The next five verses (11-14) deal with younger widows, that is, widows who are less than 60 years of age. Because of the change of topic, it is probably best to start a new paragraph at this point, as Good News Translation and many other translations have done.

Timothy is exhorted not to enroll these younger widows. Refuse to enroll is the imperative form of a verb that literally means “to reject.” The problem of a literal rendering is that it could give rise to the misunderstanding that these younger widows should not be accepted as members of the church, when in fact the intention surely is not to include these widows in the list of real widows who are eligible to receive material support from the church and who in return are expected to perform certain functions within the Christian community. Accordingly most modern translations make this intention explicit. For comments on enroll see 1 Tim. 5.9. Younger may also be expressed as “under (or, less than) sixty years of age.”

The main reason for not including such younger widows in the list is that their desires may take control of them, and they would then want to get married. Revised Standard Version is difficult to understand. What does grow wanton against Christ mean, and how is this related to the next clause (they desire to marry)? The verb translated grow wanton appears only here in the New Testament and means “to experience strong physical desires,” particularly of a sexual nature. It is when these younger widows experience this kind of sensuality that they want to marry again, and this desire to remarry results in or is interpreted as a turning away from Christ, since, as verse 12 makes clear, widows who are included in the list are obligated to make a vow to serve Christ on a full-time basis and therefore should not remarry. It is very important for the translator to make these relationships clear. Another way to express this sentence is “because, when they experience strong sexual desires, they want to marry.”

Condemnation is literally “judgment.” Good News Translation‘s “and so become guilty of” gives the meaning more clearly than Revised Standard Version‘s translation. One may also say “and in this way God condemns her for….” Violated translates a verb that means “set aside,” “disregard as invalid,” “refuse to recognize the validity of something.” The first pledge refers to the widow’s vow not to remarry, which she made in order to fulfill her functions within the Christian community. What all this means is that, when a young widow wants to remarry, she invalidates her vow not to remarry. And as a result she incurs the judgment and condemnation of God.

These two verses tend to support the position held by many scholars that widows in fact occupied a particular position in the early church, with clearly defined functions; this office of the widow was just as clearly defined as that of the deacon, elder, and overseer.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .