Let no one be enrolled as a widow under sixty years old, having been the wife of one man,
Some writers believed that Paul was describing a special order of widows with spiritual and charitable duties to perform for which they received remuneration. [Note: E.g., Bernard, pp. 80-81, and Hendriksen, pp. 172-74..] Such an order existed in later centuries, but its existence in the infancy of the church is indefensible. [Note: See Lea, p. 149.] 