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1 Timothy 2

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Instructions on Corporate Prayer 1–7

1
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; ​
2
For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. ​
3
For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; ​
4
Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. ​
5
For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; ​
6
Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. ​
7
Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. ​

Conduct in Public Worship 8–10

8
I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. ​
9
In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; ​
10
But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.

Roles in Teaching and Authority 11–15

11
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. ​
12
But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. ​
13
For Adam was first formed, then Eve. ​
14
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. ​
15
Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for 1 Timothy 2

Verse 1

supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks — Four Greek words: deesis, a request; proseuche, prayer as such; enteuxis, from a verb meaning to meet with, found elsewhere only in 4:5; and eucharistia, thanks. 'For all men' sets the scope, and v.2 names kings first.

Verse 2

kings, and for all that are in authority — Huperoche, a place above others, found elsewhere only in 1 Cor 2:1 ('excellency'). The aim is a 'quiet' (eremos) and 'peaceable' (hesuchios) life 'in all godliness and honesty' (semnotes, dignity). Exiles in Babylon were told likewise to 'pray unto the LORD for it' (Jer 29:7).

Verse 3

God our Saviour — The phrase recurs in 1 Tim 1:1; Titus 1:3; 2:10; 3:4 and Jude 25. Here it grounds the prayer of vv.1–2: it is 'good and acceptable' (apodektos, welcome) before the Saviour, who in 4:10 is 'the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe'.

Verse 4

will have all men to be saved — Thelo, to wish or will. 'All men' is the phrase of v.1, so the prayer for all rests on this. Two things are joined: salvation and 'the knowledge' (epignosis, full recognition) 'of the truth'. Cf. 2 Pet 3:9, 'not willing that any should perish'; 'truth' (aletheia) returns twice in v.7.

Verse 5

one mediator — Mesites, a go-between, found six times in the New Testament: here, Gal 3:19–20 (of the law given by Moses), and of Christ's covenant in Heb 8:6; 9:15; 12:24. 'One God' recalls Deut 6:4, 'The LORD our God is one LORD'; the one mediator is 'the man Christ Jesus'.

Verse 6

a ransom for all — Antilutron, a redemption price paid in the place of another, found only here. Matt 20:28 has the simpler lutron, 'to give his life a ransom for many'. 'Gave himself' is Paul's phrase also in Gal 1:4 and Titus 2:14. The testimony is given 'in due time', its own season (kairos).

Verse 7

a preacher, and an apostle — Kerux, a herald, found elsewhere only in 2 Tim 1:11 (the same three titles) and 2 Pet 2:5. The commission to the Gentiles was foretold: a 'chosen vessel… to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel' (Acts 9:15). 'Verity' is aletheia, the 'truth' of v.4.

Verse 8

lifting up holy hands — The posture of Ps 141:2, 'the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice'; Ps 24:4 asks for 'clean hands, and a pure heart'. 'Men' here is aner, males, not the anthropos of vv.1, 4–5. 'Doubting' is dialogismos, reasoning or dispute, set beside 'wrath'.

Verse 9

modest apparel… shamefacedness and sobriety — 'Adorn' (kosmeo) and 'modest' (kosmios) share one root, the idea of order. Aidos, shamefacedness, is found elsewhere only in Heb 12:28 ('reverence'). 'Broided' hair is plegma, here alone; 1 Pet 3:3–4 sets 'the hidden man of the heart' beside the same outward adorning.

Verse 11

learn in silence — Hesuchia, quietness, the word of 2 Thess 3:12 ('with quietness they work') and again in v.12. 'Subjection' is hupotage (cf. 1 Tim 3:4). The verse begins with learning. Cf. 1 Cor 14:34.

Verse 12

usurp authority — Authenteo, to act on one's own authority, to dominate; it occurs only here in the New Testament. Believers read the verse differently: as a limit on teaching and oversight in every congregation, or as answering the false teaching at Ephesus (1:3–7). 'Silence' is hesuchia, as in v.11.

Verse 13

Adam was first formed — Plasso, to mould as a potter does (Rom 9:20, 'the thing formed'), the work of Gen 2:7; Eve's making follows in Gen 2:22. Paul argues from the order of creation, as in 1 Cor 11:8, 'the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man'.

Verse 14

Adam was not deceived — The deception was the woman's, in her own words, 'The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat' (Gen 3:13); Paul says the same to Corinth (2 Cor 11:3). He elsewhere names 'Adam's transgression' (parabasis, the word used here of the woman) as the sin through which death reigned (Rom 5:14).

Verse 15

saved in childbearing — Teknogonia, bearing children, found only here. Believers read it variously: preservation through childbirth; salvation through the promised Seed born of a woman (Gen 3:15); or salvation worked out in the woman's calling in the home (cf. 5:14). The verb turns from 'she' to 'they', and 'sobriety' (sophrosune) closes as in v.9.