Testament of Our Lord

tr. Cooper and Maclean, 1902

20. Book I, Chapter 20

Now after the house is [built] as is fitting and right, let the bishop¹ be appointed, being chosen by all the people according to the will of the Holy Ghost,² being without fault,³ chaste,⁴ quiet, mild,⁵ without anxiety, watchful,⁶ not a money-lover,⁷ blameless,⁸ not quarrelsome,⁹ ready to forgive, a teacher,¹⁰ not given to much speaking, a lover of good things,¹¹ a lover of labour, a lover of widows, a lover of orphans, a lover of the poor, experienced in the mysteries,¹² not lax and distracted in company with this world, peaceful, and in all good things perfect, as one to whom the order and place of God is entrusted. It is good indeed that he be without a wife, but at any rate that he have been¹³ the husband of one wife only,¹⁴ so that he may sympathise with the weakness of widows. Let him be appointed when he is of middle age, not a youth.

Notes

The Pshitta in Tit. i., 1 Tim. iii., passages parallel to this, has qashîshâ (presbyter) for ἐπίσκοπος.
Cf. Acts xiii. 2, xx. 28.
1 Tim. iii. 2 (but not as Pshitta).
1 Tim. iii. 2; Tit. i. 8.
1 Tim. iii. 3.
1 Tim. iii. 2.
ἀφιλάργυρος, 1 Tim. iii. 3.
Same root as Tit. i. 6.
1 Tim. iii. 3.
1 Tim. iii. 2.
φιλάγαθος, Tit. i. 8., where R.V. renders “a lover of good,” A.V. “a lover of good men,” and A.V. margin, as has been done here by the Pshitta and by James of Edessa, “a lover of good things.”
Or: sacraments.
Or: was.
Not worded as 1 Tim. iii. 2 and Tit. i. 6; though the reference is clear. See Note.