Interpretation of Scripture from Timothy in Bible

[flightkid]

I have a protestant friend who says the bible is the sole rule of faith and he keeps coming back to this scripture verse saying that this shows bishops must have a wife and proves that celibacy discipline tradition in the Catholic Church is preventing priest from marrying when it says bishops should have wives …?? Please help….He says Thus, 1 Tim 3:15 is 100% correct just like 1 Tim 3:1-14 is also a 100% correct. Here it is from the NKJV:

1 This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop,a] he desires a good work. 2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; 3 not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money,b] but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous; 4 one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence 5 (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); 6 not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. 7 Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

8 Likewise deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money, 9 holding the mystery of the faith with a pure conscience. 10 But let these also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless. 11 Likewise, their wives must be reverent, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. 13 For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a good standing and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

14 These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; 15 but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16 And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness.

 

[revert_jen]

Hi flightkid–

This is probably not the right forum for this question. Two of the three other fora in which you posted exactly the same question under different titles (Apologetics and Sacred Scripture) are both more appropriate, although the Liturgy form (the other place you posted the same question) isn’t really the correct place either.

–Jen

 

[Cluny]

Ask him about the verse that says, “Keep the traditions I have delivered to you, whether by word or epistle.”

St. John said in two different letters, “I many more things to say to you, but I cannot put them down in paper and ink.”

 

[RoryMcKenzie56]

One must distinguish between unchangable doctrine and the various practices which may be derived according to circumstance. When one is by a lake in the summer time and a hearty young fellow needs baptism, baptism may be performed by full immersion. When a sick old lady dying on her bed lives by the same lake that is frozen in winter, baptism may be performed by sprinkling.

A bishop could not in the Apostolic Age have multiple wives. This was the era of converts and bishops had to be chosen from among the mature, mostly married men who had accepted the faith. It would have been imprudent at that time to restrict episcopal candidates to those men who had never married. After a few generations, when priestly vocations were being discerned by young men who had grown up in the faith, the Church legislated in favor of celibacy.

The Apostolic practice then was prudent for an era when all Catholics were converts. Even today, once-married converts are permitted to become priests, but not lifelong Catholics. This rule laid down by the Apostle is not intended to bind the Church forever anymore than the temporary law found in Acts 15 where for the sake of the Jewish Christians who were still sensitive about adhering to the letter of the old law, the Gentile Christians were commanded to abstain from consuming blood or the flesh of anything that had been strangled.

So, just as Catholics today are permitted to have our steaks medium rare, or to enjoy a chicken stir fry even in the event that the bird had perished by means of having his neck wrung, so the Church is permitted to legislate according to conditions adhering today. What would be the point in insisting upon the law of Acts 15 in an era when there are no members of the Church who will be scandalized by our liberty from Jewish traditions? There would be none, and so that law is not in force and I have never met a Protestant who claims it is. But there are good reasons adduced from Scripture for why the sacrificial office of priest and bishop should be reserved for those who are willing to sacrifice the blessings of earthly home and hearth. For that good reason the Church has long ago dispensed with the law given by St. Paul to Timothy.

 

[diggerdomer]

I have a protestant friend who says the bible is the sole rule of faith and he keeps coming back to this scripture verse saying that this shows bishops must have a wife and proves that celibacy discipline tradition in the Catholic Church is preventing priest from marrying when it says bishops should have wives …??

Catholics don’t believe the Bible is the sole rule of faith (God is), and the passage you’re citing does not say that bishops must have wives, rather that they cannot have more than one wife. Celibacy is indeed a tradition of the Church, just that. There are and always have been married priests.