Mat 28:13 (in some texts); Mar 12:40, Mar 1:12-43, Luk 2:37, Luk 1:4-26, lit., "a woman a widow;" Luk 7:12, Luk 18:3, Luk 18:5, Luk 20:47, Luk 1:21-3, Act 6:1, Act 9:39, Act 9:41, 1Ti 5:3 (twice), 1Ti 1:5-5, 1Ti 5:11, 1Ti 5:16 (twice); Jam 1:27, 1Ti 5:9 refers to elderly "widows" (not an ecclesiastical "order"), recognized, for relief or maintenance by the church (cp. 1Ti 5:3, 1Ti 5:16), as those who had fulfilled the conditions mentioned; where relief could be ministered by those who had relatives that were "widows" (a likely circumstance in large families), the church was not to be responsible; there is an intimation of the tendency to shelve individual responsibility at the expense of church funds. In Rev 18:7, it is used figuratively of a city forsaken.
Ampiaw
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