posted
It takes a little patchwork and probability to place Timothy in the forty-something category. We, of course, do not possess his date of birth. What we have are two dates with about a 15 year time differential. The date of the letter itself (ca 62-64) and the date of Timothy's joining with Paul (ca 49-50).
Don't overlook that when he connected with Paul he was already well known and established among the brethren. (Acts 16:2, The brothers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him.) Assuming he was 25 at this point, he would have been about 40 at the time the letter was written.
This directive about "not letting his youth become despised" was to be an _ongoing_ one when considered in its context. This continuing action should also have some bearing upon this question.
Old age, eldership, meant honor and esteem then and it should today - why not?
DA
derek
posted
Most commentators put Timothy's age at around 30 to 35 . He may well have been as old as 40, but certainly not younger than 30 or even a teenager as I've heard claimed.
derek
posted
I'm affraid that Dianne's ideas about what an elder is are based more on personal ideology than sound doctrine. I have said it elsewhere but I'll repeat it here, Timothy was not an elder at the time of 1 TIM.. Had he been 60 y.o. he would still not have been an elder in those churches at that time . He was simply fulfilling a delegated duty at a desegnated place and time for his superviser "Paul".
On the other side of the coin, I'm not sure if David understands that if elders were simply older men, It would not have been needed for Paul to give instructions concerning qualifications of elders.
Likewise, Dianne saying that all spiritually mature people are elders is like saying that all people that can play football are NFL coaches. The "office" of elder is a function of the local church (body) , therefore an elder is only an elder withion his own church and is just a brother anywhere else.
Like David, I fail to see what is so difficult to understand here.
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