ACC ~ 1 Timothy 3 v2b

GOOD TO BE MARRIED. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: Some people run down the law and marriage. To them it is as if marriage were alien to the new covenant and merely a legalism. What do they say in face of this text? Especially those who have such an aversion to sex and childbirth—what have they to say in answer? Paul himself sets it down that leadership in the church should rest with “a bishop who presides successfully over his household” and that “marriage to one wife” constitutes a household with the Lord’s blessing. STROMATA 3.18.

SECOND MARRIAGES. BASIL THE GREAT: The canon absolutely excludes from the ministry those who are twice married. LETTERS 188.12.

ONLY ONE WIFE. CHRYSOSTOM: Paul is not making a hard and fast rule that a bishop must have a wife, but that he must not have more than one. HOMILIES ON 1 TIMOTHY 10.

WHAT IS FORBIDDEN AND PERMITTED. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: For they [i.e., various interpreters] say that Paul has spoken thus, so that any man who is brought forward to be a bishop and has taken a wife will live chastely with her, being content with her alone as the recipient of his natural desires. Likewise any man who lives on after the death of his first wife may legitimately take a second wife, as long as he lives in the same way with her as with the first, and ought not be prohibited from becoming a bishop. They say that Paul has laid down a canon here. I accept this view, though I am not persuaded that he lays down a specific rule with regard to the second matter, i.e., that of the eligibility of remarried men for episcopal office.COMMENTARY ON 1 TIMOTHY.

A DEFENSE OF SECOND MARRIAGE. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: Do not let the once-married set at nought those who have come together in marriage for the second time. For continence is a fine thing and admirable. But folk may be pardoned for contracting a second marriage, lest infirmity end in fornication. CATECHETICAL LECTURES 4.26.

A MEDIATING VIEW. AMBROSE: Therefore, the apostle laid down the law saying, “If any one is without reproach, the husband of one wife.” Whoever, then, is without reproach, the husband of one wife, is included among those held by the law to be qualified for the priesthood, but he who entered a second marriage has not the guilt of pollution, though he is disqualified from the privilege of the priesthood. LETTERS 59.

1 Tim