<p>5:18 <i>For t</i><em>he Scripture says- </em>We find a very significant feature in both the New Testament itself, and in the historical, uninspired writings of the early Christians: <em>they speak about the New Testament writings as being inspired Scripture just as they speak of the inspired Old Testament writings. </em>So Peter, writing in A.D. 68, speaks of Paul's letters as being amongst &quot;the other Scriptures&quot; (2 Pet. 3:16), i.e. on the same level of acceptance as the Old Testament Scriptures. Here in 1 Tim. 5:18, Paul combines two quotations, one from the Old Testament and another from the Gospel of Luke, and calls them both &ldquo;Scripture&rdquo;: &quot; For the Scripture saith ' 'Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn ' Dt. 25:4; and, 'The labourer is worthy of his hire'&quot; (Lk. 10:7). Polycarp, writing in about AD115, combines the Old Testament Psalms and Paul&rsquo;s letter to the Ephesians in a similar manner: &quot;In the sacred books... as it is said in these Scriptures, 'Be ye angry and sin not,' and 'Let not the sun go down upon your wrath&rsquo;.&quot; Some years later, the uninspired second letter of Clement (2:4) quotes Isaiah and then adds: &quot;And another Scripture, however, says, 'I came not to call the righteous, but sinners'&quot; -quoting from Matthew. The first epistle of Clement, dating at the latest to AD95, quotes from many of Paul&rsquo;s letters and from the Gospels; but very significantly, it doesn&rsquo;t quote from any of the books which later were rejected at the Councils. So, the &lsquo;new&rsquo; writings of the New Testament were accepted on an equal footing as the Old Testament Scriptures, from soon after they were first circulated. Notice that this was all <em>before</em> the Councils met to assemble the canon. The books were widely accepted as inspired <em>before</em> them They didn&rsquo;t give those books an inspired status. It&rsquo;s also apparent that the &lsquo;new&rsquo; books didn&rsquo;t go through much of a process of being recognized as inspired. They were accepted as inspired immediately. See on 1 Cor. 14:29; 1 Jn. 4:1.</p><p><em>You shall not muzzle</em>- The word means literally to render speechless. The idea may be that if an elder was not paid, then they would not have time to prepare their talks for the congregation. The Old Testament contains examples of where the Levites failed to teach the people because the tithes for supporting them were not paid.</p><p><em>The ox when he treads out the corn</em>- The stress may be on the word &quot;when&quot;; the elder must do this if he is to be fed. The treading out of the corn represents the labour in the word which is required before teaching it to the church congregation (see on :17). The corn represents God's word and the treading out the processing of it. And yet in this figure, the ox cp. the elder eats some of the corn he processes. This has been a theme of Paul in advising Timothy- that the very process of spiritually feeding others leads to the spiritual benefit of the feeder (see on 4:6 <em>Nourished up</em>).</p><p><em>And, The labourer is worthy of his wages</em>- The wages are to be <em>axios</em> the worker, appropriate to the quality and amount of work. Hence those who worked &quot;well&quot; were to receive &quot;double&quot; (:17).</p>