Passage

1 Timothy 3.7

Book: 1 Timothy · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

5. (but if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) 6. not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil.

7. Moreover he must have good testimony from them that are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Deacons in like manner must be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; 9. holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. (1 Timothy 3:5-9, ASV)

WEB

5. (but if a man doesn’t know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the assembly of God?) 6. not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.

7. Moreover he must have good testimony from those who are outside, to avoid falling into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Servants, in the same way, must be reverent, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for money; 9. holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. (1 Timothy 3:5-9, WEB)

KJV

5. (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) 6. Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. ^{a novice: or, one newly come to the faith}

7. Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; 9. Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. (1 Timothy 3:5-9, KJV)

YLT

5. (and if any one his own house [how] to lead hath not known, how an assembly of God shall he take care of?) 6. not a new convert, lest having been puffed up he may fall to a judgment of the devil;

7. and it behoveth him also to have a good testimony from those without, that he may not fall into reproach and a snare of the devil.

Ministrants, in like manner grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not given to filthy lucre, 9. having the secret of the faith in a pure conscience, (1 Timothy 3:5-9, 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 last qualification for an overseer (3:1-7), immediately after the warning that he must not be "a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil" (3:6).

Theological reading

"Moreover he must have good testimony from them that are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil." (1 Timothy 3:7, ASV)

Them that are without. "Them that are without" is Paul's usual way of naming those outside the church (1 Corinthians 5:12-13; Colossians 4:5), as in his counsel "that ye may walk becomingly toward them that are without" (1 Thessalonians 4:12). A church leader's reputation among unbelievers matters because the church's witness depends on it. The concern runs through the whole letter: younger widows are to "give no occasion to the adversary for reviling" (5:14), and slaves are to honor their masters "that the name of God and the doctrine be not blasphemed" (6:1).

Reproach and the snare. Two dangers are named: public "reproach", and "the snare of the devil". A leader with a damaged name is easily trapped, and his fall discredits the gospel he preaches. The same phrase returns in 2 Timothy 2:26, of opponents who need to "recover themselves out of the snare of the devil". Whether "of the devil" in 3:6 means the judgment that fell on the devil himself or a judgment the devil brings is debated; in 3:7 a snare set by the devil is the natural sense. See 1 Timothy 3.6-7, G1228 - diabolos, The Devil and 1 Timothy 3.1-7.

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:

Lexicon:

G1228 - diabolos, via 1 Timothy 3.6-7

Notes

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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.