thesis
The Reward, Discipline, and Installation of Church Leaders: an Examination of 1 Timothy 5:17-22
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Abstract
This dissertation investigates the practices of reward, discipline, and installation
of leaders in the church as portrayed in 1 Timothy 5: 17-22. The text itself is examined,
finding that well-governing congregational leaders were to be honoured for their labour
and provided with tangible support, that leaders were to be protected from
unsubstantiated accusations, that a leader whose misconduct was established was to be
disciplined publicly, and that care was to be taken to put only worthy persons into
positions of leadership.
These practices are compared to those seen in the disputed and undisputed
Pauline texts, the remainder of the New Testament, and the writings of the Apostolic
Fathers, establishing significant similarities as well as differences, some of these
reflecting the development from itinerant to resident leaders in the churches. The
practices of cognate groups such as synagogues, the Essenes, and voluntary
associations, seen in Jewish and Greco-Roman literature and inscriptions of the
contemporary period (ending with the Apostolic Fathers), are investigated for
similarities and differences. The study finds that, although there are some similarities to
Jewish practices, these groups substantially differed from the instructions of 1 Timothy
5: 17-22 in their practices of reward, discipline and installation of leaders. In the Gracco-
Roman context, in particular, leaders in these cognate groups were essentially immune
from accusations made by group members and any resulting discipline. Similarly, the
idea that leaders were to receive financial support from those below them was foreign
to normal practice in these groups and was deemed not 'honourable'.
The conclusion reached is that these congregational practices regarding leaders,
while conceptually quite similar to principles given regarding itinerant Christian
workers in the undisputed Paulines, are quite distinct from practices employed in the
cultural milieu of the Pastoral Epistles. Some of these differences appear problematic,
given the Pastoral Epistles' concerns about maintaini