Passage Research
1 Timothy 3 — Sermon Preparation
Paul outlines the qualifications required of overseers and deacons, and affirms the foundational mystery of the Christian confession. Below is a research summary for 1 Timothy 3, drawn from openly licensed scholarly databases — original-language morphology, classic sermons from the church fathers through the Puritans, and ancient geography data.
- 16
- verses
- 207 / 116
- Greek words / lemmas
- 14
- classic sermon excerpts
- 5
- preachers & commentators
1 Timothy 3 in the Greek
Distinctive vocabulary of this chapter, based on original-language morphology.
| Greek | Transliteration | Strong's | Count | KJV renderings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| προΐστημι | proḯstēmi | G4291 | 3 | maintain, be over, rule |
| οἶκος | oîkos | G3624 | 4 | home, house, temple |
| διάβολος | diábolos | G1228 | 3 | false accuser, devil, slanderer |
| νηφάλιος | nēpháleos | G3524 | 2 | sober |
| δεῖ | deî | G1163 | 3 | behoved, be meet, must, need |
| καλός | kalós | G2570 | 3 | better, fair, good, honest |
| σεμνός | semnós | G4586 | 2 | grave, honest |
How preachers through history handled this text
14 public-domain excerpts on 1 Timothy 3, from the church fathers to the Puritans.
“The church is the house of God; he dwells there. The church holds forth the Scripture and the doctrine of Christ, as a pillar holds forth a proclamation. When a church ceases to be the pillar and ground of truth, we may and ought to forsake her; for our regard to truth should be first and greatest. The mystery of godliness is Christ. He is God, who was made flesh, and was manifest in the flesh. God was pleased to manifest himself to man, by his own Son taking the nature of man. …”
— Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (Concise), on 1 Timothy 3:14–30 (Public Domain)
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