1 Timothy 2: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Paul urges that prayers of every kind be made for all people, including kings and others in authority, so believers can live quiet and godly lives. He states that God wants all people to be saved, that there is one God and one mediator between God and people, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, and that Paul was appointed a preacher, apostle, and teacher of the non-Jewish nations. He then gives instructions for how men are to pray and how women are to dress and behave, including that he does not permit a woman to teach or have authority over a man, supporting this from the order of Adam and Eve and the deception in Eden. The chapter closes with the statement that she will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness with self-control.

Claim by Claim

1. 2:1
   • The speaker exhorts.
   • The exhortation is that supplications be made for all men.
   • The exhortation is that prayers be made for all men.
   • The exhortation is that intercessions be made for all men.
   • The exhortation is that thanksgivings be made for all men.
   • This is to be done first of all.
2. 2:2
   • Prayers are to be made for kings.
   • Prayers are to be made for all who are in authority.
   • The purpose is that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.
   • That life is to be lived in all godliness.
   • That life is to be lived in all dignity.
3. 2:3
   • This is good in the sight of God our Savior.
   • This is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.
   • God is called our Savior.
4. 2:4
   • God wills that all men be saved.
   • God wills that all men come to the knowledge of the truth.
5. 2:5
   • There is one God.
   • There is one mediator between God and men.
   • That mediator is Christ Jesus.
   • Christ Jesus is a man.
6. 2:6
   • Christ Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all.
   • This is the testimony given in its own proper times.
7. 2:7
   • The speaker was appointed a preacher.
   • The speaker was appointed an apostle.
   • The speaker says he speaks the truth in Christ.
   • The speaker says he does not lie.
   • The speaker was appointed a teacher of the Gentiles.
   • He teaches in faith and truth.
8. 2:8
   • The speaker wills that men pray in every place.
   • The men praying are to lift up holy hands.
   • They are to pray without wrath.
   • They are to pray without disputing or doubting.
9. 2:9
   • The speaker wills likewise that women adorn themselves in modest apparel.
   • They are to adorn themselves with modesty.
   • They are to adorn themselves with self-control.
   • They are not to adorn themselves with braided hair.
   • They are not to adorn themselves with gold.
   • They are not to adorn themselves with pearls.
   • They are not to adorn themselves with costly clothing.
10. 2:10
    • Women are to adorn themselves with good works.
    • Good works are what is fitting for women who profess godliness.
11. 2:11
    • A woman is to learn in silence.
    • A woman is to learn in all subjection.
12. 2:12
    • The speaker does not permit a woman to teach.
    • The speaker does not permit a woman to exercise authority over a man.
    • The woman is to be in silence.
13. 2:13
    • Adam was formed first.
    • Eve was formed after Adam.
14. 2:14
    • Adam was not deceived.
    • The woman was deceived.
    • The woman came to be in transgression.
15. 2:15
    • She shall be saved through childbearing.
    • This is conditional on their continuing in faith.
    • This is conditional on their continuing in love.
    • This is conditional on their continuing in holiness.
    • This is conditional on their continuing with self-control.
    • The subject shifts from a singular 'she' to a plural 'they' in the condition.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

2:1

"Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks" stacks up four overlapping Greek words for praying; the pile-up is for emphasis, and the terms are not sharply distinct types of prayer. "Intercessions" means requests made on someone else's behalf. "All men" in 1611 English meant all human beings, not males only, and the Greek word here is the general one for people, unlike verse 8, which uses a word for adult males.

2:2

"Honesty" in 1611 did not mean truthfulness. It meant respectability or dignity, the kind of conduct other people honor. The Greek word covers seriousness and good standing in public life.

2:3

A savior is a rescuer. Calling God "Saviour" means he is the one who saves people from sin and death.

2:4

"Who will have all men to be saved" uses "will" in its older sense of wills or wants, not as a future tense. The sentence states a desire, not a guarantee.

2:5

"Mediator" translates a Greek word at home in legal and business documents, where it named the neutral third party who arranged an agreement between two sides or stood as its guarantor. It was not originally a religious word.

2:6

A "ransom" was the price paid to free a prisoner of war or to buy a slave out of slavery, so the word pictures a payment that releases someone rather than a fine or a penalty. "To be testified in due time" is compressed in the Greek, running roughly "the testimony at its own proper times," and translators differ over whether that phrase describes the ransom itself, the public announcing of it, or Paul's commission in the next verse.

2:7

"Ordained" here means appointed or installed, with no implication of a modern ordination service. A "preacher" is a herald, the official crier who announced a ruler's message aloud in public. "Gentiles" means the non-Jewish nations, everyone outside Israel. "Verity" is simply an older word for truth.

2:8

"I will therefore" again means I want, not a prediction. "Lifting up holy hands" describes the ordinary posture of prayer across the ancient world, standing with the arms raised and the palms turned up; calling the hands "holy" is a standard image for a person whose conduct is clean. The Greek word behind "doubting" can mean either inward doubt or a dispute between people, and translators split between the two; its pairing with "wrath" pushes many toward quarreling.

2:9

"Shamefacedness" did not mean embarrassment in 1611; it meant modesty, a sense of decent reserve. "Sobriety" did not mean abstaining from alcohol; it meant self-control and sound judgment. "Broided" is an old spelling of braided, and the target is the elaborate piled hairstyles worn by wealthy Roman women, often worked through with gold thread and pearls, which is why gold and pearls come next in the same list. "Costly array" means expensive clothing.

2:10

"Which becometh" means which is fitting for, or which suits. "Professing godliness" means claiming publicly to worship God.

2:11

"Silence" here translates a Greek noun meaning quietness or settled calm. It is from the same root as the word translated "quiet" in verse 2, where it describes a peaceable life, and by itself it does not have to mean saying nothing at all. "Subjection" is the ordinary word for being placed under someone's authority.

2:12

"I suffer not" means I do not permit. The verb behind "usurp authority" is rare: it appears nowhere else in the New Testament and seldom in Greek of this period, and its attested range runs from simply holding or exercising authority to seizing it or domineering with it. Which sense is meant here is genuinely disputed; the King James "usurp" picks the strong end of that range.

2:13

"Formed" uses the word Genesis uses for shaping something out of clay or dust, so the verse is pointing back to the making of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2.

2:14

"Transgression" means the breaking of an explicit command, not wrongdoing in general. The wording "was in the transgression" is literally closer to "came to be in transgression," describing the state she ended up in. The reference is to Genesis 3, where the serpent deceives Eve.

2:15

"She shall be saved in childbearing" is one of the most disputed sentences in the letter, and every translation of it picks a side. The Greek preposition can mean during, by means of, or through the experience of; the noun has "the" attached to it, which some read as bearing children in general and others as a pointer to one particular birth; and the sentence then switches from a singular "she" to a plural "they continue," with no agreement about who that plural is. "Charity" is the King James word for love, not for giving to the poor. "Sobriety" again means self-control.