Rebuke is literally “to strike upon,” “to beat upon”; from this has developed the extended meaning “to chastise with words,” “to chide,” “to upbraid,” “to rebuke.” The literal meaning does not occur in the New Testament; in most occurrences the meaning is to express disapproval as a form of punishment, hence “to denounce,” “to reproach,” “to reprimand” (Phillips), “to reprove, censure, scold,” or even “to speak severely to.”
The word for older man is the same word for “elder” (see 5.17, 19; Titus 1.5). Here, however, the term is not used for a person who occupies a particular office in the church, but to a man of advanced age, as the context clearly shows. So Phillips “a senior member of your church,” Jerusalem Bible “a man older than yourself.”
The Greek word for exhort has a wide range of meaning. The meaning in classical Greek writings is “to call to one’s side,” “to summon.” In some places in the New Testament, the word means “to comfort,” “to encourage.” In the present context it means “to appeal to” (Good News Translation), “to advise” (Jerusalem Bible), “to admonish,” “to exhort” (New International Version). However this is translated, it must be ascertained that the term chosen is appropriate to a son-father relationship, since the older man is to be considered like a real father and therefore treated with respect and as one who is in a higher position. A literal translation of the text (for example Revised Standard Version) would not make it clear that Timothy should treat the older man as his own father; this has been made explicit in many translations; for example, Good News Translation “appeal to him as if he were your father,” Jerusalem Bible “advise him as you would your own father.” In some languages it may be necessary to repeat the verb; for example, “appeal to him in the same way that you appeal to your own father.” In other languages one may use an idiomatic expression such as “speak to him from a true heart in the same way that you would speak to your own father” or “speak to him with your heart exposed….”
Treat younger men as brothers is literally “younger men as brothers,” without a verb. The most likely verb to be read with the phrase is exhort that occurs in the first part of the verse; however, many translations supply another verb here, one example being treat. Any verb chosen must be appropriate to a brother-brother relationship in which Timothy would be in a higher position than the younger men. Younger has to do with age and can be related either to Timothy (hence, younger than you are) or, more likely, to the older men (hence older man … younger men). The latter is more likely in view of verse 2. It is also possible that these younger men belonged to an identifiable group within the church. So perhaps we can imagine a church composed of at least four groups: adult men, young men, adult women, young women.
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 .