctrine existed which was an agreed standard by which all teaching could be tested and judged.

Perhaps legendary stories about genealogies which were handed down in the Haggada or rabbinical tradition. 'The Book of Jubilees' or 'The Little Genesis' (135 and 105 BC) retells from a Pharisaic perspective the OT story from the creation to Mount Sinai. It divides this history into 'jubilees' (periods of 49 years) and asserts the uniqueness of Israel among the nations. Names of all the children of Adam and Eve, of Enoch's family, of Noah's predecessors and descendants, and of the seventy people who went down into Egypt are supplied. 'The Biblical Antiquities of Philo' (AD 70) retells the OT story from the creation of Adam to the death of Saul and its objective is to maintain the eternal validity of the law against the encroachments of Hellenism. The biblical narrative is augmented by fabulous genealogies and fired the imagination of allegorizers and speculators.

'Stewardship' or 'plan'.

'Missed the mark', 'swerve' or 'turn aside'.

Again, 'swerve' or 'turn aside', hence the importance of maintaining a straight course.

Used of the scribes who taught the Mosaic law (Lk 5:17) and of the illustrious Gamaliel (Ac 5:34).

Only found here and 1 Cor 6:9 combines arsēn (male) and koitē (bed) or keimai (to lie); cf. Lv 18:22; 20:13, LXX.

Hybris is a mixture of arrogance and insolence, which finds satisfaction in insulting and humiliating others.

As in vv 3 and 5 and often in military contexts, a sense of urgent obligation is conveyed.

This noun and the preceding verb refer to a soldier's combat.

To push someone away or cast something away; to repudiate.

Cf. 2 Tim 2:18.

A common Greek name.

General prayer.

It has been suggested that this word has to do with entering a king's presence and submitting a petition to him.

Used in the papyri both for an arbiter in legal disputes and for a negotiator of business deals.

Christian women in Ephesus would need to make sure that their attire in no way resembled that of the hundreds of prostitutes who were employed in the great goddess Diana's temple. As Chrysostom wrote, 'Imitate not therefore the courtesans, for by such a dress they allure their many lovers'.

'Plaitings'; elaborate hair-styles were fashionable among the wealthy and worn by courtesans. The sculpture and literature of the period make it clear that women often wore their hair in enormously elaborate arrangements with braids and curls interwoven, or piled high like towers and decorated with gems and/or gold and/or pearls. The courtesans wore their hair in numerous small pendant braids with gold droplets or pearls or gems every inch or so, making a shimmering screen of their locks.

Can mean 'woman' or 'wife'. The Rabbinical opinion expressed in the Jerusalem Talmud was that it would be better for the words of Torah to be burned, than that they should be entrusted to a woman.

Carries a sense of legislative enactment and in its three occurrences in the Pastoral Epistles, refers to ordering by apostolic authority, cf. 1 Cor 14:34, 37.

Meaning disputed; only use in NT. Of its several meanings, to have or exercise authority is one; to usurp or grasp authority is another. The word is also used to mean to originate, to murder someone (often in a sexual context), and, falsely, to claim ownership of something. The meaning could be, 'I do not permit a woman to teach or to represent herself as the originator or man'. This was in direct contrast to the teachings of the priestesses in the earth mother cults. Those at Ephesus for example taught that a female goddess was not only the originator of men but of God himself. Mystic knowledge about him could be obtained by having sexual relations with a priestess.

'Man' or 'husband'.

Some of the false teachers were forbidding people to marry (4:3). Paul is not saying that salvation for women is through childbirth but through 'the childbirth' or 'through the Birth of the Child'.

Lit. to 'stretch forward, reach out one's hand' for and so 'aspire' to.

'Overseer', 'bishop'; same office as presbyteros, 'presbyter', 'elder', cf. Ac 20:17, 28; 1 Pet 5:1-2; Phil 1:1 and Tit 1:5-7. Presbyteros was Jewish in origin (every synagogue had its elders) and indicated seniority, whereas episkopos was Greek (used of municipal officials, and supervisors of subject cities) and indicated the superintending nature of the pastor's ministry. Both terms used of Jesus in NT: 1 Pet 2:25; Mk 10:45 and Lk 22:27. The development of the 'monarchical episcopate' (a single bishop presiding over a college of presbyters) cannot be dated earlier than Ignatius of Syrian Antioch, c. AD 110.

Polygamy, although technically forbidden by Roman law, was still widely practiced, and was also tolerated in Jewish culture. For example, in his 'Dialogue with Trypho, a Jew', the second-century Christian apologist Justin Martyr wrote of 'imprudent and blind' Jewish teachers 'who ever till this time permit each man to have four or five wives'. There is no evidence that Christians ever practiced polygamy. Divorce and remarriage were frequent in Graeco-Roman society and were not unknown among Jews. The OT priests were not permitted to marry widows (Lv 21:14; cf. Ez 44:22). Tertullian urged his wife, if he were to die first, 'to have done with sex for ever', 'To His Wife' and he developed this false asceticism in his later treatises, 'An Exhortation to Chastity' and 'Monogamy', saying that marriage is to be contracted only once; that those who re-marry are setting themselves against God's will by demanding what he has decided to take away; and that to have two wives successively is no better than to have two simultaneously. But see Ro 7:1ff; 1 Cor 7:39. The 'husband of one wife' stipulation is likely to mean that the overseer must be 'faithful to his one wife' (NEB).

In the ancient world roadside inns were scarce, dirty, unsafe and unsavoury. To be hospitable was to save people from such alternative accommodation.

In the ancient world there were quacks who made a good living by posing as itinerant teachers.

Combines the concepts of 'rule' and 'care'.

To 'becloud' from typhos, 'cloud' or 'smoke' describing the false teachers who from 'cloud-cuckoo-land'.

In secular society the diakonos was one who gave lowly service, especially the waiter at table, e.g., Jn 2:5, 9. To the Greeks, serving was not dignified, but cf. Lk 22:27; 12:37; 17:7. It seems that the deacons were entrusted with practical administration, the distribution of funds, food and clothing to those in need, and the support and assistance of the overseers in their teaching ministry.

Lit. 'not double-tongued'; 'not indulging in double-talk'.

Can denote a stop, stair, grade or rank.

Freedom of speech or boldness before God or humankind.

Either the house (building) or household (people). The church is both: 1 Cor 11:34; 2 Cor 13:10; 1 Cor 3:16; 1 Pet 2:5.

Pillar or column, not for holding up the roof but to thrust it high so that it can be seen from afar. The temple of Diana in Ephesus had 100 Ionic columns, each over 18 meters high, which together lifted its massive, shining, marble roof; cf. Eph 2:20.

Either the foundation or a buttress or bulwark which supports the foundation, both of which stabilize the building.

The parsing of this verb is apostēsontai; will apostatize which is used in LXX of Israel's unfaithfulness to YHWH.

Only occurrence in NT; 'to brand with a red-hot iron'. Used of the branding of cattle and slaves to mark ownership. Also used in a medical sense of to 'cauterize'; to destroy by burning and render insensitive, 'anaesthetize', or deaden.

The Essenes of Qumran, for example, were said to 'reject pleasures as an evil, but esteem continence .. to be virtue', and to 'neglect marriage' (Josephus, 'Wars' II.8.2; cf. Ant. XVIII.1.5.). Gnosticism regarded matter as evil and despised the material creation. The Encratites, for example, preached against marriage, thus setting aside the original creation of God, and indirectly blaming him who made them male and female for the propagation of the human race'. They also abstained from meat, 'thus proving themselves ungrateful to God who made all things' (Irenaeus, I.28.1).

A long-standing custom in Jewish households; cf. Ro 14:6; 1 Cor 10:30.

'Put these instructions before', like a waiter serving guests, or a merchant displaying his wares; or lit. 'to lay under' so perhaps as a builder who lays down foundational truths.

Training was essential for athletes intending to compete in the games, which were popular throughout the Graeco-Roman world.

Basic meaning is 'respect' or 'reverence'; used in secular Greek of respect for rulers, magistrates, and parents. Synonymous for theosebeia reverence for God.

The ancients regarded the mid-thirties as being within the limits of youth. According to Irenaeus, 'thirty is the first stage of a young man's age, and extends to forty, as all will admit' (Irenaeus, II.22.5.). In fact, a premium was placed on middle age in Roman culture. Statesmen were expected to be middle aged. Greek rulers may have been young, but the portraiture of the Republic suggests a positive relish for wrinkles, thinning hair and sagging jowls. Most countrymen yearned for their forties. Middle age was the prime of a citizen's life, and for the upper classes a time when they could at last run for the consulship. The traditional ruling body of Rome, the Senate, derived its name from 'senex' - 'old man' - and senators liked to dignify themselves with the title of 'Fathers'.

Middle age was the prime of a citizen's life, and for the upper classes a time when they could at last run for the consulship. To the Romans, the cult of youth appeared unsettling and foreign, a delusion to which kings in particular were prone. Greek potentates were forever attempting to hold back the years, whether by preserving their youth in images of marble or by raising pompous monuments to themselves. A Roman was expected to know better. After all, what was the lifeblood of the Republic if not the onward passage of time? Each year magistrate gave way to magistrate. The limit of a magistracy was set at a year, but of a triumph at one or two days. The procession ended, the feast consumed, the trophies hung in the temples of the gods, all that was left behind was litter in the streets. For the Romans, the truest monuments to glory were fashioned not of marble but of memories. Forbidden great architecture, the Romans made an art form out of festival instead.

Often referred to reading aloud in public. Also used in the reading of wills, petitions, dispatches and reports. Cf. Ne 8:8, LXX; Lk 4:16; Ac 13:15; 15:21; 1 Thes 5:27; Col 4:16; Rev 1:3; 22:18-19. These references indicate that the apostles put their writings on a level with the OT Scriptures. Already by about the middle of the second century these readings were part of the accepted liturgy. Justin Martyr in his 'First Apology' wrote: 'On the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles and the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has finished, the president speaks' (I.67).

It was already customary in the synagogue for the reading of Scripture to be followed by an exposition, e.g., Lk 4:16f; Ac 13:16f.

Implies sharpness and severity.

Legal provision was made in the Graeco-Roman world to give a widow financial security by which she would be maintained out of her dowry either by her son or father.

The financial maintenance of widows is in the first instance the duty of their relatives and only becomes the duty of the church if the widow has no relatives.

Perhaps a euphemism for a widow who, lacking dowry, relatives or profession, has no alternative to prostitution.

The beginnings of such a register are alluded to in Ac 9:36, 39, 41. At the beginning of the second century Ignatius sent a greeting 'to the virgins who are called widows' in Smyrna ('Epistle to the Smyrnaeans', 13.1.), and Polycarp wrote to the Philippians that 'the widows must think soberly about the faith of the Lord and pray unceasingly for everyone' and stay away from evil ('Epistle to the Philippians', 4.3; 6.1). But it is not until the end of the second century that Tertullian gives unequivocal evidence that an order of widows existed. They gave themselves to prayer, nursed the sick, cared for orphans, visited Christians in prison, evangelized, and discipled new converts.

Has been used of a physician's honorarium, but diplēs timēs may refer to honour and honorarium; respect and remuneration.

Eusebius mentions the re-admission of penitents by the laying on of hands as an 'old custom' of the church ('Ecclesiastical History', 7.2), but there is no evidence for it in NT times.

Prescribed as tonic, prophylactic and remedy, especially in relation to indigestion.

Slavery was deeply embedded in the structures of Graeco-Roman society. All well-to-do people had slaves, and very wealthy people had several hundreds. They were regarded as domestic servants and farm labourers, but also as clerks, craftsmen, teachers, soldiers and managers. It is believed that there were more than fifty million of them in the Empire, including one third of the inhabitants of Rome. To dismantle slavery all at once would have brought about the collapse of society. Such a structural evil was so firmly rooted that any attempt to tear it up may also pull up the foundations of society too. Any signs of a slave revolt were put down with ruthless brutality. At the same time Paul enunciated principles which undermined the foundations of slavery and led inexorably to its abolition. He declared traders to be in breach of God's law (1:10); shown slavery to be in breach of the gospel in his earlier letters to the Ephesians and Colossians; implied the equality of slaves and owners (Eph 6:9); told masters to provide their slaves with what is right and fair, although there was no such thing as justice for slaves (Col 4:1); and wrote of the radical transformation of relationships which the gospel effects (Phm 16; 1 Tim 6:2; Gal 3:26ff). Meanwhile, even while slaves remain in bondage outwardly, they can enjoy an inner freedom in Christ (1 Cor 7:22).

This is the regular term used by the Stoics for a self-sufficiency which is altogether independent of circumstances.

Lit. 'coverings'; meanings 'clothing' but also 'house' or 'shelter'.

This proverb has been found in varying forms in both Greek and Jewish literature.

Patience in difficult circumstances.

The model could be athletic (from the Olympic Games; either a wrestling match or a race) or military (from warfare).

Grasp, sometimes with violence, take hold of to make one's own, cf. Mt 14:31; Lk 23:26; Ac 21:30; Ac 21:33; (Phil 3:12).

Nebuchadnezzar liked to be designated 'king of kings' (Ez 26:7; Dn 2:37), but YHWH was given a superlative acknowledgement (Dt 10:17; Ps 136:2-3; 2 Macc 13:4. Christ is here given the combined title in opposition to the blasphemies of the emperor cult.

A legal technical term, used of money or valuables deposited with somebody for safe keeping.

The title of a book by Marcion, the prominent heretic in mid-second-century Rome.

Used of missing the mark in archery, and so of swerving or deviating from truth.