<p>5:13- see on Lk. 9:4; Acts 20:20.</p><p><em>Besides that, they learn to be idlers, going about from house to house</em><i>, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not</i>- The Greek for &quot;idlers&quot; means literally 'not workers'; the compound includes the same word for &quot;works&quot; used&nbsp;in 2:10 about the need for the young sisters to do good &quot;works&quot; rather than dress up as the equivalent of the priestesses of the Diana cult. The antidote to their bad behaviour and immorality was to do works; not that works would save them, but passionate involvement in the Lord's service in practice would preserve them from involvement in immorality. This is actually, reading between the lines, Paul's advice to Timothy regarding his wayward sexual urges. And it is true for all time that the Biblical devil finds work for idle hands. One reason why God's purpose operates through human works is that the works are a necessary part of our own spiritual path and development; although the works in themselves are not needed by God nor are they the basis of our salvation <em>per se</em>. &quot;They learn to be idlers&quot; can bear the translation &quot;they give to understand / teach&quot;- as they went from &quot;house to house&quot;. This is the very phrase used in Acts 2 about the early brethren going from house to house, i.e. from one home group to another, breaking bread and doing Bible study. We can assume that these women were going around the house groups which comprised the Ephesus church, teaching idleness, teaching against good works. The fact Ephesus are commended for their good works in Rev. 2 shows that all this advice really did work for the church and Timothy managed to obey it all successfully. &quot;Saying what they should not&quot; uses <em>laleo</em>, a word elsewhere translated 'preach' and 'teach'. And they were repeating gossip and busybody material in the name of teaching. No wonder in chapter 2 that Paul says they should no longer be teachers. But we notice that it is the content of their teaching, rather than their being teachers, which is the burden of his difficulty with them.</p><p>By publicly getting a bad name for &ldquo;wandering about from house to house&rdquo;, these women were giving opportunity to the Jewish adversaries to &ldquo;rail against&rdquo; (A.V. margin) the Christians. Jude 9,10 implies that the Judaizers brought &ldquo;railing accusation&rdquo; against the Christians. &ldquo;Speaking things which they ought not&rdquo;, recalls Jude 10 about the Judaizers: &ldquo;these speak evil of those things which they know not&rdquo;. &ldquo;Wandering&rdquo; connects with Jude&rsquo;s description of &ldquo;wandering stars&rdquo; (Jude 13). Diotrephes, one of the Judaizers who was trying to discredit the apostle John and the other apostles, (as the Judaizers did to Paul) is described as &ldquo;prating against us with malicious words&rdquo; (3 Jn. 10). &ldquo;Prating&rdquo; is from the same word translated &ldquo;tattlers&rdquo; in 1 Timothy 5:13 concerning these women. The women going from house to house may imply from church to church, as that is how the word &ldquo;house&rdquo; is often used in the New Testament (due to the many house churches then in existence). This is what the Jewish false teachers did; 2 John 7 talks about deceivers or seducers that had entered into the Christian world, i.e. the false brethren &ldquo;unawares brought in&rdquo; to the church of Galatia. There are many references to these &ldquo;seducing spirits&rdquo; (1 Tim. 4:1) &ndash; i.e. false teachers (1 Jn. 4:1) &ndash; within the church, to which the church was not to give &ldquo;heed&rdquo; (1 Tim. 4:1). That these were Jewish false teachers is suggested by other references to &ldquo;giving heed&rdquo; in the context of being watchful against Jewish infiltration of Christianity:</p><p>&ndash; &ldquo;Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees&rdquo; (Mk. 8:15);</p><p>&ndash; &ldquo;Not giving heed to Jewish fables&rdquo; (Titus 1:14);</p><p>&ndash; &ldquo;Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies&rsquo; (1 Tim. 1:4) &ndash; the source of which genealogies was probably the Old Testament, over which the Judaizers were encouraging the Christians to argue to no profit.</p>