[Biblemat] Elder's children, plural, singular or either?

[Don Martin]

Hello Ruth,

Thank you so much for your question and for making use of Bible
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You asked:

My question is this:  Is this word really a Greek word?  Can it
be used both for single and plural?  Everywhere else I looked in
my Bible that said 'children' didn't use this word in the Greek.

Reply:

In the first place, the word used for children is tekna in I
Timothy 3: 4 and Titus 1: 6. The grammatical information
regarding tekna is nominative, accusative, or vocative plural
(The Analytical Greek Lexicon, pg. 399, teknon is singular). One
cause of confusion among those not conversant with the Greek
grammar is when they use such works as Young's Analytical
Concordance, they see teknon listed as the word in I Timothy 3: 4
and Titus 1: 6 (teknon is either nominative, accusative, or
vocative singular or genitive or ablative plural, see the
declension of omicron nouns using ergon in Beginner's Grammar
of the Greek New Testament, 5th Edition, pg. 33, 34, by William
Hersey Davis). Rather than providing grammatical detail, Young's
concordance just presents the nominative singular form of our
word. However, the actual word in I Timothy 3: 3 and Titus 1: 6
is tekna, plural in number. Plurals and singulars are not
interchangeable.  However, this is not to say that the plural
does not include the singular.  A determination of the singular
application or inclusion when the plural is used is more a matter
of interpretation.

I recommend you read, "Elders, Their Work and Qualifications" in
www.bibletruths.net  (toward the end of the material).  Also of
interest is one of the polemic exchanges titled, "An Exchange
Pertaining to Elder's Children."  To read the article, enter
through the door on the home page of Bible Truths and click on
"Archives and Index" in the directory.  When on the Archives
page, click on the letter "E."  To read the detailed exchange
including the declension of the noun in question, click on
"Polemic Exchanges" in the directory on the Site Map page.

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Cordially,
Don Martin