1 Timothychapter 2
15 verses · BSB1 Timothy book hub →
Speaks with:Genesis 3×31 Peter 2×2Ezekiel 18×21 Peter 3×2Titus 2×21 Corinthians 11×2
Summary
Chapter summary
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men. For kings, and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life. God will have all men to be saved. There is one God, one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. I will that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands. The women's conduct in the assembly. In modest apparel, with shamefacedness, learning in silence. Calvin reads the chapter as the church's public worship guideline.
Context
Epistle · Paul — 1 Timothy overview
- A. 1–7 Pray for Kings: One God, One Mediator
- B. 8–15 Holy Hands, Modest Dress, and a Quiet Learning
The outline
A.Pray for Kings: One God, One Mediatorvv. 1 to 7
Read vv. 1 to 7 →B.Holy Hands, Modest Dress, and a Quiet Learningvv. 8 to 15
Read vv. 8 to 15 →
The world behind this chapter
1 Timothy 2The history
Praying for the emperor was already Jewish practice. A daily sacrifice was offered in the Jerusalem temple on behalf of Rome and its ruler, and when that sacrifice was stopped in AD 66 it was understood as a declaration of war. Telling Christians to pray for kings put them on the same ground: loyal subjects, not rebels.
The ruler in question was Nero. Praying for a quiet life under him was not sentimental; it was asking for room to live.
The description of women's dress is a description of a specific fashion. Elite Roman women built towered hairstyles threaded with gold and pearls, and moralists of the period — pagan ones included — complained about the expense as a display of status. In a room where slaves and poor widows also sat, that display did something ugly.
Ephesus was the city of Artemis, whose great temple was staffed by women in prominent roles and whose cult shaped what everyone assumed about women and the divine. The chapter's restriction on a woman teaching and holding authority over a man is read by many as a standing order and by others as a measure aimed at untaught women in that specific situation; the wording is disputed and the reasons given reach back to Genesis, so the debate is named here rather than settled.
What it meant to them
For the first hearers, the striking instruction may be the one addressed to men: lift hands without anger and arguing. The church was quarreling, and the quarrel was in the prayers.
The line about one God and one mediator cut across everything Ephesus sold. In a city stacked with priesthoods and go-betweens, there was one, and he was a man who gave himself as the ransom price.
Sources cited
- Bruce W. Winter, Roman Wives, Roman Widows
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 1 Timothy 2. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.