From personal virtues the list moves on to domestic considerations. A bishop must be able to manage his own family; in fact a man’s ability to manage his family is a fair indication of his ability to care for God’s church. The word for manage includes the sense of ruling over, governing, caring for, being concerned about. Manage and care are synonymous, with the latter having the components of leadership and concern. Another way to express this first clause is “He must be able to control his own family.”

An important aspect of managing one’s family is making sure that the children behave properly. Thus a bishop’s children should be submissive and respectful. Submissive should perhaps be understood in reference to the father, hence Good News Translation “make his children obey him.” However, translators should be careful that the vocabulary they choose for keeping or “make” does not carry the idea of using physical or even verbal abuse to keep the children in line. If the bishop is gentle and peace loving, his children will respect him. An alternative translation model is “and cause his children to be…” or, connecting this phrase with the preceding one, one may translate “he must be able to manage his own family well, thus (or, in the process) causing his children to be….” Respectful can also be understood as respect for their father (as in Good News Translation), but it is perhaps better interpreted as referring to conduct in general; this means that the children should show respect not only to their parents but to others as well. So one may also translate “respectful to everyone.”

The importance of managing one’s family well is now reaffirmed by making it a requirement before managing the affairs of the church. The verse becomes much more effective because it takes the form of a rhetorical question, that is, a question that does not really ask a question but makes an emphatic statement. In languages where rhetorical questions are not normally used in this way, this rhetorical question will need to be changed into a statement, as for example “A man who does not know how to manage his own family will surely not know how to take care of the church of God.” When changing a rhetorical question into a statement, translators should be careful to avoid losing the effective impact contained in the rhetorical question.

God’s church is here used to refer in a general way to the community of believers, but also in a specific way to one congregation. An alternative translation model for this final clause is “how will he be able to care for the believers?” or “how will he be a good manager of the Christians who are in his charge?”

An alternative translation model for these two verses is:
• A bishop must be able to control his own family, and ensure that his children obey him and show respect to everyone. For if he doesn’t know how to control (or, manage) his own family, how will he be a good manager of the Christians who are in his charge?

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .