1 Timothy 3:2

Verse 2. A bishop (the same name then comprehended priest) to be blameless, as to life and conversation, adorned, (says Saint John Chrysostom) with all virtues. See also S. Jerom in his letter to Oceanus.—The [1] husband of one wife. It does not signify, that to be a bishop or priest he must be a married man; nor that he must be a man who has but one wife at a time; but that he must be a man who has never been married but once, or to one wife: because to be married more than once, was looked upon as a mark of too great an inclination to sensual pleasures. It is true, at that time a man might be chosen to be a bishop or priest whose wife was living, but from that time he was to live with her as with a sister. This S. Jerom testifies as to the discipline of the Latin Church. Witham.—The meaning is not that every bishop should have a wife, (for Saint Paul himself had none) but that no one should be admitted to the holy orders of bishop, priest, or deacon, who had been married more than once. Challoner.—Sober. [2] The Greek rather signifies watchful.—Chaste. [3] There is nothing for this in the Greek text at present, unless in some few MSS. Perhaps the ancient Latin interpreter added it, as being signified and comprehended in the other words.—Teacher: a doctor, as the Greek signifies. Witham.