Don

As an egal, I agree with the conclusions but get there a different way.

1. I read 1 Tim 3:1 as referring to Jesus the Word as being faithful, per Bruce Fleming; it is not referring to a faithful saying at this point in the text. It did earlier, as a wordplay, in 1 Tim 1:15, where it is BOTH a saying and a ref. to Jesus. 1 Tim 4:9 is also not a saying, again just referring to Jesus. The thing about wordplays is that either one sees the play on words or one does not. The Bible is full of wordplays, as these help memory.

2. As they can be churches who exclude all you put in the box, I prefer to use the meaning of the Greek term “mias gunaikos andres” as an idiom meaning “faithful spouse” per Lucien Deiss, as quoted by Bruce Fleming.

3. On the 12, I do believe and teach that they needed to be EXACTLY 12, as they map to the 12 tribes of Israel. I see this as why Judas was replaced but James was not. So there are the 12 apostles of Jesus and the many apostles of the church after that, including the ones mentioned in the NT. The 12 also needed to be Jews, but the church apostles do not need to be and in fact should not all be.