double<\/mark> honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe New King James Version (NKJV) also translates it this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17<\/sup>Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double<\/mark> honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe New International Version (NIV) renders the verse this way:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17<\/sup>The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double<\/mark> honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Contemporary English Version (CEV) has a different take as it drops \u201chonor\u201d in exchange for a payment of value:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17<\/sup>Church leaders who do their job well deserve to be paid twice as much<\/mark>, especially if they work hard at preaching and teaching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Good News Translation (GNT) is close to the CEV\u2019s trajectory:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17<\/sup>The elders who do good work as leaders should be considered worthy of receiving double pay<\/mark>, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe International Standard Version (ISV) also follows this track:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17<\/sup>Elders who handle their duties well should be considered worthy of double compensation<\/mark>, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Amplified Bible being more verbose, certainly tries to make things really clear, as it also adopts the majority \u201cdouble\u201d view:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17<\/sup>The elders who perform their leadership duties well are to be considered worthy of double<\/mark> honor (financial support), especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching [the word of God concerning eternal salvation through Christ].<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe New Living Translation (NLT) is one of the two translations that avoids the explicit \u201cdouble\u201d view:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17<\/sup>Elders who do their work well should be respected and paid well<\/mark>, especially those who work hard at both preaching and teaching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) is the other translation that also dispensed with the explicit \u201cdouble\u201d view and like the NLT, also swapped out \u201chonor\u201d for a payment of value:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17<\/sup>The elders who are good leaders should be considered worthy of an ample honorarium<\/mark>, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nAs we can see, the CEV, GNT, ISV, NLT and HCSB all tie up recognition to some form of monetary compensation. It may be due to the following verse 18 which quotes Deuteronomy 25:4 (\u201cYou shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain\u201d<\/em>) and Luke 10:7 (\u201cThe laborer deserves his wages\u201d<\/em>). Both are treated as Scripture by Paul. While this verse 18 can imply financial support and generous provision for verse 17, the \u201cdouble\u201d compensation may not have been meant by the author nor heard as such by his hearers and readers in their cultural context. The NLT and HSCB dropped the explicit use of the word \u201cdouble\u201d or \u201ctwice\u201d but in so doing, may have excluded an original important point intended by the apostle Paul. We may say it got lost in translation!<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn the use of the traditional translation of \u201cdouble\u201d or \u201ctwice,\u201d Dr. Kline questions this on the basis that it can artificially create and treat 2 different classes of elders. The preferred group are those who lead well and especially, preach and teach and they deserve \u201cdouble\u201d honor while the other group does not lead well nor preach and teach. This comparative notion of \u201cdouble\u201d honor and \u201cregular\u201d honor sounds strange to Dr. Kline. But this \u201cproblematic and speculative\u201d thought would disappear if \u03b4\u03b9\u03c0\u03bb\u1fc6\u03c2<\/mark><\/em> (diples) which comes from \u03b4\u03b9\u03c0\u03bb\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c2<\/em> (diplous), is translated as \u201cequivalent\u201d in the sense of a \u201ccommensurate (not extraordinary, double) measure of honor, honor matching the elders\u2019 labors.\u201d This certainly sounds simple and makes good sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAdding to Dr. Kline\u2019s analysis, we may ask if the \u201cdouble portion\u201d verses found in Deuteronomy 21:17 and 2 Kings 2:9, not cited by him can be factored into our discussion. Deuteronomy 21:17 deals with the Mosaic law protecting the less-favored wife and birthright inheritance rights of the first-born son. Here the first-born son of the unloved wife gets a \u201cdouble portion\u201d of his father\u2019s possessions. 2 Kings 2:9 (which was part of our Sunday reading) on the other hand, narrates Elisha\u2019s request for a \u201cdouble portion\u201d of Elijah\u2019s spirit before he is taken up to heaven. The Hebrew words for \u201cdouble portion\u201d are the same for both verses: \u05e4\u05b4\u05bc\u05a3\u05d9 \u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05e0\u05b7\u0594\u05d9\u05b4\u05dd (pi shenayim). Note that it is different from the words \u05db\u05b4\u05bc\u05e4\u05b0\u05dc\u05b7\u0596\u05d9\u05b4\u05dd (kiphlayim) from the underlying \u05db\u05b6\u05bc\u05e4\u05b6\u05dc<\/strong> (kephel), and \u05de\u05b4\u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05e0\u05b5\u05a4\u05d4 (mishneh) we saw earlier. The LXX translations for these 2 OT verses use the same word \u03b4\u03b9\u03c0\u03bb<\/em>\u1fb6<\/em> (dipla) derived from \u03b4\u03b9\u03c0\u03bb\u03bf<\/em>\u1fe6<\/em>\u03c2<\/em> (diplous) used above in 1 Timothy 5:17 and previously in Revelation 18:6 and Matthew 23:15. The next question to ask is do these words really mean \u201cdouble\u201d in their contexts?<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Hebrew word \u05e9\u05b0\u05c1\u05e0\u05b7\u0594\u05d9\u05b4\u05dd (shenayim) means \u201cdouble\u201d or \u201ctwice.\u201d The Jewish Study Bible<\/em> notes that the Jewish practice of Deuteronomy 21:17 literally means two-thirds of the inheritance goes to the first-born; one-third to the other son. The father has his possession, so by the ancient law of inheritance the first-born gets double share of what the father has and the other son the remainder of that same possession. This can be expressed in fractions: 2\/3 (first-born\u2019s portion) and 1\/3 (other son\u2019s portion) equal 1 (whole inheritance). It is a double portion.<\/p>\n\n\n\nFor the 2 Kings 2:9 account, it meant double as well. Commentators say it is recorded that Elisha had twice the count of the miracles and supernatural acts that Elijah did. Even Elisha\u2019s bones enacted a 2nd<\/sup> resurrection from the dead (2 Kings 13:20-21); one more than Elijah!<\/p>\n\n\n\nAs a final note, we can see that the Biblical words and their context play a huge role in the translation values one can use for specific verses. Dr. Meredith Kline precisely identified certain words and passages where the context and our knowledge of God\u2019s character dictate a more nuanced translation. Hence, my formal equivalence translation of 1 Timothy 5:17 now follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
17<\/sup>The elders ruling well (are) to be counted worthy of matching<\/mark> honor, especially the ones toiling in (the) word and teaching.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\nWe will continue with another Bible study topic next time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God bless us all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Ptr. Art Calaguas Shalom. The 136 hostages are still in Gaza captivity, including women, elderly, a child and a baby; as well as corpses. Israeli authorities are saying that around 50 of them are actually dead or have died already in the long period of more than 4 months since Hamas launched its October…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[6,7,9,8,5],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ptr-art-calaguas","tag-church-of-the-risen-lord","tag-crl","tag-spiritual-refreshment-of-the-day","tag-upcemi","tag-upcrl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":380,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upcrl.org\/refreshment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}