To support his argument regarding the “double honor” of the elders, Paul uses two quotations, one from the Old Testament and the other from the teachings of Jesus. The scripture says is not the usual New Testament formula to signal a quotation from the Old Testament; more frequently used is “it is written.” Nevertheless the scripture says is used in five other instances in the New Testament, once in the Gospels (John 19.37), three times in Romans (9.17; 10.11; 11.2), and once in James (4.5). The expression personifies scripture and makes it able to speak or to say something. In many languages this kind of personification may not be possible, and a more natural rendering may be “it is written in the Scriptures” or “we read in the Scriptures.”
The Old Testament quotation is from Deut 25.4. The scene that should be imagined is a threshing floor, which was a level ground that was circular in shape, with the sheaves of grain untied and arranged in circles on the threshing floor. An ox was then driven through the sheaves, and the ripe grain was separated from the sheaves by the trampling of the ox’s hoofs. The ox often pulled a sledge as well, which loosened more of the grains than his hoofs could by themselves. In the very process of threshing, it would be natural for the ox to eat from the grain once in a while. That is why the ox would have an object called a muzzle placed over its mouth in order to prevent it from eating the grain. The purpose of this law therefore was to be kind to the ox, to enable the ox to eat while the threshing was going on. The relation of the quotation to the subject at hand is not immediately evident, but the argument seems to run in the following way: in much the same way that the ox that is being used to thresh the grain gets its food from the very grain that it is threshing (that is, the ox gets its sustenance from its own labors), so Christian leaders should get their material support from their own labors, that is, from the very people they work for. (See illustration:Oxen Threshing Grain|fig:OxenThreshing_Image2.jpg.)
Muzzles: in cultures where muzzles are unknown, one may translate, for example, “You must not put anything over the mouth of the ox while….” And in cultures where other methods are used for threshing grain, a cultural note describing this Hebrew method will be helpful in the Word List. Alternative ways of expressing the sentence You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain are “You shall not put anything on the mouth of the ox to prevent it from eating while it is treading out the grain” or “You must not prevent an ox from eating while….”
The next quotation is from the teachings of Jesus as recorded in the Gospel of Luke (10.7), and also in Matt 10.10 with slight variations. One can only wonder and speculate on how Paul was able to quote it in exactly the same way that Luke has it. Further, if the opening formula is interpreted to refer to both quotations, it means that this saying is identified as part of the Scriptures. Some interpreters hold that this is not being quoted as scripture or as part of the teachings of Jesus, but simply as a popular proverb to support the argument put forth by the Old Testament quotation. If, however, one holds to the position that the opening formula refers to both quotations, then this would be one of the first instances in which a teaching of Jesus is identified as scripture. This seems to indicate that, at that stage in the history of the Christian church, the teachings of Jesus had attained a status of authority and had started to be regarded as equal in authority to the Old Testament. It is of course possible that the four Gospels that are part of the New Testament were in wide circulation at that time.
Deserves is a Greek adjective, literally “[is] worthy,” for which see verse 17, where the verb form of the word is used. Wages translates a word that can also be rendered “reward,” but in this case it is something that the worker gets in return for his labor and not as something undeserved. Other ways of expressing this quotation are “A worker has the right to be paid by his employer,” “A worker should receive his pay (or, wages) from his employer.”
The meaning of the quotation is obvious and self evident: laborers normally work for wages and should therefore get paid what is due them.
An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• For we read in the scriptures “You must not prevent an ox from eating while it is treading out the grain” and “A worker has the right to receive wages (or, money) from his employer.”
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 .