Greek Word Study | 3616: manage their households (oikodespoteo)

The NLT (1 Tim 5:14) translates it, “and take care of their own home.”

The AMP (1 Tim 5:14) translates it, “guide the household.”

The CEV (1 Tim 5:14) translates it, “and look after their families.”

The NTMS (1 Tim 5:14) translates it, “rule in domestic matters”

Other translations read, “preside over a home or be mistress of the house.” (Curtis Vaughan, ed., The New Testament from 26 Translations.)

Wilkinson writes, “Manage the house (1 Tim 5:14) is a translation of another Greek compound.  The first part is the normal word for house, but the second part will surprise you.  It is the word for ‘despot.’ And a despot is someone with complete control… Although the husband is the head of the wife, the wife is the despot of the home… Generally, God sends the husband into the marketplace to provide for his family, but the wife is sent into the home to take charge of it completely.”  (Bruce Wilkinson, Experiencing Spiritual Breakthroughs, p. 149.)

Strong’s Concordance says, "To guide a house means to be the head of or to rule a family, to guide the home.  The one who manages a house is the goodman of the house, the householder.”

Commenting on 1 Tim 5:14, Elizabeth George writes, "Yet this management has built-in-accountability, describing as it does the work of a steward or a servant.  The woman who manager her house is not the head of the home (her husband is if she is married; God is if she is not).  Instead, she is the householder, the home-manager.”  She adds, “What do people see when they enter your house?  Do they find calm – or chaos?  Peace – or panic?  Palace – or pigpen?  Evidence of preparation – or procrastination?” (A Woman After God’s Own Heart, p. 152.)