Passage

1 Timothy 3.13

Book: 1 Timothy · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

11. Women in like manner must be grave, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. 12. Let deacons be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

13. For they that have served well as deacons gain to themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly; 15. but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:11-15, ASV)

WEB

11. Their wives in the same way must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. 12. Let servants be husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

13. For those who have served well gain for themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

These things I write to you, hoping to come to you shortly; 15. but if I wait long, that you may know how men ought to behave themselves in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. (1 Timothy 3:11-15, WEB)

KJV

11. Even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. 12. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.

13. For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. ^{used: or, ministered}

These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly: 15. But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. ^{ground: or, stay} (1 Timothy 3:11-15, KJV)

YLT

11. Women, in like manner grave, not false accusers, vigilant, faithful in all things. 12. Ministrants, let them be of one wife husbands; the children leading well, and their own houses,

13. for those who did minister well a good step to themselves do acquire, and much boldness in faith that [is] in Christ Jesus.

These things I write to thee, hoping to come unto thee soon, 15. and if I delay, that thou mayest know how it behoveth [thee] to conduct thyself in the house of God, which is an assembly of the living God, a pillar and foundation of the truth, (1 Timothy 3:11-15, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Paul, who names himself in the opening line (1:1) and writes in the first person throughout. Authorship of the three Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy, Titus) is disputed. Many critical scholars hold that a later follower wrote them in Paul's name, pointing to differences of vocabulary and style from the undisputed letters and to a more settled church order. Others defend Paul's authorship, among them Luke Timothy Johnson (Anchor Bible, 2001), William Mounce (Word Biblical Commentary, 2000) and Philip Towner (NICNT, 2006), citing the letter's personal details and its acceptance in the second-century church.
Audience: Timothy, Paul's "true child in faith" (1:2), whom Paul had urged to stay on at Ephesus to stop certain men from teaching "a different doctrine" (1:3). Timothy came from Lystra, the son of a believing Jewish mother and a Greek father, and had travelled with Paul since the second missionary journey (Acts 16:1-3). The letter is addressed to him, but its directions on prayer, worship, overseers, deacons and widows are meant to order the church at Ephesus as a whole (3:14-15).
Location: not stated. Paul says he left Timothy at Ephesus "when I was going into Macedonia" (1:3) and hopes to rejoin him soon (3:14; 4:13), so Macedonia is the usual suggestion for where the letter was written.
Time period: on Pauline authorship, usually c. AD 62-65, after Paul's release from the Roman imprisonment that ends Acts, since the journey in 1:3 is hard to fit into the Acts narrative. Scholars who regard the letter as pseudonymous usually place it late in the first century or early in the second. The reading below does not depend on the choice.
Literary context: the close of the qualifications for deacons (3:8-13), just before Paul states his purpose in writing, "that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God" (3:15).

Theological reading

"For they that have served well as deacons gain to themselves a good standing, and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus." (1 Timothy 3:13, ASV)

Serving well. The office of deacon takes its name from the ordinary Greek word for service, and the verse rewards the doing of it: "they that have served well". The list before it is a list of tested character, and Paul has already required that deacons "first be proved" (3:10).

A good standing. "Standing" renders bathmos, a step or degree, a word found only here in the New Testament. Two readings are common. (1) An honored standing in the church, the respect that faithful service earns among believers. (2) A standing before God, which the second half of the verse, boldness "in the faith which is in Christ Jesus", may support. Some later readers took the word as a step toward higher office, but nothing in the context speaks of promotion.

Great boldness. "Boldness" (parrēsia) is freedom and confidence of speech. Faithful service gives confidence both before people and before God; 1 John 3:21 uses the same word: "if our heart condemn us not, we have boldness toward God". The reward Paul offers for humble service is not money or rank but standing and confidence. See 1 Timothy 3.8-13 and Apostolic Age.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

None of the words in this verse has its own lexicon entry yet.

Quoted in

Concepts:

Apostolic Age, via 1 Timothy 3.8-13

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.