1 Timothy 2:8

1Ti_2:8

Pray everywhere.

Prayer

I. Let us consider THE SUBJECT OF ATTENTION. This is prayer. And what is prayer? Prayer is the breathing of desire towards God. Words are not essential to it. As words may be used without the heart, so the heart may be engaged where words are wanting. Words are not always necessary to inform a fellow-creature, and they are never necessary to inform God, who searcheth the heart, and knoweth what is in the mind. What interesting looks will the hunger of the beggar at the door display! How is it in the family? You have several children: the first can come and ask for what he wants in proper language, and the second can only ask in broken terms, but here is a third who cannot speak at all: but he can point, he can look, and stretch out his little hand; he can cry, and shall he plead in vain? No! no! says the mother, refuse him? his dimpled cheeks, his speaking eye, his big round tears, plead for him. Refuse him? Further, we notice the kinds of prayer. Prayer may be considered as public. There is also domestic prayer, by which we mean the prayer that is offered every morning and every evening at the family altar. Mr. Henry observes, A house without this has no roof. Prayer may be considered as private. When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and shut thy door, and pray to thy Father which seeth in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Prayer may be considered as ejaculatory, a darting up of the mind to God, as the word signifies. This may be done at any time, and under any circumstance. Nehemiah was the kings cup-bearer, and while he was in the room attending upon his office, he prayed to the God of heaven.

II. Observe the injunction. I will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

III. Where it is to be offered. Everywhere. Now, this is opposed to restriction or respect. Let us see what we can make of it in either of these views. You remember the Assyrians thought that the God of Israel was the God of the hills, and not of the valleys. And when Balaam was baffled in one of his endeavours to curse Israel, he went to another place to see if he could be more prosperous, and to try if he could curse them from thence. You see how the devotions of the heathens always depended upon times, and places, or pilgrimages. Among the Jews, who were for a time under a Theocracy, God chose a place where He might reside, and where were the symbols of His presence, and there all the males resorted thrice in the year; but even then God said to Moses, In all places where I record My name, I will come unto thee and bless thee. What think you of those sons and daughters of superstition and bigotry who would confine God to particular places and stations? Where was Jacob when he said, This is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven? Where did Paul take leave of his friends? He kneeled down on the seashore. Where did the Saviour pray? He went out into a private place, He went into a desert place, He went up into a mountain to pray. When Jones, a famous Welsh preacher, was commanded to appear before the Bishop of St. Davids, the bishop said to him, I must insist upon it that you never preach upon unconsecrated ground. My lord, said he, I never do; I never did; for the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof; and when Immanuel came down to set His foot upon our earth, the whole was sanctified by it. God is no more a respecter of places than of persons. This should also encourage you when you are under disadvantageous circumstances. For instance, if you are called to assemble in a very poor place, or in a very small place, He Himself hath said, Where two or three are gathered together in My name--let it be where it will--there am I in the midst of them. But now, further, as men may pray everywhere, so they ought to pray everywhere. The injunction not only allows, but enjoins, universal prayer. The duty is more opposed to neglect than even restriction. Men should pray everywhere, because they may die everywhere. They have died in all places: they have died in a bath, they have died in a tavern, they have died upon the road, they have died in the temple of God. You are therefore to pray everywhere. But what are we to say of those who, instead of praying everywhere, pray nowhere?

IV. Let us notice How this duty is to be discharged. It is to be offered up under three attributes.

1. The first implies purity, lifting up holy hands. Solomon says, The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. David says, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. You have heard the Dutch proverb, Sinning will make a man leave off praying, or praying will make a man leave off sinning. These will not do well together, therefore they must be separated. It would be better for a man to neglect his benefactor than to call at his house to spit in his face, or to smite him on the cheek. James says, Can a fountain bring forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?

2. The second attribute is kindness. This is expressed by the opposite extreme. Without wrath. There are those whose lives may be far from egregious vices, but whose tempers do not partake of the meekness and gentleness of Christ; they bring their rancorous spirit into their worship, and think to appease the anger of God for their uncharitableness by offering it up on the altar of devotion. He that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.

3. The third attribute is confidence. This is expressed negatively: I will that men pray everywhere, not only without wrath, but without doubting. Our Lord says in the Gospel by St. Matthew, Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing, ye shall receive. This confidence includes a persuasion in the lawfulness of the things we pray for. Then it takes in confidence in the power of God. Believe ye that I am able to do this? This confidence takes in the disposition of God towards you; you are not only to believe that He is, but that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Especially you must have confidence in the mediation of Christ. (W. Jay.)

A Scripture description of prayer

I. The employment which is here commended.

1. That prayer must be addressed exclusively to God. This grand truth is introduced, and ought to be solemnly and uniformly affirmed, in direct contradiction to those mistaken propensities and systems by which men have addressed invocations to idols--mere imaginary beings, or beings really existing but created and inferior.

2. Prayer must be offered to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is an established and a cardinal principle in all revealed religion that man as a guilty sinner can have no access to God but through a Mediator--One whose merits, as having offered a sacrifice for sin, must be alleged as constituting a satisfactory ground for favour and acceptance.

3. Prayer offered to God through the Lord Jesus Christ must be presented by all mankind. The statement of our text is, that men are to pray everywhere; wherever men exist, men are to pray. The universal call to prayer arises from the fact that men are universally in precisely the same relationship to God. They are everywhere characterized by the same guilt, the same wants, the same responsibility.

II. The spirit with which this employment is to be inseparably associated. I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

1. First the apostle recommends importunity. Importunity is symbolized by the figure of the lifting up of hands--an attitude which was practised in prayer in ancient times, as externally indicating the place from whence man expected blessing, even heaven the dwelling-place of God, and the spirit with which they desired to receive blessing, laying hold (as it were) by eagerness and by strength of what they desired to receive from Him. Who, for example, can pray for pardon, for sanctification, for knowledge, for love, for protection, for comfort, for victory over death and hell, and for the final enjoyment of a happy immortality in heaven--without importunity? It is palpable that coldness to a rightly regulated mind must be utterly and finally impracticable.

2. But again; the expressions of the apostle, when they recommend importunity, also recommend purity. Lifting up holy hands--these expressions, or the epithets with which the expressions we have noticed already are connected, referring to a custom, frequent or universal among the Jews as well as other Oriental nations, of carefully washing the hands before they engaged in the performance of any act of devotion, this being intended to be the sign and symbol of moral rectitude and of the preparation of the heart. Hence it is that in the Old Testament Scriptures you find a connection established between the cleanness of the hands and the purification or holiness of the heart. For instance, in the Book of Job we have this statement--The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger--there being of course an identification between the two expressions. In the twenty-fourth Psalm David inquires thus--Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. This being the import of the expression, we might refer it to the state, which must be rendered judicially pure or holy by the imputation of Christs righteousness, dependence on whom we have already advocated and required; but we must especially regard it as referring to the heart, which must undergo the sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit, so as to be morally conformed to the character and the law of God. In all ages, God demands to be worshipped in the beauties of holiness.

3. The apostle also recommends benevolence. I will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath. The expression wrath of course must be regarded as having respect to other men; we are to be careful against indulging towards them resentment or dislike, arising from whatever source, and we are to cultivate towards them the spirit of benevolence and of good-will, these prompting on their behalf intercession for their interests before the throne and in the presence of God. The apostle well knew that there is a great disposition to the indulgence of selfishness in prayer; and hence it was that he bore in the present instance his solemn protest against it.

4. The apostle at the same time recommends faith. I will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting; the term doubting is placed as the converse of faith. Faith in regard to the exercise of prayer, must not merely have respect to the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Mediator through whom prayer is to be presented, but must have respect to the entire testimony of God regarding prayer--in its mode, matter, and results. There may perhaps be stated certain limitations to the exercise of faith, as connected with the employment of prayer. Those limitations may justly have respect to the desires we are accustomed to present before the Divine footstool, for the impartation of what we deem temporal blessings.

III. The reasons by which this employment in this spirit may especially be enforced.

1. First, this employment in this spirit is directly commanded by God.

2. Again; this employment in this spirit is connected with numerous and invaluable blessings. Is it not associated with blessing to ourselves, and have we not been distinctly informed that the great instrument of the continuance of spiritual blessings to us, when converted by Divine grace, has been the agency of prayer?

3. And then it must be observed that the neglect of this employment in this spirit is attended and succeeded by numerous and by fatal evils. No man is a converted man who does not pray. No man can be a happy man who does not pray. No man can possess the slightest indication of the spiritual favour of God who does not pray. (J. Parsons.)

Prayer without anger

Anger, says he, is a short madness, and an eternal enemy to discourse and a fair conversation: it is a fever in the heart, and a calenture in the head, and a sword in the hand, and a fury all over and therefore can never suffer a man to be in a disposition to pray. For prayer is the peace of our spirits, the stillness of our thoughts, the evenness of recollection, the rest of our cares, and the calm of our temper; prayer is the issue of a quiet mind, of untroubled thoughts: it is the daughter of charity and the sister of meekness: and he that prays to God with an angry, that is, with a troubled and discomposed spirit, is like him that retires into a battle to meditate, and sets up his closet in the out-quarters of an army, and chooses a frontier garrison to be wise in. For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upwards, and singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and rise above the clouds; but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, till the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was over: and then it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing, as if it had learned music and motion from an angel. (Jeremy Taylor.)

Praying everywhere

Forty years ago, Audubon, the distinguished American naturalist, was pursuing his vocation in a wild, remote, and, as he believed, perfectly uninhabited district of Labrador. Rising up from the bare ground after a cold nights rest he beheld, on one of the granite rocks which strew that desolate plain, the form of a man accurately outlined against the dawn, his head raised to heaven, his hands clasped and beseeching. Before this rapt and imploring figure stood a small monument of unhewn stones supporting a wooden cross. The only dweller on that inhospitable shore had come out from his hut to the open air, that without barrier or hindrance his solitary supplication might go up directly unto Him who does not dwell in the temples that are made with hands.

Wrath and prayer

Prayer is represented in the gospel as a holy and solemn act, which we cannot surround with too many safeguards, in order to prevent anything of a profane and worldly nature from interfering with the reverential freedom of this con verse between the creature and its Creator. Prayer prepares for acts of self-denial, courage, and charity, and these in their turn prepare for prayer, No one should be surprised at this double relation between prayer and life. Is it not natural that we should retire to be with God, that we may renew our sense of His presence, draw on the treasures of light and strength which He opens to every heart that implores Him, and afterwards return to active life, better provided with love and wisdom? On the other hand, is it not natural that we should prepare by purity of conduct to lift up pure hands to God, and carefully keep aloof from everything that might render this important and necessary act either difficult, or formidable, or useless? The words introduced at the end of the verse so unexpectedly, and which we believe, for a moment, excite surprise in every reader these words, without wrath and doubting, contain a very marked and impressive allusion to the circumstances in which Christians were then placed. The question is anew brought before you at every new attack of your enemies; in other words, every new attack will necessarily tempt you to wrath and disputation as you are men, if it do not urge you to prayer as you are Christians. You cannot escape from wrath except by prayer, nor from hatred except by love; and not to be a murderer, since hatred is murder, you must as much as in you lies give life to him to whom you wished to give death. At least it is necessary to ask it for him, it is necessary by your prayers to beget him to a new existence; it is necessary in all cases, while praying for him, to exert yourselves in loving him. It is necessary that wrath and disputation be extinguished and die away in prayer. Two classes of men may excite in us wrath and disputation. The former are the enemies of our persons, those who, from interest, envy, or revenge, are opposed to our happiness, and more generally all those who have done us wrong, or against whom we have ground of complaint. The latter are those who become our enemies from the opposition of their views and opinions to ours, or the opposition of their conduct to our wishes. Both are to us occasions of wrath and disputation. The gospel requires that they be to us occasions of prayer. In regard to the former, I mean our personal enemies, I might simply observe that God does not know them as our enemies. God does not enter into our passions, or espouse our resentments. He sanctions and approves all the relations which He has Himself created, those of parent and child, husband and wife, sovereign and subject. But the impious relation of enemy to enemy is entirely our work, or rather the work of the devil. God knows it only to denounce it. Besides, in His eye the whole body of mankind are only men, and some in the relation which they stand to each other, only brethren. You would wish to pray for your friends alone; but this very prayer is forbidden, and remains impossible, if you do not extend it to your enemies. And if you persist in excluding them from your prayers, be assured that God will not even accept those which you offer to Him in behalf of the persons whom you love. Your supplications will be rejected; the smoke of your offering will fall back upon your offering; your desires will not reach that paternal heart which is ever open. Not only ought we to pray for our enemies, although they be our enemies; but we ought to pray for them because they are our enemies. As soon as they again become to us like the rest of mankind another distinction takes place, and a new right arises in their favour. They are confounded for a moment with all our other fellows, in order afterwards to stand forth from the general mass as privileged beings, with a special title to our prayers. When we meet with an opposition which frets and irritates us, Christian prudence counsels us to pray that the temptation may be removed; and, in particular, that our self-love and injured feelings may not weaken our love for our neighbour. But this prudence, if it counsels nothing further, is not prudent enough. If the same feeling which disposes us to pray does not dispose us to pray for our enemies or opponents, it is difficult to believe that it is a movement of charity. Charity cannot be thus arrested. Its nature is to overcome evil with good, and this means not merely that it does not render evil for evil, but that in return for evil it renders good. It would not be charity if it did less. Its first step overleaps the imaginary limit which it does not even see or know. It does not restrict itself to not hating; it loves. It would not do enough if it did not do more than enough. Can we renew our hatred for one for whom we have prayed? Does not every desire, every request which we send up to God for him endear him to us the more? Does not each prayer set him more beyond the reach of our passions? No; not till then is the work of mercy accomplished. We have no evidence of having pardoned an enemy until we have prayed for him. For to allege the gravity, the extent of the offence which we have received, has no plausibility. If we have brought ourselves to pardon him who has committed it, we might surely bring ourselves to pray for him; and if we cannot pray for him we have not pardoned him. An offence! But think well of it; can we really be offended? The term is too lofty, too grand for us. The offence may have grated very painfully on our feelings, or thwarted our interests, but it has gone no farther. Whatever injustice may have been done us, whatever cause we may have to complain, that is not the real evil. What evil absolutely is there in having our faith tried and our patience exercised? Because our fortune has been curtailed, our reputation compromised, our affections thwarted, does the world go on less regularly than it did? Not at all. The evil, the only real evil is the sin of that soul, the infraction of the eternal law, the violence offered to Divine order; and if any other evil is to be added to this, it will be by our murmurings, since the effect of them will be to make two sinners in place of one. Do you then seek a reason for refusing your intercession, and consequently your pardon to your adversaries? I have found one, and it is a fit ground for resentment: God your Father was insulted in the insult which you experienced. But show me, pray, the extraordinary man who, quite ready to pardon on his own account, cannot resolve to pardon on Gods account! It may belong to God to be angry with them; us it becomes only to pity them, and pity them the more, the more grievously God has been offended. But alas! instead of seeing in the injury which we have received only an injury done to God, we insolently appropriate to ourselves the offence of which He alone is the object. In what hurts Him we feel ourselves offended, and consequently become angry, instead of being grieved. It will be well if, instead of praying, we have not cursed! Contrast the ordinary fruits of wrath and debate with these results of prayer. In yielding to the former, not only do you place yourself in opposition to the holy law of God, but you destroy the peace of your life and the peace of your soul; you aggravate the evils of a situation already deplorable; you kindle up hatred in the heart of your enemy; you render reconciliation on his part, as well as on yours, always more difficult; you run from sin to sin in order to lull your pride, and this pride gives you only a bitter, poisoned, and criminal enjoyment. How much better, then, is prayer than wrath and strife! But personal enemies are not the only ones who are to us the occasion of wrath and strife. The class of enemies, as we have already said, includes all those whose opinions, views, and conduct are in opposition to our interests or our principles. How little does the impatience which they excite differ from hatred! With regard to such enemies, our usual method is to hate in silence if we feel ourselves weak, or to dispute obstinately if we believe ourselves strong. The gospel proposes another method. It approves neither of hatred nor strife. Zeal, courage, perseverance, indignation itself, must all be pervaded with charity, or rather, proceed from charity. Indignation and prayer must spring from a common source; the former from love to God, the latter from love to men, and consequently both from love. How widely different is this conduct from that which is commonly pursued in the world! Let Government commit an error, it is greedily laid hold of and bitterly commented on; and this is all that is done. Let a religious teacher profess a system which is judged dangerous; his minutest expressions are laid hold of, and isolated so as to distort their meaning; his life is boldly explained by his opinions, or his opinions by his life, and there the matter rests. To pray, to entreat the Lord to shed His enlightening Spirit on this government, on that teacher, on that individual; to wrestle for them in presence of the Divine mercy, ah! this is what is seldom thought of. Ah! the Divine Intercessor must have fully established His abode in the soul before the spirit of intercession can dwell there! How difficult is it for the old leaven to lose its sourness! What seeds of hatred, what homicidal germs are in the heart which has received Jesus Christ! How much of Cain still remains in this pretended Abel! And what avails it to believe much if we love little, or to believe if we do not love? And truly, what have we believed, in whom have we believed, if we do not love? (A. Vinet, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti 2:8. I will — A word strongly expressing his apostolical authority; therefore — This particle connects the 8th and the 1st verse; that men pray everywhere — Εν παντιτοπω, in every place. Wherever men are, there prayer should be used; and if their hearts be right with God they will use it. By this precept the apostle condemned the superstitious notion of both the Jews and Gentiles, who fancied that prayers offered in temples were more acceptable to God than those offered anywhere else. This worshipping of God in all places was foretold as the peculiar glory of the gospel dispensation, Mal 1:11. Lifting up holy hands — Pure from all known sin, and in particular from injustice and oppression; without wrath — In any kind, against any creature. And observe, reader, every temper of the soul which is not according to love is wrath; and doubting — Which is contrary to faith. Unholy actions, or wrath, or want of faith in him we call upon, are the three grand hinderances of God’s hearing our petitions. Christianity consists of faith and love, embracing truth and grace. Therefore the sum of our wishes should be to pray, and live, and die, shunning every known sin, and guarding against wrath and doubting.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

VI

By whom and how Prayer is to be made, and how especially women should conduct themselves in that respect

1Ti_2:8-15

8I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.6 9In like manner also, that women7 adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shame-facedness [shamefastness] and sobriety; [,] not with braided [plaited] hair, or [and?] gold,8 or pearls, or costly array; [,] 10But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works [by means of 11their good works]. Let the women learn in silence [tranquilly] with [in] all subjection. 12But I suffer not a woman to teach,9 nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. 13For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived10 was in the 15transgression. Notwithstanding [But] she shall be saved in child-bearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1Ti_2:8. I will therefore, &c. Βούλομαι οὖν. Βόυλεσθαι is stronger than θέλειν; it is to ordain, by the power of his apostolic authority; οὖν connects the following exhortation with 1Ti_2:1-3, and is needed on account of the brief digression in 1Ti_2:4-7. As the Apostle thus reverts to the public prayers just commended, he now states more exactly when, how, and through whom these should be conducted; and with this he adds his special counsel to the women as well as the men. The latter, in express distinction from the women, are alone to direct public prayers. It thus appears that, in the assembly of believers, this duty was not given exclusively to the presiding officer, but was performed without limitation by the members of the church. The Apostle does not object to this, but only orders that the women shall abstain entirely from it, which, perhaps, in more recent times, they had not always done.—Everywhere. Not only to be joined with προσεύχεσθαι, but with the whole proposition; in which it is further taught both that men ought, and how they ought to pray everywhere. The somewhat singular phrase, ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ, is surely not a designed contrast to the Jewish localism, which held the temple or the synagogue almost exclusively as the fit place for prayer, but is probably explained by the fact that the Ephesian church, like many others, consisted of different ἐκκλησίαι κατ’ ὀ͂ικον, and thus had several places of meeting. Perhaps, also, in these different circles, the same customs were not in use; or some held one place holier than others. In view of this, the Apostle gives a precept which is to be remembered by all ubi cumque sint.—Lifting up holy hands; a Jewish custom, not only in taking an oath, or in benediction, but especially in prayer (see Psa_28:2; Psa_63:5); and, as appears from this passage, a usage of the Christian church; comp. Clem. Rom. ad Corinth, cap.29.—Holy hands; such as are not stained with wilful sin, in contrast with the unclean hands of an evil-doer (Psa_24:4; Psa_26:6; comp. Jam_4:8). In regard to the form, ὁσίους χεῖρ. (instead of ὁσίας, as some Codd. really have it), comp. Winer, Gramm., 6th ed., p. 64.—Without wrath, &c. Without wrath and contention. Luther less accurately says, ohne Zorn und Zweifel. The latter, contention, is the outward expression of the former. The Apostle refers directly to the wrath and contention of believers among themselves—it may be in questions of religious dispute, or other outbreaks in daily life. It is most probable that such disturbances had happened at their meetings in Ephesus, or, in the judgment of the Apostle, were to be feared. [The English Version and that of Luther are the same. Alford renders “without wrath and disputation;” that is, in tranquillity and mutual peace. Wordsworth renders, “without doubting or disputing.” But see Ellicott.—W.]

1Ti_2:9. In like manner also, that women. At the opening of this verse, Βούλομαι must be anew supplied from the preceding; in the remainder, however, the construction is difficult and involved. It seems best, after γυναῖκας, to supply, not προσεύχεσθαι, but προσευχομένας, since the ὡσαύτως forbids the supposition that the Apostle has now closed the subject of public prayer in order to give a general rule as to the dress and attire of the women. It is more likely that Paul now passes on to the conduct of the women in the church, since they are not included in the preceding exhortation, having no right of speech in public prayers. They must appear in modest attire; καταστολή = ἔνδυμα; περιβολή = σχῆμα σώματος. Κόσμιος = πρέπουσα γυναιξὶν ἐπαγγελλομέναις τῆν θεοσέβειαν (1Ti_2:10). The object of the Apostle is not to enjoin a general rule of life for Christian women, but specially for their demeanor at the place of prayer. He does not forbid all ornament, but only the excess which is a mark of frivolity and love of display, and awakens impure passions. They should adorn themselves, but with bashfulness and modesty (Luther: “with shame and modesty”). Both expressions refer not alone to the outward garment, but more to the inward spirit befitting the modest dress. Αἰδώς expresses the inward aversion from everything unseemly; σωφροσύνη, the control of the passions (Huther). This is the only ornament allowed to Christian women at public prayer. [Shamefastness; not, as in modern reprints of the English Version, shamefacedness; see Trench, N. T. Synonymes. This is an early Saxon form, which has unhappily become obsolete in this case. Wordsworth, however, is surely wrong when he calls it a word akin to steadfastness. It is to be found in the original edition of the Version of 1611.—W.]—Not with braided hair, Πλέγμα, insinuati multiplices in orbe crines; but the general sense of a head-dress, or dress of the hair, should not be lost (comp. 1Pe_3:5; Isa_3:24). These braidings of the hair are put first, but the following substantives denote the dress—ornaments of gold, whether bracelets, rings, or chains, pearls, or costly clothing, πολυτελής, nearly the same as in Mat_11:8, μαλακα ἱμάτια, and in Luk_7:25, ἱματισμὸς ἔνδοξος. Compare with this whole precept the Divine denunciation of female luxury (Isaiah 3), and like passages in the Church fathers; e.g., Tertullian, De Fæmineo Cultu. “Vestite vos serico probitatis, bysso sanctitatis, purpura pudicitiæ.” Augustin, Epit. 1Tim 73: “Verus ornatus, maxime Christianorum et Christianarum, non tantum nullus mendax fucus, verum ne auri quidem vestisque pompa, sed mores boni sunt.” Compare the remarkable “Eulogy of Seneca,” ad Helv. cap. 6.

1Ti_2:10. But what becometh. The main clause must here be distinguished from the subordinate clauses. The chief proposition is that in which the Apostle states what is the true ornament of a devout woman. I will, he says, that they adorn themselves with good works. Good works, on the occasion of their public worship, can scarcely be any other than offerings of love for the poor, as Heydenreich has remarked; which, however, Huther without reason calls wholly arbitrary. Why should not this be styled the true ornament of a Christian woman, that, like Dorcas, she is full of good works and alms deeds? “Si operibus testanda est pietas, in vestitu etiam casto apparere hæc professio debet;” Calvin. The words, which becometh, &c., we regard not as a parænetic clause, which would offer great difficulty, but as defining the reason of Paul’s praise of such an ornament, ὅ = καθ’ ὅ = ὣσ πρὲπει. This dress, from his point of view, is the only becoming one.—Professing godliness, ἐπαγγελλ. θεοσ.; an expression peculiar to the Pastoral Epistles. Luther: die Gottseligkeit beweisen; French: qui font profession de pieté; Dutch: die godvruchtigheid belijden. Ἐπαγγελλ., who glory in something, or lay claim to something, or will pass for something, or who employ themselves in something. Compare the Horatian “quæ medicorum sint, profiteri.” In this meaning of the verb, in this place, it is so much the less advisable to connect it with the following words, δι’ ἔργων ἀγαθῶν.

1Ti_2:11. Let the women learn in silence with all subjection. Although the following counsels of the Apostle may readily be referred to the general relations of the sexes, still the connection requires us to regard them as here aimed at public teaching by women. Not the docere, but the discere; not prominence in outward rank, but the ὑποταγή in the place of prayer, is their proper calling. It appears that the Christian women at Ephesus were inclined to put themselves forward more than became them. The Apostle therefore enjoins silence upon them; and in the Jewish synagogues likewise, whose order was followed by the Christian assemblies, it was the rule that women should hear, but not speak (comp. 1Co_14:34, and Constel. App. iii. cap. 6). Thus Tertullian wrote, De Virg. Vel., cap. 1Tim 9: “Non permittitur mulieri in ecclesia loqui, nec docere, nec tinguere, nec ullius virilis muneris, nedum sacerdotalis officii sortem, sibi vindicare.”—Ἐν ἠσυχία; the women, without uttering a word, are humbly and believingly to hear the instruction, which is given solely by men, in the holy place.

1Ti_2:12. But I suffer not a woman, &c. The parallel is so complete between 1Ti_2:11-12, that we can refer this verse to nothing save public instruction. Not any general authority of the wife over her husband is here forbidden—although the Apostle without doubt opposes this—but especially the assuming such superiority in the church. Even to ask concerning what she does not understand, is not allowed to a woman in public (1Co_14:35), but only in her own house. Αὐθεντεῖν, in the earlier Greek, is equivalent to ἀυτοχείριζειν; in the later, to ἐξουσίαζειν. Ἀνδρός; the remark of Bengel is excellent: “Id non tantum maritum notat, sed totum genus virorum.”—To be in silence. Εἶναι ἐν ἧσυχίᾳ; not only tacere, but still more, in silentio versari; so that silence is almost the distinct sphere assigned to woman in such circumstances. We have an instance, however, of διδάσκειν on the part of a woman in Act_18:26, which the Apostle certainly would not have forbidden. Finally, the Apostle supports this rule of silence on two grounds, which are both taken from the book of Genesis.

1Ti_2:13. For Adam then Eve (comp. Gen_2:7; Gen_2:18-23). Just as, in 1Co_11:8, the Apostle refers to the priority of Adam’s creation, and thence infers the dependence of Eve in birth and condition; and, in her, of all women. Not always, indeed, yet here the priority warrants the superiority. “The Old Testament narration, as the Scriptures in general, is held by the Apostle as a holy, spiritual utterance of Divine truth; Adam and Eve are prototypes for all humanity of the manly and womanly nature; and in the creation of the primeval pair is the real ground of the law, that the woman must not teach, and, yet more, not be desirous to rule;” Matthies.

1Ti_2:14. And Adam was not, &c. (comp. Gen_3:1). A second ground, directly connected with the preceding. In 1Ti_2:13 it was stated why no authority was given to woman over man; in 1Ti_2:14, why she is justly forbidden to teach. “Deceptio indicat minus robur in intellectu, atque hic nervus est, cur mulieri non liceat docere;” Bengel. It is true that Adam also was misled, yet by means of the woman; but she was deceived in the strongest sense of the word, and she alone. She allowed herself to be enticed by the treacherous speech of the serpent, while Adam simply accepted the fruit from her hand. This passage does not conflict with Rom_5:12, since Adam is there named as the head of sinful humanity, without reference to Eve; while here St. Paul regards the origin of sin as given in the Jewish narrative, which, in 2Co_2:3, also is ascribed to Eve. With Adam, then, was a simple παράβασις; with Eve, ἀπάτη and παράβασις together. Adam was therefore in the transgression, in the state of disobedience to the positive command of God. The reading ἐξαπατηθεῖσα, defended by Lachmann and Tischendorf, strengthens yet more the sense and force of the antithesis. “In this matter the Apostle’s view is confirmed by the character of the female sex, and the experience of all times, which proves how susceptible woman is to such guile and persuasion; and his reasoning needs therefore no defence, but its truth is clear in the very nature of the subject;” Mack. [It should be remarked here, that this narrative of the fall has been held by many sound expositors as a moral truth of primitive history, not to be understood in its literal sense, but portrayed in a symbolic form. The note of Coleridge, although somewhat too much in the vein of Origen, may well be added: “We have the assurance of Bishop Horseley, that the Church of England does not demand the literal understanding of the document contained in the second (from 1Ti_2:8) and third chapters of Genesis as a point of faith; divines of the most unimpeachable orthodoxy, and the most averse to allegorizing of Scripture history in general, having from the earliest ages adopted or permitted it in this instance. Nor, if we suppose any man conversant with Oriental works of anything like the same antiquity, could it surprise him to find events of true history in connection with the parable. In the temple language of Egypt, the serpent was the symbol of the understanding. Without or in contravention to the reason, the spiritual mind of St. Paul, the understanding (φρόνημα σαρκὸς, or carnal mind) becomes the sophistic principle, the wily tempter to evil by counterfeit good; ever in league with and always first applying to the desire as the inferior nature, the woman in our humanity; and through the desire prevailing on the will (the manhood, virtus). The Mosaic narrative, thus interpreted, gives a just and faithful exposition of the birth and parentage of sin, as it reveals itself in time;” “Aids to Reflection,” p. 241, ed. 1840. Read also, for a like interpretation, Henry More, “Defence of the Moral Cabbala,” c. 3.—W.]

1Ti_2:15. She shall be saved in child-bearing, &c. The Apostle seems to fear lest he may have disheartened the women, and he now adds an encouraging word. Probably it was written in the recollection of the sentence which is coupled in Genesis 3. with the story of the fall. God had changed the curse into a blessing for her as well as for Adam, and made the penalty of sin a means of grace. She shall be saved, σωθήσεται. A share in the salvation of Christ is not withheld from her, although she has no part in public teaching. Yet she can only gain the personal enjoyment of this grace when she remains in her allotted calling. Through child-bearing, διὰ τῆς τεκνογονίας, proceeds the Apostle; and this expression has often been a stumbling-block. “Do you think it was Paul’s opinion, at the time he wrote 1 Corinthians 7., that the salvation of the female sex depends on child-bearing?” asks Schleiermacher, when he opposes the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles. The reply must be undoubtedly in the negative; but it should be added, that no reasonable man, apostle or not apostle, would take this proposition unconditionally; since, in that case, the greatest number of children would best entitle the mother to salvation. We are simply to suppose that the Apostle has in view Christian women only, for whom the question is, how they, who already believe in Christ, should personally gain the salvation they seek. It is, then, quite unnecessary to interpret the διά as meaning the outward mode of the σωθήσεται; still less to give it the sense of “notwithstanding” (Flatt); it denotes simply a condition in which the woman becomes partaker of such blessing. On this use of the preposition, see Winer, p. 339, who gives various examples. The Apostle would say: Far be the thought that the true fulfilment of the duties of a mother, as each might perhaps fear, can hinder the salvation of woman; on the contrary, she will then obtain it, when she remains in her allotted sphere of home (comp. 1Ti_5:14). Τεκνογονία does not mean merely the munus puerperæ in the strict sense of the word, but includes the Christian nurture and training of children. The notion that γυνή refers to Eve alone, or to Mary, the mother of the Lord, needs no serious refutation. The Apostle speaks of the Christian wife in general, and therefore can directly use the plural for the singular, when he adds, ἐὰν μείνωσιν. That this last clause does not refer to both men and women (Heydenreich), nor to the children (Chrysostom, Schleiermacher, Leo, Mack), is quite obvious. The last would, on account of the preceding τεκνογονία, be grammatically possible; but it is not probable, since the salvation of the woman would then be made dependent on the continuance of her children in fellowship with Christ. Calvin justly denied this view, when he wrote: “Atqui unica vox est apud Paulum τεκνογονία. Proinde ad mulieres referri, necessarium est ἐὰν μείνωσιν, κ.τ.λ. Quod autem plurale verbum est, nomen vero singulars, nihil habet incommodi. Si quidem nomen indefinitum, ubi scilicet de omnibus communis est sermo, vim collectivi habet, ideoque mutationem numeri facile patitur. Porro ne totammulierum virtutem in conjugalibus officiis includeret, continuo post etiam majores adjicit virtutes, quibus pias mulieres excellere convenit, ut a profanis differant. Imo tunc demum generatio gratum est Deo obsequium, quum ex fide et caritate procedit.” This last must especially be held in view. The slightest trace of singularity vanishes, when we see what the Apostle requires of women in their Christian life. They must endure even to the end, if they will be saved (Mat_24:13). Πίστις, ἀγάπη, ἁγιασμός, are for them the chief aim, as well as for every man. By the connection of these words with σωφροσύνη, modestia, the exhortation again returns to its starting point, the subordinate rank of woman.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. It belongs to that universal character of Christianity which Paul has unfolded so strongly in 1Ti_2:4-7, that the worship of God must be confined to special times and places (comp. Joh_4:21-24). When the Apostle assigns to the male members of the whole church the duties of preaching and instruction, he condemns, on one side, the clerical exclusiveness which allows the laity in no way to preach the word in the church, and, on the other side, the Quakerism which permits men and women, without restraint, to come forward when moved by the Spirit.

2. It shows the deep spiritual insight of the Apostle, when he urges the removal of all wrath and strife, as irreconcilable with common prayer. A similar suggestion is found in 1Pe_3:7. Compare the beautiful essay of A. Vinet, entitled, La colére et la priere, in his Études Evangel., p. 436; and most specially see the precept in the Sermon on the Mount (Mat_5:23-25).

3. How incalculable is the debt which women owe to Christianity! how holy is the calling allotted to the believing woman by the gospel! (comp. La Femme, deux discours, par Ad. Monod, Paris, 1855.) While woman before was a slave, the property of the man, the mere victim of his sensual lusts, she is now joint-heir of eternal life (1Pe_3:7). Although, however, the gospel sanctifies the community and the family, it does not reverse the natural order of things, but requires each to remain in the position God has given to each. This whole passage (1Ti_2:8-15) is a continuous practical exposition of the great principle which Paul has affirmed in 1Co_7:24.

4. The high worth which the Apostle here gives to the duties of the wife and mother, shows likewise with what restrictions we must receive his partial praise of celibacy (1 Corinthians 7), and is a sound corrective of all false asceticism.

5. Christian morality must be shown in our attire; and it is never to be forgotten, that the first garments after the fall were sewed by the hand of shame. Still, it would be absurd and petty to push the outward letter of this apostolic precept, as is too often done, although this rule of St. Paul has by no means only a local or temporary meaning. Comp. De Wette, Lehrbuch der christlichen Sittenl., p. 73. The question raised by the precept in 1Ti_2:9 (comp. 1Co_11:14), whether men should wear long hair, provoked in the Reformed Church of the Netherlands, in the seventeenth century, a long and hot dispute. See, for a full account, the learned work of Dr. G. D. J. Schotel, Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis der kerkelijke en wereldlijke kleeding; Haag, 1856.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The public prayer of the church.—The holy disposition needed for holy action.—No really devout prayer without mutual love and peace.—Humility the best dress for woman: (1) The best home dress; (2) the best travelling dress; (3) the best mourning dress; (4) the best grave-dress.—The special position which Christianity has assigned to woman: (1) What Christ is for women; (2) What women must be for Christ.—The eloquence of a Christian silence.—Ministering love, true greatness in the kingdom of God.—The subordination of woman to man grounded not in man’s arbitrary will, but in the order of God at creation. Woman should not forget that sin has come into the world, not first through man, but through her.—The last created was the first deceived.—The Xanthippe character not only unchristian, but unnatural.—The curse of sin on the woman changed, through the grace of God, into a blessing.—The nobleness and blessedness of the calling of a mother.—We may be lost even in the bearing of children, if we remain not in faith and holiness, as well as chastity.—The saving power of the gospel in our home life.—Christianity promotes reformation, not revolution.—“Let all things be done decently and in order” (1Co_14:40).

Starke: Hedinger: Prayer without glow, without an enkindled spirit, is not good.—Unbelief destroys the best.—Lange’s Op. Bibl.: Although prayer specially concerns the heart, yet the right direction of the heart will lead to the fit manner of prayer.—Spener: The Apostle specially wishes that, in the public worship of God, our thoughts should be more on the inward than the outward.—Women, when they pray or attend Divine service, must not think that they are to prepare for it by splendid dress, gold, pearls, outward ornament, or that such array will please God.—Hedinger: Lavish ornament is the fruit of pride.—Both errors are to be shunned: pomp, and slavish copying of every empty fashion, as well as neglect, uncleanliness, and disorder in dress; for neither becomes a Christian.—Lange’s Op.: In dress we must be guided partly by necessity, partly by comfort, partly, too, by the custom of the country; and thus we must reject all servility and all vain show (1Jn_2:15-16).—If woman should learn, then man should allow her the opportunity, to be a good teacher at home, not only in words, but in deeds also (1Co_14:35).—Much of the discord among married persons usually springs from the fact that the wife will not be subordinate, or the husband does not know how to rule with intelligence and love, and thus misuses his rule (1Pe_3:7).—Osiander: Since woman is given to man as a help-meet, not a ruler, the right of authority and precedence belongs to man.—Even before the fall, Eve was weaker than Adam; so that Satan turned not to Adam, but to Eve, and led her first astray from God (1Pe_3:7).—The Apostle does not deny salvation to childless women, but only teaches what is the appointed calling of women, in which holy mothers, by the grace of the Mediator Christ, through faith, attain eternal life.—Lange’s Op.: As faith is not without love, so faith and love are not without salvation.—Hedinger: Believing women who have children have this comfort, that their hardest pain, and even the loss of life, is only a trial sent from the heavenly Father, never a hindrance to salvation (Rom_8:35).

Von Gerlach: It follows from the right spirit of prayer, that our works should be in harmony with our words, and especially in public devotion.—Man, at creation, was complete; but the woman had given her, in her origin, the lot of dependence.—Many who have children are lost; many who are childless are saved.

Heubner: The prayerful Christian consecrates every place as a temple.—The holiest places cannot help him who prays with an unholy spirit.—Dress, the most foolish of vanities.—The Christian woman even in dress shows herself Christian.—True order in the Christian Church edifies the whole.—The woman is blessed as a mother, when she cares for the good Christian nurture of her children.—The specific duties of man and woman.—Lisco: Husband and wife in prayer before God.—The right place of women in the sanctuary.—The true ornament of the Christian in worship.

Footnotes:

[6]1Ti_2:8.—[διαλογισμοῦ. Sinaiticus, διαλογισμοῦ. Griesbach, μοῦ, in text; μῶν, in margin. Tischendorf, διαλογισμῶν. The singular form, being the more unusual, is probably the true reading.—E. H.]

[7]1Ti_2:9.—[ὡσαύτως κ. τὰς γυν. Lachmann, ὡσαύτως γυναὶκας; so also the Sinaiticus. Tischendorf, ὡσαύτ. κ. γυναῖκας.—E. H.]

[8]1Ti_2:9.—[ἢ χρυσῷ; Tischendorf, καὶ χρυσῷ. Sinaiticus the same. Lachmann, A. G., καὶ χρυσιῷ.—E. H.]

[9]1Ti_2:12.—[γυναικὶ δὲ διδάσκειν. Lachmann (A. D. G.) has διδάσκειν δὲ γυναικὶ; so also the Sinaiticus. Tischendorf has retained the order of the words in the Recepta.—E. H.]

[10]1Ti_2:14.—[ἀπατηθεῖσα. Lachmann, Tischendorf, Sinaiticus, ἐξαπατηθεῖσα. The authorities are consentient here.—E. H.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 Timothy

WHERE AND HOW TO PRAY

1Ti 2:8.

The context shows that this is part of the Apostle’s directory for public worship, and that, therefore, the terms of the first clause are to be taken somewhat restrictedly. They teach the duty of the male members of the Church to take public, audible part in its worship.

Everywhere, therefore, must here properly be taken in the restricted signification of ‘every place of Christian assembly.’ And from the whole passage there comes a picture of what sort of thing a meeting of the primitive Church for worship was, very different from anything that we see nowadays. ‘Every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath an exhortation.’ I fancy that some of the eminently respectable and utterly dead congregations which call themselves Christian Churches would be very much astonished if they could see what used to be the manner of Christian worship nineteen hundred years ago, and would get a new notion of what was meant by ‘decently, and in order.’

But we may fairly, I suppose, if once we confess that this is so, widen somewhat the scope of these words, and take them rather as expressive of the Apostle’s desire and injunction, for the word that he used here, ‘I will,’ is a very strong one, to all Christian people, be they men or women, that they pray ‘everywhere,’ in the widest sense of that expression, ‘lifting up holy hands without wrath or doubting.’

I do not attempt anything more than just to go, step by step, through the Apostle’s words and gather up the duties which each enjoins.

‘I will that men pray everywhere.’ That is the same in spirit as the Apostle’s other command: ‘Pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks.’ A very high ideal, but a very reasonable one, for unless we can find some place where God is not, and where the telegraph between heaven and earth is beyond our reach, there is no place where we should not pray. And unless we can find a place where we do not want God, nor need Him, there is no place where we should not pray. Because, then, ‘everywhere’ is equally near Him, and the straight road to His throne is of the same length from every hole and corner of the world; therefore, wherever men are, they ought to be clinging to His skirts, and reaching out their open hands for His benefits; and because, wherever a man is, there he utterly depends upon God, and needs the actual intervention of His love, and the energising of His power for everything, even for his physical life, so that he cannot wink his eyelashes without God’s help, therefore, ‘In every place I will that men pray.’

And how is that to be done? First of all, by keeping out of all places where it is impossible that we should pray; for although He is everywhere, and we want Him everywhere, there are places--and some of us know the roads to them but too well, and are but too often in them--where prayer would be a strange incongruity. A man will not pray over the counter of a public-house. A man will not pray over a sharp bargain. A man will not pray that God may bless his outbursts of anger, or sensuality and the like. A man will not pray when he feels that he is deep down in some pit of self-caused alienation from God. The possibility of praying in given circumstances is a sharp test, although a very rough and ready one, whether we ought to be in these circumstances or not. Do not let us go where we cannot take God with us; and if we feel that it would be something like blasphemy to call to Him from such a place, do not let us trust ourselves there. Jonah could pray out of the belly of the fish, and there was no incongruity in that; but many a professing Christian man gets swallowed up by monsters of the deep, and durst not for very shame send up a prayer to God. Get out of all such false positions.

But if the Apostle wills ‘that men pray alway,’ it must be possible while going about business, study, daily work, work at home amongst the children, work in the factory amongst spindles, work in the counting-house amongst ledgers, work in the study amongst lexicons, not only to pray whilst we are working, but to make work prayer, which is even better. The old saying that is often quoted with admiration, ‘work is worship,’ is only half true. There is a great deal of work that is anything but worship. But it is true that if, in all that I do, I try to realise my dependence on God for power; to look to Him for direction, and to trust to Him for issue, then, whether I eat, or drink, or pray, or study, or buy and sell, or marry or am given in marriage, all will be worship of God. ‘I will that men pray everywhere.’ What a noble ideal, and not an impossible or absurd one! This was not the false ideal of a man that had withdrawn himself from duty in order to cultivate his own soul, but the true ideal of one of the hardest workers that ever lived. Paul could say ‘I am pressed above measure, insomuch that I despair of life, and that which cometh upon me daily is the care of all the churches,’ and yet driven, harassed beyond his strength with business and cares as he was, he did himself what he bids us do. His life was prayer, therefore his life was Christ, therefore he was equal to all demands. None of us are as hard-worked, as heavily pressed, as much hunted by imperative and baying dogs of duties as Paul was. It is possible for us to obey this commandment and to pray everywhere. A servant girl down on her knees doing the doorsteps may do that task from such a motive, and with such accompaniments, as she dips her cloth into the hot-water bucket, as to make even it prayer to God. We each can lift all the littlenesses of our lives into a lofty region, if only we will link them on to the throne of God by prayer.

There is another way by which this ideal can be attained, and that is to cultivate the habit, which I think many Christian people do not cultivate, of little short swallow-flights of prayer in the midst of our daily work. ‘They cried unto God in the battle, and He was entreated of them.’ If a Philistine sword was hanging over the man’s head, do you think he would have much time to drop down upon his knees, to make a petition, divided into all the parts which divines tell us go to make up the complete idea of prayer? I should think not; but he could say, ‘Save me, O Lord!’ ‘They cried to God in the battle--little, sharp, short shrieks of prayer--and He was entreated of them.’ If you would cast swift electric flashes of that kind more frequently up to heaven, you would bring down the blessings that very often do not come after the most elaborate and proper and formal petitions. ‘Lord, save or I perish!’ It did not take long to say that, but it made the difference between drowning and deliverance.

Still further, notice the conditions of true prayer that are here required. I will that men pray everywhere ‘lifting up holy hands.’ That is a piece of symbolism, of course. Apparently the Jewish attitude of prayer was unlike ours. They seem to have stood during devotion and to have elevated their hands with open, empty, upturned palms to heaven. We clasp ours in entreaty, or fold them as a symbol of resignation and submission. They lifted them, with the double idea, I suppose, of offering themselves to God thereby, and of asking Him to put something into the empty hand, just as a beggar says nothing, but holds out a battered hat, in order to get a copper from a passer-by. The psalmist desired that the lifting up of his hands might be as the ‘evening sacrifice.’

If a man stands with his open, empty palm held up to God, it is as much as to say ‘I need, I desire, I expect.’ And these elements are what we must have in our prayers; the sense of want, the longing for supply, the anticipation of an answer. What do you hold out your hand for? Because you expect me to drop something into it, because you want to get something. How do you hold out your hand? Empty. And if I am clasping my five fingers round some earthly good it is of no use to hold up that hand to God. Nothing will come into it. How can it? He must first take the imitation diamonds out of it or we must turn it round and shake them out before He can fill it with real jewels. As for him who continues to clutch worldly goods, ‘let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.’ Empty the palm before you lift it.

Still further, says Paul, ‘lifting up holy hands.’ That, of course, needs no explanation. One of the psalms, you may remember, says ‘I will wash mine hands in innocency, so will I compass Thine altar.’ The psalmist felt that unless there was a previous lustration and cleansing, it was vain for him to go round the altar. And you may remember how sternly and eloquently the prophet Isaiah rebukes the hypocritical worshippers in Jerusalem when he says to them, ‘Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings,’ and then come and pray. A foul hand gets nothing from God. How can it? God’s best gift is of such a sort as cannot be laid upon a dirty palm. A little sin dams back the whole of God’s grace, and there are too many men that pray, pray, pray, and never get any of the things that we pray for, because there is something stopping the pipe, and they do not know what it is, and perhaps would be very sorry to clear it out if they did. But all the same, the channel of communication is blocked and stopped, and it is impossible that any blessing should come. Geographers tell us that a microscopic vegetable grows rapidly in one of the upper affluents of the Nile, and makes a great dam across the river which keeps back the water, and so makes one of the lakes which have recently been explored; and then, when the dam breaks, the rising of the Nile fertilises Egypt. Some of us have growing, unchecked, and unnoticed, in the innermost channels of our hearts, little sins that mat themselves together and keep increasing until the grace of God is utterly kept from permeating the parched recesses of our spirits. ‘I will that men pray, lifting up holy hands,’ and unless we do, alas! for us.

If these are the requirements, you will say, ‘How can I pray at all?’ Well, do you remember what the Psalmist says? ‘If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,’ but then he goes on, ‘Blessed be God, who hath not turned away my prayer nor His mercy from me.’ It is always true that if we regard iniquity in our hearts, if in our inmost nature we love the sin, that stops the prayer from being answered. But, blessed be God, it is not true that our having done the sin prevents our petitions being granted. For the sin that is not regarded in the heart, but is turned away from with loathing hath no intercepting power. So, though the uplifted hands art stained, He will cleanse them if, as we lift them to Him, we say, ‘Lord, they are foul, if thou wilt Thou canst make them clean.’

But the final requirement is: ‘Without wrath or doubting.’ I do not think that Christian people generally recognise with sufficient clearness the close and inseparable connection which subsists between their right feelings towards their fellow-men and the acceptance of their prayers with God. It is very instructive that here, alongside of requirements which apply to our relations to God, the Apostle should put so emphatically and plainly one which refers to our relations to our fellows. An angry man is a very unfit man to pray, and a man who cherishes in his heart any feelings of that nature towards anybody may be quite sure that he is thereby shutting himself out from blessings which otherwise might be his. We do not sufficiently realise, or act on the importance, in regard to our relations with God, of our living in charity with all men. ‘First, go and be reconciled to thy brother,’ is as needful to-day as when the word was spoken.

‘Without . . . doubting.’ Have I the right to be perfectly sure that my prayer will be answered? Yes and no. If my prayer is, as all true prayer ought to be, the submission of my will to God’s and not the forcing of my will upon God, then I have the right to be perfectly sure. But if I am only asking in self-will, for things that my own heart craves, that is not prayer; that is dictation. That is sending instructions to heaven; that is telling God what He ought to do. That is not the kind of prayer that may be offered ‘without doubting.’ It might, indeed, be offered, if offered at all, with the certainty that it will not be answered. For this is the assurance on which we are to rest--and some of us may think it is a very poor one--’we know that, if we ask anything according to His will , He heareth us.’ To get what we want would often be our ruin. God loves His children a great deal too well to give them serpents when they ask for them, thinking they are fish, or to give them stones when they beseech Him for them, believing them to be bread. He will never hand you a scorpion when you ask Him to give it you, because, with its legs and its sting tucked under its body, it is like an egg.

We make mistakes in our naming of things and in our desires after things, and it is only when we have learned to say ‘Not my will but Thine be done,’ that we have the right to pray, ‘without doubting.’ If we do so pray, certainly we receive. But a tremulous faith brings little blessing, and small answer. An unsteady hand cannot hold the cup still for Him to pour in the wine of His grace, but as the hand shakes, the cup moves, and the precious gift is spilled. The still, submissive soul will be filled, and the answer to its prayer will be, ‘Whatsoever things ye desire believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.’

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARGUMENT 5

DOMESTIC GOVERNMENT

8. “Therefore I wish the husbands to pray in every place, holding up holy hands without wrath and doubt.” This is a high standing in domestic life required of the husband. Perfect love is the only salvation from the malevolent affections, and perfect faith the only antidote for doubt. “Nothing but entire sanctification can give us perfect faith and love, and enable us to hold up holy hands.” The hand moves responsive to the heart. Hence, the only way to have holy hands is to make the heart holy; i.e., get sanctified wholly. So you see this husband, on whom God confers the supremacy of the home, is sanctified wholly, and will certainly do to trust. As we read repeatedly in the Pauline epistles, these things are in the Lord.

9. “Likewise, ye wives, in comely apparel adorn yourselves, with modesty and prudence; not with braided hair, gold, or jewelry, or costly clothing;

10. “But that which becometh women, professing godliness through good works.” Our money all belongs to God. Hence, we have no right to prodigalize it in dress or any other way. We should avoid all unnecessary expenditure of the Lord’s money, lest we prove unfaithful stewards. Hence, we see gold positively forbidden as a personal adornment. God says, “The gold is mine and the silver is mine.” He needs it as a circulating medium. We have no right to take it out and appropriate it to feed our pride. That is the cause of all of our present financial trouble, which, it has been feared, will wreck our Government. If the people will take the gold off their persons, and the silver out of their cupboards, and turn them back into the circulating medium, we will have plenty of money.

11. “Let the wife learn in silence, in all subordination.” She can well afford to be subordinate to the sanctified husband described in the eighth verse.

12. “But I do not permit a wife to dictate nor usurp authority over her husband, but to be in quietude.” The Greek dictionary gives teach, direct, and dictate, as meanings of didaskein. It is here homogeneous with authentein, usurp. Hence, I translate “dictate.” The same word is translated “masters” in E.V. (Jas 3:1.) The apostle is expounding domestic government, which, like all others, must have a head. God, in his wisdom, has appointed man to the head ship of the home government. But you see here (1Ti 2:8) the man is to pray in every place, holding up holy hands, without wrath and doubt. That kind of a husband will do to rule the home. If the husband is where God commands, the wife will never feel the weight of a feather under his rule, because it will be the reign of perfect love.

13,14. Do we not find here a Divine retribution on the woman for her leadership in the transgression in consequence of which she is subordinated in the home? If so, like labor and physical death, it has been so triumphantly redeemed as to be turned into a blessing in Christ. (Rom 5:20; Rom 8:28.)

15. “But she shall be saved through childbearing;” not as in E.V., “in childbearing.” In this way our Savior came into the world. Hence, we here have a terse allusion to Christ, who, as above written, has saved woman even from the Divine retribution consequent upon her precedence in sin. So, in the wonderful redemption of Christ, in whose incarnation woman was instrumental, she is even saved from the curse of subordination, because the grace of God in Christ through sanctification of the husband, makes his supremacy a blessing to his sanctified wife. “If they may abide in faith, Divine love, and sanctification with prudence.” This, with the plural form of the word, takes in all, husband, wife, and everybody. If your faith is all right, you receive the Divine agapee in regeneration. This love —the Divine nature—is poured out (Rom 5:5) in a heart corrupt by the fall. Like the delicious fruit-trees of the Holy Land, brought here to California and planted, the soil must be subsequently purified of indigenous filth, fertilized, and irrigated, or the valuable tree of the Orient will droop and die. So your heart-soil must be expurgated, fertilized, and irrigated, if the tree of paradise, panted in regeneration, would prove a success. Not only must you be sanctified; but here it says, “in sanctification with prudence” (E.V., sobriety). This prudence, enjoined by the Holy Ghost, is a guaranty against fanaticism. You must stick to the main trunk line of holiness to the Lord, and suffer nothing to deflect, sidetrack, or ditch you. Follow your Holy Bible, and let your battle-cry ever go up, “Holiness to the Lord.” Divine healing is all right, but do not make it a hobby. The Lord’s coming is all right, but do not make it your hobby. Shall I have any hobby? Yes. The Bible makes holiness a hobby from alpha to omega. All of the prophets, apostles, and martyrs made it their hobby. Keep your eye on Jesus, and he will keep his hand on you. Stick to the great trunk to the New Jerusalem, which is holiness to the Lord.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 9

BEHAVIOUR IN CHRISTIAN WORSHIP: MENS ATTITUDE OF BODY AND MIND: WOMENS ATTIRE AND ORNAMENT. - 1Ti_2:8-12

IN the preceding verses of this chapter, St. Paul has been insisting on the duty of unselfishness in our devotions. Our prayers and thanksgivings are not to be bounded in their scope by our own personal interests, but are to include the whole human race; and for this obvious and sufficient reason, - that in using such devotions we know that our desires are in harmony with the mind of God, "who willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." Having thus laid down the principles which are to guide Christian congregations in the subject-matter of their prayers and thanksgivings, he passes on now to give some directions respecting the behavior of men and women, when they meet together for common worship of the one God and the one Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus.

There is no reasonable doubt (although the point has been disputed) that St. Paul is here speaking of public worship in the congregation; the whole context implies it. Some of the directions would be scarcely intelligible, if we were to suppose that the Apostle is thinking of private devotions, or even of family prayer in Christian households. And we are not to suppose that he is indirectly finding fault with other forms of worship, Jewish or heathen, he is merely laying down certain principles which are to guide Christians, whether at Ephesus or elsewhere, in the conduct of public service. Thus there is no special emphasis on "in every place," as if the meaning were, "Our ways are not like those of the Jews; for they were not allowed to sacrifice and perform their services anywhere, but assembling from all parts of the world were bound to perform all their worship in the temple. For as Christ commanded us to pray for all men, because He died for all men, so it is good to pray everywhere." Such an antithesis between Jewish and Christian worship, even if it were true, would not be in place here. Every place is a place of private prayer to both Jew and Christian alike: but not every place is a place of public prayer to the Christian any more than to the Jew. Moreover, the Greek shows plainly that the emphasis is not on "in every place," but on "pray." Wherever there may be a customary "house of prayer," whether in Ephesus or anywhere else, the Apostle desires that prayers should be offered publicly by the men in the congregation. After "pray," the emphasis falls on "the men," public prayer is to be made, and it is to be conducted by the men and not by the women in the congregation.

It is evident from this passage, as from 1 Co. 14., that in this primitive Christian worship great freedom was allowed. There is no Bishop, President, or Elder, to whom the right of leading the service or uttering the prayers and thanksgivings is reserved. This duty and privilege is shared by all the males alike. In the recently discovered "Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles" nothing is said as to who is to, offer the prayers, of which certain forms are given. It is merely stated that in addition to these forms extempore prayer may be offered by "the prophets." And Justin Martyr mentions that a similar privilege was allowed to "the president" of the congregation according to his ability. Thus we seem to trace a gradual increase of strictness, a development of ecclesiastical order, very natural under the circumstances. First, all the men in the congregation are allowed to conduct public worship, as here and in 1 Corinthians. Then, the right of adding to the prescribed forms is restricted to the prophets, as in the "Didache." Next, this right is reserved to the presiding minister, as in Justin Martyr. And lastly, free prayer is abolished altogether. We need not assume that precisely this development took place in all the Churches; but that something analogous took place in nearly all. Nor need we assume that the development was simultaneous: while one Church was at one stage of the process, another was more advanced, and a third less so. Again, we may conjecture that forms of prayer gradually increased in number, and in extent, and in stringency. But in the directions here given to Timothy we are at the beginning of the development.

"Lifting up holy hands." Here, again, we need not suspect any polemical purpose. St. Paul is not insinuating that, when Gnostics or heathen lift up their hands in prayer, their hands are not holy. Just as every Christian is ideally a saint, so every hand that is lifted up in prayer is holy. In thus stating the ideal, the Apostle inculcates the realization of it. There is a monstrous incongruity in one who comes red-handed from the commission of a sin, lifting up the very members which witness against him, in order to implore a blessing from the God whom he has outraged. The same idea is expressed in more general terms by St. Peter: "Like as He which called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, ye shall be holy; for I am holy". {1Pe_1:15-16} In a passage more closely parallel to this, Clement of Rome says, "Let us therefore approach Him in holiness of soul, lifting up pure and undefiled hands unto Him, with love towards our gentle and compassionate Father who made us an elect portion unto Himself" ("Corinthians" 29). And Tertullian urges that "a defiled spirit cannot be recognized by the Holy Spirit" ("De Orat.," 13.). Nowhere else in the New Testament do we read of this attitude of lifting up the hands during prayer. But to this day it is common in the East. Solomon at the dedication of the temple "stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven"; {1Ki_8:22} and the Psalmist repeatedly speaks of "lifting up the hands" in worship. {Psa_28:2; Psa_63:4; Psa_134:2} Clement of Alexandria seems to have regarded it as the ideal attitude in prayer, as symbolising the desire of the body to abstract itself from the earth, following the eagerness of the spirit in yearning for heavenly things. Tertullian, on the other hand, suggests that the arms are spread out in prayer in memory of the crucifixion, and directs that they should be extended, but only slightly raised, an attitude which is more in harmony with a humble spirit: and in another place he says that the Christian by his very posture in prayer is ready for every infliction. He asserts that the Jews in his day did not raise the hands in prayer, and characteristically gives as a reason that they were stained with the blood of the Prophets and of Christ. With evident reference to this passage, he says that Christian hands must be lifted up pure from falsehood, murder, and all other sins of which the hands can be the instruments. Ancient Christian monuments of the earliest age frequently represent the faithful as standing with raised hands to pray. Eusebius tells us that Constantine had himself represented in this attitude on his coins, "looking upwards, stretching up toward God, like one praying." Of course this does not mean that kneeling was unusual or irregular; there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. But the attitude here commended by St. Paul was very ancient when he wrote, and has continued in some parts of the world ever since. Like so many other things in natural religion and in Judaism, it received a new and intensified meaning when it was adopted among the usages of the Christian Church.

"Without wrath and disputing": that is, in the spirit of Christian peace and trust. Ill-will and misgiving respecting one another are incompatible with united prayer to our common Father. The atmosphere of controversy is not congenial to devotion. Christ Himself has told us to be reconciled to our brother before presuming to offer our gift on the altar. In a similar spirit St. Paul directs that those who are to conduct public service in the sanctuary must do so without angry feelings or mutual distrust. In the Pastoral Epistles warnings against quarrelsome conduct are frequent; and the experience of every one of us tells us how necessary they are. The bishop is charged to be "no brawler, no striker; but gentle, not contentious." The deacons must not be "double-tongued." Women must not be "slanderers." Young widows have to be on their guard against being "tattlers and busybodies." Timothy is charged to "follow after love, patience, meekness," and is reminded that "the Lords servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing, in meekness correcting them that oppose themselves." Titus again is told that a bishop must be "not self-willed, not soon angry," "no brawler, no striker," that the aged women must not be "slanderers," that all men are to be put in mind "to speak evil of no man, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all meekness toward all men." There is no need to assume that that age, or that those Churches, had any special need of warnings of this kind. All ages and all Churches need them. To keep ones tongue and one's temper in due order is to all of us one of the most constant and necessary duties of the Christian life; and the neglect cannot fail to be disastrous to the reality and efficacy of our devotions. Those who have ill-will and strife in their hearts cannot unite to much purpose in common thanksgiving and prayer.

And just as the men have to take care that their attitude of body and mind is such as befits the dignity of public worship, in like manner the women also have to take care that their presence in the congregation does not appear incongruous. They must come in seemly attire and with seemly behavior. Everything which might divert attention from the service to themselves must be avoided. Modesty and simplicity must at all times be the characteristics of a Christian womans dress and bearing; but at no time is this more necessary than in the public services of the Church. Excessive adornment, out of place at all times, is grievously offensive there. It gives a flat contradiction to the profession of humility which is involved in taking part in common worship, and to that natural sobriety which is a womans fairest ornament and best protection. Both reverence and self-reverence are injured by it. Moreover, it may easily be a cause of offence to others, by provoking jealousy or admiration of the creature, where all ought to be absorbed in the worship of the Creator.

Here again St. Paul is putting his finger upon dangers and evils which are not peculiar to any age or any Church. He had spoken of the same thing years before, to the women of Corinth, and St. Peter utters similar warnings to Christian women throughout all time. Clement of Alexandria abounds in protests against the extravagance in dress so common in his own day. In one place he says; "Apelles the painter, seeing one of his pupils painting a figure thickly with gold color to represent Helen, said to him; My lad, you were unable to paint her beautiful, and so you have made her rich. Such Helens are the ladies of the present day; not really beautiful, but richly got up. To these the Spirit prophesies by Zephaniah: And their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the Lords anger." Tertullian is not less emphatic. He says that most Christian women dress like heathen, as if modesty required nothing more than stopping short of actual impurity. "What is the use," he asks, "of showing a decent and Christian simplicity in your face, while you load the rest of your body with the dangling absurdities of pomps and vanities?" Chrysostom also, in commenting on this very passage, asks the congregation at Antioch: "And what then is modest apparel? Such as covers them completely and decently, and not with superfluous ornaments; for the one is decent and the other is not. What? Do you approach God to pray with broidered hair and ornaments of gold? Are you come to a ball? to a marriage-feast? to a carnival? There such costly things might have been seasonable: here not one of them is wanted. You are come to pray, to ask pardon for your sins, to plead for your offences, beseeching the Lord, and hoping to render Him propitious to you. Away with such hypocrisy! God is not mocked. This is the attire of actors and dancers, who live upon the stage. Nothing of this kind becomes a modest woman, who should be adorned with shamefastness and sobriety. And if St. Paul" (he continues) "would remove those things which are merely the marks of wealth, as gold, pearls, and costly array; how much more those things which imply studied adornment, as painting, coloring the eyes, a mincing walk, an affected voice, a languishing look? For he glances at all these things in speaking of modest apparel and shamefastness."

But there is no need to go to Corinth in the first century, or Alexandria and Carthage in the second and third, or Antioch in the fourth, in order to show that the Apostle was giving no unnecessary warning in admonishing Timothy respecting the dress and behavior of Christian women, especially in the public services of the congregation. In our own age and our own Church we can find abundant illustration. Might not any preacher in any fashionable congregation echo with a good deal of point the questions of Chrysostom? "Have you come to a dance or a levee? Have you mistaken this building for a theatre?" And what would be the language of a Chrysostom or a Paul if he were to enter a theatre nowadays and see the attire, I will not say of the actresses, but of the audience? There are some rough epithets, not often heard in polite society, which express in plain language the condition of those women who by their manner of life and conversation have forfeited their characters. Preachers in earlier ages were accustomed to speak very plainly about such things: and what the Apostle and Chrysostom have written in their epistles and homilies does not leave us in much doubt as to what would have been their manner of speaking of them.

But what is urged here is sufficient. "You are Christian women," says St. Paul, "and the profession which you have adopted is reverence towards God (θεοσεβειαν). This profession you have made known to the world. It is necessary, therefore, that those externals of which the world takes cognizance should not give the lie to your profession. And how is unseemly attire, paraded at the very time of public worship, compatible with the reverence which you have professed? Reverence God by reverencing yourselves; by guarding with jealous care the dignity of those bodies with which He has endowed you. Reverence God by coming before Him clothed both in body and soul in fitting attire. Let your bodies be freed from meretricious decoration. Let your souls be adorned with abundance of good works."

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

2:8 Genuine prayer had evidently deteriorated among the Ephesians due to the false teachers’ influence (see 1 Tim 6:4-5; 1:4; cp. 2 Tim 3:1-5; Titus 3:9-11). • holy hands lifted up: Cp. Isa 1:15-17. An ancient posture of praise and supplication (see Exod 9:29; 1 Kgs 8:22, 54; Neh 8:6; Ps 28:2; Luke 24:50). • free from anger and controversy: Cp. Jas 3:8-12.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Ti 2:8. Βούλομαι οὖν, I will therefore) The apostolic authority is represented in this expression; ch. 1Ti 5:14: comp. presently 1Ti 2:12, I suffer not. The particle therefore takes up again, 1Ti 2:1.—προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς ἄνδρας, that men pray) So also in 1Pe 3:7, prayers are assigned to men, in a certain particular point of view. He is speaking here of public prayers, in which the heart of the people follows close after the language of him who prays: comp. the next verse concerning women.—ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ, in every place) construed with ἄνδρας, men. Paul also appeals elsewhere on this subject to a similar practice in all the churches. Wherever men are, there are those by whom and for whom prayers are to be made.—ἐπαίροντας, lifting up) They turned up the palms of their hands to heaven, as those asking for help are wont to do.—ὁσίους χεῖρας, holy hands) Wrath and doubting are in the soul: but the hands also ought to be holy. The contrary is found at Isa 1:15, at the end. The word ὁσίους is especially used in the propriety of the Greek idiom for freedom from all violence.—ὀργῆς, wrath) which [molesting men especially.—V. g.] is the reverse of love (comp. 1Pe 3:7, at the end), and the mother of doubting.—διαλογισμοῦ, doubting) which is opposed to faith. Christianity consists of faith and love, and comprises grace and truth: it therefore ought to form the principal object of our desires, that we may both pray, and live and die, without doubting and wrath. The exercise of prayer, and of the whole of Christianity, is at once either true or vain.[15] Grace cherishes faith; truth, love, Eph 4:15.

[15] That is, Prayer and the whole sum of Christianity stand or fall together. If one is true, both are true; if one is false, both are false.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti_2:8. After giving, in the digression of 1Ti_2:3-7, the grounds of his exhortation to prayer for all, Paul returns to the exhortation itself in such a way as to define it more precisely in regard to those who are to offer the prayer.

βούλομαι οὖν προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς ἄνδρας ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ] Hoc verbo (βούλομαι) exprimitur auctoritas apostolica, Bengel; comp. 1Ti_5:14; Tit_3:15 : I ordain.

οὖν] Bengels explanation: particula ergo reassumit versum 1, is not quite accurate; the particle connects with 1Ti_2:1 in order to carry on the thought there expressed.

προσεύχεσθαι] Bengel: sermo de precibus publicis, ubi sermonem orantis subsequitur multitudinis cor. Matthies wrongly disputes the opinion that προσεύχεσθαι here is used of prayer in the congregations. The whole context shows beyond doubt that the apostle is here speaking of congregations.

τοὺς ἄνδρας] opposed to τὰς γυναῖκας, 1Ti_2:9. Paul assigns to each part its proper share in the assemblies for worship; he has something different to say to the men and to the women (Wiesinger).

ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ] does not stand here in opposition to the Jewish limitation to the temple (Chrysostom and others): not once found (de Wette), nor to the synagogue (Wolf), nor in reference to the various places of Christian worship in Ephesus (van Oosterzee), nor to the neighbouring congregations belonging to Timothys diocese (Heydenreich); it is to be taken generally, not in the sense of every place, where the religious mood, custom, or duty cherishes it (Matthies), but to all places where Christian congregations assemble (Wiesinger).

As to the construction, ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ does not belong to προσεύχεσθαι alone, but to the whole clause (Wiesinger, Matthies, van Oosterzee, Hofmann). The apostle means to lay stress not on this, that men are to pray, but on how they are to pray; the chief emphasis, therefore, rests on ἐπαίροντας κ.τ.λ.

ἐπαίροντας ὁσίους χεῖρας] The Jews lifted up their hands not only in swearing an oath, Gen_14:22 (Rev_10:5), and in blessing, Lev_9:22 (Luk_24:50), but also in prayer, Psa_28:2; Psa_44:21; Psa_63:5, etc. This passage is a proof that the same custom was observed in the Christian church. It is true that in the N. T. it is nowhere else mentioned, but in Clements First Epistle to the Corinthians we have at chap. xxix. an evident allusion to this passage: προσέλθωμεν αὐτῷ ἐν ὁσιότητι ψυχῆς, ἁγνὰς καὶ ἀμιάντους χεῖρας αἴροντες πρὸς αὐτόν.

Regarding the form ὁσίους for ὁσίας, see Winer, p. 67 [E. T. p. 81].[97]

The hands are holy which have not been given over to the deeds of wicked lust; the opposite is given by ΜΙΑΡΑΊ, ΒΈΒΗΛΟΙ ΧΕῖΡΕς, 2Ma_5:16; comp. on the expression, Job_17:9, Psa_24:4, and in the N. T. Jam_4:8 especially: ΚΑΘΑΡΊΣΑΤΕ ΧΕῖΡΑς ΚΑῚ ἉΓΝΊΣΑΤΕ ΚΑΡΔΊΑς. Hofmann is ingenious in defining ὉΣΊΟΥς ΧΕῖΡΕς more precisely by what follows: The hands of the one praying are ὍΣΙΟΙ only when he is inwardly saturated with the consecration without which his praying does not deserve the name of prayer.

ΧΩΡῚς ὈΡΓῆς ΚΑῚ ΔΙΑΛΟΓΙΣΜΟῦ] Bengel is more pregnant than exact when he says: ira, quae contraria amori et mater dubitationis; dubitatio, quae adversatur fidei. Fide et amore constat christianismus, gratiam et veritatem amplectens. Gratia fidem alit; veritas amorem Eph_4:5; for ΔΙΑΛΟΓΙΣΜΌς is not to be rendered by doubt (so Bengel, with Chrysostom, Theophylact, Theodoret, Luther, and many others), which never is its signification. The rendering contention is also inaccurate; ΔΙΑΛΟΓΙΣΜΌς is equivalent to consideration, deliberation, cogitatio. In the N. T. the singular occurs only here and in Luk_9:46-47; it is usually in the plural. The word is in itself a vox media, but it is mostly used where evil or perverted thoughts are spoken of; comp. Mat_15:19; Mar_7:21; Luk_5:22; Luk_6:8; Luk_24:38. That it is to be taken here malo sensu, is shown by the close connection with ὀργή, which indicates that it is applied to deliberation towards ones neighbour; comp. Meyer on Php_2:14, and especially Reiche, Comment. Crit. in N. T., on this passage. In the Pastoral Epistles, special stress is laid on peaceableness as a Christian virtue, 1Ti_3:3; Tit_3:2; 2Ti_2:24.

[97] It would be very forced to connect ὁσίους with ἐπαίροντας as a masculine, which Winer considers at least possible.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti 2:8 . βούλομαι οὖν : οὖν is resumptive of the general topic of public worship from which the writer has digressed in 1Ti 2:3-7 . βούλομαι οὖν is found again in 1Ti 5:14 . In both places, βούλομαι has the force of a practical direction issued after deliberation. See also reff. On the contrary, θέλω δέ is used only in reference to abstract subjects. See Rom 16:19 , 1Co 7:7 ; 1Co 7:32 ; 1Co 11:3 ; 1Co 14:5 . προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς ἄνδρας : that the men should conduct public worship . Perhaps Bengel is right in understanding 1Pe 3:7 in the same sense. See reff. for προσεύχεσθαι in this special signification. τοὺς ἄνδρας : the men of the community as opposed to the women, 1Ti 2:9 (R.V.). There is no specific restriction of the conduct of worship to a clergy.

ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ : to be connected with what precedes: the directions are to apply to every Church without exception; no allowance is to be made for conditions peculiar to any locality; as it is expressed in 1Co 14:33-34 , ὡς ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τῶν ἁγίων , αἱ γυναῖκες ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις σιγάτωσαν . The words do not mean in any place , as though fixed places for worship were a matter of indifference; neither is there any allusion, as Chrys. explain it, to the abolition by Christ of the restriction of worship to one place, Jerusalem, as in Joh 4:21 . ἐπαίροντας ὁσίους χεῖρας : This is not directly intended to enjoin a particular gesture appropriate to prayer, but merely avoids the repetition of προσεύχεσθαι . To uplift the hands in prayer was customary: 1Ki 8:22 , Psa 28:2 etc., Isa 1:15 , Clem. Rom. ad Cor . i. 29. The men that are to have the conduct of the public worship of the Church must be upright men who have clean hands, hands that are holy (Job 17:9 ; Job 23 (24):4; Jas 4:8 ). For ὅσιος as an adj. of two terminations, compare Luk 2:13 , Rev 4:3 . See Winer-Moulton, Grammar , p. 80.

χωρὶς ὀργῆς καὶ διαλογισμοῦ : This indicates the two conditions necessary to effectual prayer: freedom from irritation towards our fellow-men (Mat 6:14-15 , Mar 11:25 ), and confidence towards God (Jas 1:6 ; Luk 12:29 ). διαλογισμός has the sense of doubt in Rom 14:1 . This sense (A.V. doubting ) is that given to the term here by Chrysostom ( ἀμφιβολία ) and Theodoret ( πιστεύων ὅτι λήψῃ ). The rendering disputing (R.V.) disceptatio (Vulg.) merely enlarges the notion conveyed in ὀργή . The reff. to ὀργή are places where it is spoken of as a human affection.

1Ti 2:8 to 1Ti 3:1 a . The ministers of public prayer must be the men of the congregation, not the women. A woman’s positive duty is to make herself conspicuous by good works, not by personal display. Her place in relation to man is one of subordination. This is one of the lessons of the inspired narratives of the Creation and of the Fall. Nevertheless this does not affect her eternal position. Salvation is the goal alike of man and woman. They both attain supreme blessedness in the working out of the primal penalty imposed on Adam and Eve.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He hath spoken of the persons for whom we must pray: and now he teacheth that the difference of places is taken away: for in times past, one only nation, and in one certain place, came together to public service: but now Churches or Congregations are gathered together everywhere (orderly and decently) and men come together to serve God publicly with common prayer, neither must we strive for the nation or for the purification of the body, or for the place, but for the mind, to have it clean from all offense, and full of sure trust and confidence.

He putteth the sign for the thing itself, the lifting up of hands, for the calling upon God.

Without these griefs and offenses of the mind, which hinder us from calling upon God with a good conscience.

Doubting which is against faith, James 1:6.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

I will--The active wish, or desire, is meant.

that men--rather as Greek, "that the men," as distinguished from "the women," to whom he has something different to say from what he said to the men (Ti1 2:9-12; Co1 11:14-15; Co1 14:34-35). The emphasis, however, is not on this, but on the precept of praying, resumed from Ti1 2:1.

everywhere--Greek, "in every place," namely, of public prayer. Fulfilling Mal 1:11, "In every place . . . from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same . . . incense shall be offered unto My name"; and Jesus' words, Mat 18:20; Joh 4:21, Joh 4:23.

lifting up holy hands--The early Christians turned up their palms towards heaven, as those craving help do. So also Solomon (Kg1 8:22; Psa 141:2). The Jews washed their hands before prayer (Psa 26:6). Paul figuratively (compare Job 17:9; Jam 4:8) uses language alluding to this custom here: so Isa 1:15-16. The Greek for "holy" means hands which have committed no impiety, and observed every sacred duty. This (or at least the contrite desire to be so) is a needful qualification for effectual prayer (Psa 24:3-4).

without wrath--putting it away (Mat 5:23-24; Mat 6:15).

doubting--rather, "disputing," as the Greek is translated in Phi 2:14. Such things hinder prayer (Luk 9:46; Rom 14:1; Pe1 3:7). BENGEL supports English Version (compare an instance, Kg2 7:2; Mat 14:31; Mar 11:22-24; Jam 1:6).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 8. I will therefore] Seeing the apostle had his authority from Christ, and spoke nothing but what he received from him, his βουλομαι, I will, is equal to I command.

That men pray] That is, for the blessings promised in this testimony of God. For, although God has provided them, yet he will not give them to such as will not pray. See note on 1Tim 2:1, the subject of which is here resumed.

Everywhere] Εν παντι τοπῳ· In every place. That they should always have a praying heart, and this will ever find a praying place. This may refer to a Jewish superstition. They thought, at first, that no prayer could be acceptable that was not offered at the temple at Jerusalem; afterward this was extended to the Holy Land; but, when they became dispersed among the nations, they built oratories or places of prayer, principally by rivers and by the seaside; and in these they were obliged to allow that public prayer might be legally offered, but nowhere else. In opposition to this, the apostle, by the authority of Christ, commands men to pray everywhere; that all places belong to God's dominions; and, as he fills every place, in every place he may be worshipped and glorified. As to ejaculatory prayer, they allowed that this might be performed standing, sitting, leaning, lying, walking by the way, and during their labour. Beracoth, fol. xi. 1. And yet in some other places they teach differently. See Schoettgen.

Lifting up holy hands] It was a common custom, not only among the Jews, but also among the heathens, to lift up or spread out their arms and hands in prayer. It is properly the action of entreaty and request; and seems to be an effort to embrace the assistance requested. But the apostle probably alludes to the Jewish custom of laying their hands on the head of the animal which they brought for a sin-offering, confessing their sins, and then giving up the life of the animal as an expiation for the sins thus confessed. And this very notion is conveyed in the original term επαιροντας, from αιρω to lift up, and επι, upon or over. This shows us how Christians should pray. They should come to the altar; set God before their eyes; humble themselves for their sins; bring as a sacrifice the Lamb of God; lay their hands on this sacrifice; and by faith offer it to God in their souls' behalf, expecting salvation through his meritorious death alone.

Without wrath] Having no vindictive feeling against any person; harbouring no unforgiving spirit, while they are imploring pardon for their own offences.

The holy hands refer to the Jewish custom of washing their hands before prayer; this was done to signify that they had put away all sin, and purposed to live a holy life.

And doubting.] διαλογισμου or διαλογισμων, as in many MSS., reasonings, dialogues. Such as are often felt by distressed penitents and timid believers; faith, hope, and unbelief appearing to hold a disputation and controversy in their own bosoms, in the issue of which unbelief ordinarily triumphs. The apostle therefore wills them to come, implicitly relying on the promises of God, and the sacrifice and mediation of Jesus Christ.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8 I wish therefore that men may pray This inference depends on the preceding statement; for, as we saw in the Epistle to the Galatians, we must receive “the Spirit of adoption,” in order that we may call on God in a proper manner. Thus, after having exhibited the grace of Christ to all, and after having mentioned that he was given to the Gentiles for the express purpose, that they might enjoy the same benefit of redemption in common with the Jews, he invites all in the same manner to pray; for faith leads to calling on God. Hence, at Romans 15:9, he proves the calling of the Gentiles by these passages.

“Let the Gentiles rejoice with his people.” (Psalm 67:5.)

Again,

“All ye Gentiles, praise God.’, (Psalm 117:1.)

Again,

“I will confess to thee among the Gentiles.” (Psalm 18:49.)

The material argument holds good, from faith to prayer, and from prayer to faith, whether we reason from the cause to the effect, or from the effect to the cause. This is worthy of observation, because it reminds us that God reveals himself to us in his word, that we may call upon him; and this is the chief exercise of faith.

In every place This expression is of the same import as in the beginning of the First Epistle to the Corinthians,

“with all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,” (1 Corinthians 1:2,)

so that there is now no difference between Gentile and Jew, between Greek and barbarian, because all in common have God as their Father; and in Christ is now fulfilled what Malachi had foretold, that not only in Judea, but throughout the whole world, pure sacrifices are offered. (Malachi 1:11.)

Lifting up pure hands As if he had said, “Provided that it be accompanied by a good conscience, there will be nothing to prevent all the nations from calling upon God everywhere. But he has employed the sign instead of the reality, for “pure hands” are the expressions of a pure heart; just as, on the contrary, Isaiah rebukes the Jews for lifting up “bloody hands,” when he attacks their cruelty. (Isaiah 1:15.) Besides, this attitude has been generally used in worship during all ages; for it is a feeling which nature has implanted in us, when we ask God, to look upwards, and has always been so strong, that even idolaters themselves, although in other respects they make a god of images of wood and stone, still retained the custom of lifting up their hands to heaven. Let us therefore learn that the attitude is in accordance with true godliness, provided that it be attended by the corresponding truth which is represented by it, namely, that, having been informed that we ought to seek God in heaven, first, we should form no conception of Him that is earthly or carnal; and, secondly, that we should lay aside carnal affections, so that nothing may prevent our hearts from rising above the world. But idolaters and hypocrites, when they lift up their hands in prayer, are apes; for while they profess, by the outward symbol, that their minds are raised upwards, the former are fixed on wood and stone, as if God were shut up in them, and the latter, wrapped up either in useless anxieties, or in wicked thoughts, cleave to the earth; and therefore, by a gesture of an opposite meaning, they bear testimony against themselves.

Without wrath Some explain this to mean a burst of indignation, when the conscience fights with itself, and, so to speak, quarrels with God which usually happens when adversity presses heavily upon us; for then we are displeased that God does not send us immediate assistance, and are agitated by impatience. Faith is also shaken by various assaults; for, in consequence of his assistance not being visible, we are seized with doubts, whether or not he cares about us, or wishes us to be saved, and things of that nature.

They who take this view think that the word disputing denotes that alarm which arises from doubt. Thus, according to them, the meaning would be, that we should pray with a peaceful conscience and assured confidence. Chrysostom and others think that the apostle here demands that our minds should be calm and free from all uneasy feelings both towards God and towards men; because there is nothing that tends more to hinder pure calling on God than quarrels and strife. On this account Christ enjoins, that if any man be at variance with his brother, he shall go and be reconciled to him before offering his gift on the altar.

For my part, I acknowledge that both of these views are just; but when I take into consideration the context of this passage, I have no doubt that Paul had his eye on the disputes which arose out of the indignation of the Jews at having the Gentiles made equal to themselves, in consequence of which they raised a controversy about the calling of the Gentiles, and went so far as to reject and exclude them from the participation of grace. Paul therefore wishes that debates of this nature should be put down, and that all the children of God of every nation and country should pray with one heart. Yet there is nothing to restrain us from drawing from this particular statement a general doctrine.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(8) I will therefore.—The Apostle here again turns to the subject of “public prayer,” now giving directions respecting the persons who should offer their prayers, and also telling them how these public requests to God should be made. “I will therefore” expresses on St. Paul’s part no mere wish or desire, but it is the expression of his solemn apostolical authority. It might be rendered, I desire therefore.

That men pray every where . . .—Better rendered, in every place. The greater liberty which women, under the teaching of Christ, had enjoyed; the new position they occupied in the Christian commonwealth; the distinguished services many of them had been permitted to accomplish in the Master’s service—in such instances as the Marys, Dorcas, Priscilla, Lydia, and others—had no doubt contributed to a certain self-assertion on the part of female converts in the Ephesian congregations, which threatened grave disorders in the conduct of divine worship. St. Paul, in his directions respecting divine service in the Christian assemblies, follows the custom here of the Jewish synagogue, where women were forbidden to speak. Men, said St. Paul, in every place where a congregation in the name of Christ was gathered together, were to be the offerers of prayer. The word “everywhere” seems a memory of the Lord’s words to the woman of Samaria, “Believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.”

Lifting up holy hands.—It was the Jewish practice, not only in taking a solemn oath—or in blessing—but also in prayer, to lift up the hands—Compare Psa_28:2; Psa_63:4. This seems to have been generally adopted by the early Christians as the attitude in prayer. See Clem. Rom., To the Corinthians, chap. 29 “Holy hands;” see Psa_24:4; Psa_26:6; “holy”—that is, unstained with wanton sins.

Without wrath and doubting.—Here allusion is doubtless made to religious disputes and contentions among the believers themselves—“doubting” is better translated by disputing. These angry feelings can have no place in the heart of one who really prays, whether in public or in private.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8–15. Common Prayer. The part to be taken in Public Worship by men and by women

8. I will therefore that men pray every where] (1) the position of ‘pray’ shews the resumption of this subject as the main thought of the sentence, (2) the word used for ‘men’ and the article prefixed shew the contrast to women in 1Ti_2:9, (3) we have boulomai not thelô: we may render therefore more accurately I desire then that prayer be made by the men in every place; ‘in every place’ where public prayer is made; for the limitation of ‘every’ by the surrounding circumstances of the passage, cf. Php_3:8.

lifting up holy hands] For the exact force of ‘holy’ cf. note on ‘unholy,’ 1Ti_1:9. With outstretched arms and uplifted palms was the Oriental and Roman attitude; cf. ‘duplices tendens ad sidera palmas,’ Virg. Aen. 1. 93. ‘The folding together of the hands in prayer has been shewn to be of Indo-Germanic origin.’ Ellicott.

without wrath and doubting] It is a very even question of authority whether we should read the singular or plural, ‘doubting’ or ‘doubtings.’

It is also a very even question of usage whether we understand ‘inward disputings,’ that is, ‘doubtings’ or ‘outward disputations’; the former is the commoner meaning in N.T., cf. Luk_24:38 : but the latter is clearly found, Php_2:14, and the verb, Mar_8:16, &c. Perhaps, as a preparation for prayer, to have faith, as well as charity, enjoined, gives the greater point: compare the preparation required for our Chief Act of Prayer ‘To examine themselves, whether they … have a lively faith in God’s mercy … and be in charity with all men.’ Prayer-Book Catechism, s. fin.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

In like manner also,.... Let the women pray likewise; though they are not to lead in prayer, or be the mouth of the church, which would be indecent, yet they are to join with the church in public prayer; see Act 1:14 and in like manner as the men, with purity of heart and hand, without murmuring and impatience towards God, and without wrath and anger towards others, and in faith, without doubting and distrust: and the apostle proceeds to point out what sort of dress he would have them appear in at the time of prayer, and at any part of public worship; and thus the Ethiopic version renders it, "so let the women be clothed in prayer", namely, as follows;

that women adorn themselves in modest apparel: the word rendered "apparel" signifies a long robe, which reaches down to the feet; and the word translated "modest" signifies that which is clean, neat, and decent, yea, beautiful and ornamental; and the sense of the apostle is, that he would not have them to come to public worship in rags, and in dirty and filthy garments, but that their bodies should be covered with clean and decent raiment; so the Israelites washed their clothes that they might be ready to meet the Lord at Mount Sinai, Exo 19:14. The Jews always appeared in their best clothes on the sabbath day; this is one of their rules: (n).

"for the honour of the sabbath, every man must be clothed, , "with clean or neat apparel" and clothing on the weekday must not be as clothing on the sabbath day; and if a man can make no change, he must let down his talith (or upper garment, his cloak); so that his clothing may not be as the clothing of the weekdays, when that was girt up about him.''

The apostle adds,

with shamefacedness and sobriety: these are the two general rules by which dress is to be regulated; it is right and proper, when it is consistent with chastity, when it is not immodest and impudent, and more like the attire of an harlot than of a woman professing godliness; and when it is moderate as well as modest, and suitable to a person's age and station, and is not beyond the circumstances of life in which they are. There is no religion or irreligion in dress, provided pride and luxury are guarded against, and modesty and moderation preserved.

Not with broidered hair, or plaited, as in Pe1 3:3; see Gill on Pe1 3:3. The Jews had women on purpose for this business; Mary Magdalene is thought to have her name from hence; See Gill on Mat 27:56. Or gold, or pearls, or costly array: not that the apostle forbids all use or wear of such things by proper persons, whose circumstances would admit of it, and upon proper occasions, and at proper times: certain it is, that earrings and bracelets of gold, and jewels set in silver and gold, and raiment, costly raiment, were sent by Abraham, and given to Rebekah, and wore by her, who was a woman professing godliness so the church in Psa 45:9 though in figurative expressions, yet in allusion to what is literal, and honourable, and commendable, is said to be in gold of Ophir, and her clothing to be of wrought gold, and to be brought to the king in raiment of needlework: but however justifiable such a dress may be at other seasons, the apostle judged it very improper at the time of public prayer, or at the time of public worship; seeing it might swell the heart of the wearer with pride, so as to forget herself and the business she was come about, and draw the eyes of others upon her; and so cause a general inattention. It was a complaint of Chrysostom's many hundreds of years ago, that some who came to public worship, appeared in such a dress, as if they came rather to dance than to pray; such apparel should be avoided: it is said of Pythagoras (o), that he taught the inhabitants of Crotona, the men literature, and the women chastity and modesty; and by his disputations so far prevailed upon the latter, as to lay aside their garments of gold and other ornaments of their dignity, as instruments of luxury; all which they brought into the temple of Juno, and dedicated them to that goddess; declaring, that shamefacedness or chastity, and not garments, are the true ornaments of matrons.

(n) Maimon. Hilch. Subbat. c. 30. sect. 3. (o) Justin. ex Trogo. l. 20. c. 4.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

8 I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

Ver. 8. Pray everywhere] Any place now (be it but a chimney) may make a goodly oratory, Joh 4:21.

Lifting up holy hands] Better washed than Pilate’s were, rinsed in that blessed fountain of Christ’s blood, Zec 13:1. Else, God utterly abhors them, Isa 1:15-16. The priests had their laver to wash in, before they sacrificed. The Turks at this day before prayer wash both face and hands, sometimes their head, and other parts of the body. But what saith St James, Jas 4:8, and the prophet Jeremiah, Jer 4:14? The fountain of goodness will not be laden at with foul hearts and hands.

Without wrath] Or, rancour, Mat 5:24. God will not be served till men be reconciled. When Abraham and Lot were agreed, then God appeared.

Or doubting] Heb 11:6; Jas 1:6; without disceptation or reasoning with carnal reason.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will therefore - The Greek word here (βοὺλομαι boulomai) is different from the word rendered “will” - θέλω thelō - in 1Ti 2:4. The distinction is, that the word there used - θέλω thelō - denotes an active volition or purpose; the word here used - βοὺλομαι boulomai - a mere passive desire, propensity, willingness. Robinson’s Lexicon The meaning here is, “it is my will” - expressing his wish in the case, or giving direction - though using a milder word than that which is commonly employed to denote an act of will.

That men pray everywhere - Not merely in the temple, or in other sacred places, but in all places. The Jews supposed that there was special efficacy in prayers offered at the temple in Jerusalem; the pagan also had the same view in regard to their temples - for both seemed to suppose that they came nearer to God by approaching his sacred abode. Christianity teaches that God may be worshipped in any place, and that we are at all times equally near him; see the Joh 4:20-24 notes; Act 17:25 note. The direction here given that men should pray, in contradistinction from the duties of women, specified in the next verse, may be intended to imply that men should conduct the exercises of public worship. The duties of women pertain to a different sphere; compare 1Ti 2:11-12.

Lifting up holy hands - To lift up the hands denotes supplication, as it was a common attitude of prayer to spread abroad the hands toward heaven; compare Psa 68:31; Exo 9:29, Exo 9:33; 1Ki 8:22; 2Ch 6:12-13; Isa 1:15; see also Horace Odes, iii. 23. 1; Ovid, M. 9:701; Livy, v. 21; Seneca, Eph. 21. “Holy hands” here, mean hands that are not defiled by sin, and that have not been employed for any purpose of iniquity. The idea is, that when men approach God they should do it in a pure and holy manner.

Without wrath - That is, without the intermingling of any evil passion; with a calm, peaceful, benevolent mind. There should be nothing of the spirit of contention; there should be no anger toward others; the suppliant should be at peace with all people. It is impossible for a man to pray with comfort, or to suppose that his prayers will be heard, if he cherishes anger. The following exquisite and oft-quoted passage from Jeremy Taylor, is a more beautiful and striking illustration of the effect of anger in causing our prayers to return unanswered than was probably ever penned by anyone else. Nothing could be more true, beautiful, and graphic. “Anger sets the house on fire, and all the spirits are busy upon trouble, and intend propulsion, defense, displeasure, or revenge. It is a short madness, and an eternal enemy to discourse and a fair conversation; it intends its own object with all the earnestness of perception or activity of design, and a quicker motion of a too warm and distempered blood; it is a fever in the heart, and a calenture in the head, and a fire in the face, and a sword in the band, and a fury all over; and therefore can never suffer a man to be in a disposition to pray. For prayer is the peace of our spirit, the stillness of our thoughts, the evenness of recollection, the seat of meditation, the rest of our cares, and the calm of our tempest; prayer is the issue of a quiet mind, of untroubled thoughts; it is the daughter of charity and the sister of meekness; and he that prays to God with an angry, that is, with a troubled and discomposed spirit, is like him that retires into a battle to meditate, and sets up his closet in the out-quarters of an army, and chooses a frontier garrison to be wise in.

Anger is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer, and therefore is contrary to that attention which presents our prayers in a right line to God. For so have I seen a lark rising from his bed of grass, and soaring upward, and singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and rise above the clouds; but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconsistent, descending more at every breath of the tempest than it could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings, until the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was over; and then it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing, as if it had learned music and motion from an angel.” “The Return of Prayers,” Works, vol. i. 638. Ed. Lond. 1835.

And doubting - This word, as used here, does not mean, as our translation would seem to imply, that we are to come before God without any doubts of our own piety, or in the exercise of perfect faith. The word used (διαλογισμός dialogismos) means, properly, computation, adjustment of accounts; then reflection, thought; then reasoning, opinion; then debate, contention, strife; Luk 9:46; Mar 9:33-34; Phi 2:14. This is the sense evidently in this place. They were not to approach God in prayer in the midst of clamorous disputings and angry contentions. They were not to come when the mind was heated with debate, and irritated by strife for victory. Prayer was to be offered in a calm, serious, sober state of mind, and they who engaged in polemical strife, or in warm contention of any kind, are little fitted to unite in the solemn act of addressing God. How often are theologians, when assembled together, so heated by debate, and so anxious for party victory, that they are in no suitable state of mind to pray! How often do even good people, holding different views on the disputed points of religious doctrine, suffer their minds to become so excited, and their temper so ruffled, that they are conscious they are in an unfit state of mind to approach the throne of grace together! That theological debate has gone too far; that strife for victory has become too warm, when the disputants are in such a state of mind that they cannot unite in prayer; when they could not cease their contentions, and with a calm and proper spirit, bow together before the throne of grace.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

How beautifully does St. Paul teach that modesty and chastity are the greatest ornaments of the female sex, not only in the sight of God and of Angels, but also of men, who although by their own neglect they have not always grace and courage sufficient to be virtuous themselves, cannot help admiring virtue wherever they see it in others. Even the pagan fully acknowledges the native attractions of virtue. Virtus per se placet: Virtue pleases with unborrowed charms.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

I will therefore that men pray every where; this is one precept that I give thee in charge as to the management of the affairs of the church, that wherever men meet together to worship God, whether in houses built for that purpose, or in more common houses, or any other place, (for the time is now come when there is no special command for one place more than another, no special promise made to men’s prayers in one place more than another, as there was to and concerning the temple of old, Joh 4:21), they should pray, either ministering to others in the duty of prayer, or joining with him who doth so minister.

Lifting up holy hands; but let them take heed how they pray, for God heareth not sinners, Joh 9:31; let them therefore lift up holy hands, not regarding iniquity in their hearts.

Without wrath; and let them take heed of carrying malice, or inveterate anger, in their hearts when they go to God in prayer, for they must pray, Father: forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us; and, Mat 6:15; If ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses. And doubting; and let them also take heed of doubting in prayer of the goodness, truth, or power of God to fulfil his wishes; but, Jam 1:6,7, let them ask in faith, nothing wavering. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

8. I will—I determine. The expression of apostolic authority, decisive with Timothy and the Ephesian Churches.

Men—In antithesis with women in 1Ti_2:9; as assuming that public worship would be usually conducted by men. Every where—In all Timothy’s Churches; and, by implication, in all other places of worship.

Lifting up—The ordinary, if not the natural, gesture of prayer; either as a motion of offering to God, or more probably as the natural movement of helplessness seeking aid.

Holy hands—Pure hands, as innocent of wrongdoing, or purified therefrom by penitence, pardon, and sanctification. So Psa_26:6 : “I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar.” As the hands should be holy the heart should possess pure love without wrath, and pure faith without doubting. We must cast out every malevolent feeling towards man before we can come with perfect trust before God.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Desire for will, A.V; the men for men, A.V; in every place for everywhere, A.V; disputing for doubting, A.V I desire, etc. He takes up the subject again which he had opened in ver. 1, but had somewhat digressed from in vers. 4-7, and gives further directions as to the persons who are to make the prayers spoken of in ver. 1, viz. men (touv andrav), not women, as it follows more at large in vers. 9-15. The stress is clearly upon "men" (or, "the men it makes no difference); and there is no force in Alford"s remark that in that case it would have been toucesqai. The prayers had been already ordered in ver. 1; the additional detail, that they were to be offered by men, is now added. In every place; not, as Chrysostom thinks, in contrast to the Jewish worship, which was confined to the temple at Jerusalem, but merely meaning wherever a Christian congregation is assembled. Lifting up holy hands. Alford quotes Clem. Ram. "To the Corinthians," Ep. 1. 1Ti 29: Proselqwmen... ejn oJsiothti yuchv aJgnav kaintouv ceirav airountev pron. (comp. Psa_26:6 Psa_28:2 Psa_43:2 Psa_63:4; 2Ch_6:12, 2Ch_6:13) Without wrath. It appears from several passages in Chrysostom that the habit of praying angry prayers was not unknown in his day. Do you pray against your brother? But your prayer is not against him, but against yourself. You provoke God by uttering those impious words, "Show him the same;" "So do to him;" "Smite him;" "Recompense him;" and much more to the same effect" ("Hom." 6.). In "Hom." 8. his comment on this passage is: "Without bearing malice.... Let no one approach each God in enmity, or in an unsalable temper." And disputing (dialogismou). The exact meaning of dialogismov is perhaps best seen Luk_5:21, Luk_5:22, where both the verb and the substantive are used. The dialogismoi are carillings, questionings proceeding from a captious, unbelieving spirit. They are dialogismoi ponhroi. (Mat_15:19) The word is always used in a bad sense in the New Testament. Forms of prayer were not yet established in the Church, but these cautious show the need of them.

The conduct of public prayer by men.

The apostle now proceeds to indicate the persons by whom public prayer is to be conducted, and the spirit which is to govern this part of public worship.

I PRAYER IN THE CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLIES IS TO BE CONDUCTED BY MEN. "I wish then that prayer be made in every place by men.

1. It is for men to manage and direct the public services of the Church; it is for women to take a more quiet though not less real place in worship. As woman had been emancipated by the gospel for there were no longer "male and female" in Christ and as she had taken such a prominent place in ministering to Christ, the apostles, and the saints, there may have been a disposition on the part of female converts to assert themselves actively in the public life of the Church at Ephesus and elsewhere. The apostle expresses not a mere wish or desire, but, what is equivalent to a solemn command, that the men alone should be responsible for the conduct of the public services. The injunction does not affect the right or duty of women to conduct prayer in private life or in meetings of their own sex.

2. Prayer is to be made in every place. This rule is to obtain in all public assemblies of the saints, wherever held. There is, perhaps, a recollection of our Lord"s words that there is to be no restriction of prayer to one holy. (Joh_4:21)

II THE SPIRIT AND MANNER IN WHICH PUBLIC PRAYER IS TO BE CONDUCTED. "Lifting up holy hands without wrath or disputing.

1. The posture must be reverent. It was customary for the Jews to pray with uplifted hands. It was likewise the general attitude adopted by the early Christians. It was the attitude significant

1. of the elevation of the heart to God;

2. of the expectation of an answer from heaven.

3. The uplifted hands must be holy. They must be hands unstained by vice. "Cleanse your hands, purify your hearts". (Jam_4:8) The hands must be free from any sin that would render prayer unacceptable to God. "Wash you, make you clean". (Isa_1:16)

4. Prayer should be free from all passionate feeling. "Without wrath and disputing." Perhaps arising from religious altercation or debate. Prayer belongs to the peaceful heart. Faith and love are its two sustaining principles, and exclude the idea of passion against our fellow-men. T.C.

Vers. 8-15.

The sexes in the Christian, assembly.

I THE PART OF THE MEN TO LEAD IN PRAYER. "I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing." The mind of the apostle, as here expressed, is that in every place where men and women assemble for Divine worship, the duty of conducting the public devotions shall devolve upon the men. They, and not the women, as appears from the following contrast, are to be the mouth of the congregation in prayer offered to God. This assignment of leading in prayer to them is mentioned along with the appropriate bodily posture, viz. the lifting up of the hands (as toward heaven) in the way of invoking the Divine blessing upon the congregation. With this is connected the inward qualification lifting up holy hands, i.e. that do things that accord with their being engaged in so sacred a service. It is not the place that is to hallow the hands, but it is the hands that are to be holy, to be in keeping with the place. The orderliness implied in the men having their proper place would tend to prevent the use of unholy perturbation of feeling, and the breaking forth of unseemly disputing, such as would unfit the congregation for engaging in prayer. "He that prays to God," says Jeremy Taylor, in "The Return of Prayers," "with an angry, that is, with a troubled and discomposed spirit, is like him that retires into a battle to meditate, and sets up his closet in the out-quarters of an army, and chooses a frontier garrison to be wise in. Anger is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer, and therefore is contrary to that attention which presents our prayers in a right line to God. For so have I seen a lark rising from its bed of grass, and soaring upwards, and singing as he rises, and hopes to get to heaven, and rise above the clouds; but the poor bird was beaten back with the loud sighings of an eastern wind, and his motion made irregular and inconsistent, descending more at every breath of the tempest than it could recover by the libration and frequent weighing of his wings, till the little creature was forced to sit down and pant, and stay till the storm was over; and then it made a prosperous flight, and did rise and sing, as if it had learned music and motion from an angel.

II THE PART OF THE WOMEN.

1. To be becomingly dressed. "In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness, and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment; but (which becometh women professing godliness) through good works." It is with regard to dress that the apostle charges the women. They are not forbidden to adorn themselves. In nature God has a regard to adornment; the flowers are painted chiefly in the way of appealing to the sense of the beautiful. So the apostle regards it as particularly appropriate to the women that they are to adorn themselves; but they are to adorn themselves in modest apparel. There seems to be a wider reference than modest, and a twofold reference. It is apparel that is suitable to women as such. This certainly excludes dress that shocks the womanly feeling of modesty. But it also includes dress that is tasteful. Apart from what is expensive, good taste may be displayed in dress, as in the proper blending of colors. There is no religion in negligence as to dress. A woman should never be above attending to what is clean and whole and neat in dress; and especially should she attend to this in appearing in the house of God. It is apparel that is suitable to women in respect of their circumstances. Age, rank, means, demands of religion, come in as modifying conditions. A brightness of color that is in place in youth, is out of place in age. The servant is not to dress as her mistress. She who dresses upon a small income is not to be as she who dresses upon a large income.

There is not to be dressing as though this world were a paradise, and not, as it really is, full of human want. With outward deportment as to dress, are connected the inward feelings. There is shamefastness, as the word originally was in the Authorized Version. This feeling given to the woman should make her shrink from all impropriety in dress. There is also sobriety, or the feeling that keeps the love for dress within the bounds of reason and religion. The apostle descends to particulars. Women are not to adorn themselves with braided hair and gold, or pearls, or costly raiment. It cannot be meant that these things are absolutely forbidden. Long hair is an ornament to a woman, and it is natural that it should be braided. Gold is an excellent substance, and can be wrought into most beautiful forms. It is God who has given the luster to pearls. Ideas of what is beautiful can be carried to a great extent in garments, as in the garments prescribed for the Jewish high priest. It can only be meant that they are to be duly subordinated by women. They are not to make ends of them, as women of the world do. They are not to vie with one another in the use of them. They are not to be used in the way of gratifying personal vanity, or in the way of ostentation and drawing attention upon them. They are not to be used as though they were essential, being only on the outside, and an uncertain possession which cannot be carried beyond the world. They are only to be sought in connection with, and in due subordination to, inward virtues. This is the thought to which the apostle carries us forward. There is that which becomes a woman professing godliness, i.e. professing to be regulated by the will of God in dress as in all matters. And the will of God will be considered in connection with the state of the world. It is such a world that Christ needed to come into it to save it. Moreover, it is such a world that Christ"s servants need to do much saving work in it. And a true Christian woman will not set her heart on what is showy or genuinely beautiful in dress or ornament, but will set her heart on what is more valuable. She will seek to be adorned with the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. She will seek to be adorned, as the idea is here, with a kindly, benevolent disposition, such as finds its medium in good works. She will consider that the time and money unnecessarily spent upon the braiding of the hair, and gold, or pearls, or costly raiment, is so much taken from her power of performing good works. It must be said that the position of a true Christian woman has its difficulties. Fashion which exercises such a sway is not the expression of pure Christian sentiments. It is to a large extent the expression of worldliness, or the striving after externals. The true Christian woman, then, has it as her task, on the one hand, not to go altogether against fashion so as to be singular and to call attention to her, which would offend her feeling of modesty; on the other hand, to attain to simplicity and inexpensiveness in dress, so as to leave her free for discharging her Christian function as a doer of good works.

2. To be a learner, and not a teacher. "Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness." The woman is to be receptive with regard to public teachings. She is to be a learner, not breaking the silence even to the extent of asking a question. For the language here is partly to be explained by what is said in 1Co_14:35, "And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home." The position of the apostle, that a woman is not to be a teacher in the house of God, is very implicit: "I permit not woman to teach." Whatever her qualifications and some women are better qualified to teach than some men the apostolic enactment is against her teaching. This enactment is grounded in what is natural. It would be reversing the natural order of superiority for men to sit under a woman as their teacher. It would also be giving woman a publicity from which every one who is unsophisticated and retains her native modesty must shrink. Her natural unfitness set forth in two facts.

(1) Eve was created after Adam. "For Adam was first formed, then Eve." The apostle regards this fact as emblematic of a headship originally given to the man, which carries with it his exclusive right to be a teacher in the house of God.

(2) The woman was first in the transgression. "And Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression." We are not to understand that, for introducing sin into the world, she was thrown into a subordination which did not originally belong to her. But rather the way in which, acting for herself without regard to her husband, she was worked upon by the tempter was emblematic of a natural disposition which unfits her for taking a public position. Promise annexed. "But she shall be saved through the child-bearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety." So eminent an interpreter as Ellicott interprets this of the child-bearing by pre-eminence woman giving birth to the Messiah but without good reason. The apostle has been excluding woman from activity in Church life in connection with which there is publicity; here he points to her proper destiny as activity in family life. There is reference to the form in which the curse fell upon the woman; in connection with this is there promise of blessing. There is not excluded from the promise the lower salvation. A mother, laying hold upon this promise, can hope in her danger to be preserved alive, with due submission, as is right in the sphere of temporal blessing, to the disposing of God. There is special reference to the higher salvation. "She shall be saved," shall find the path of her highest well being, "if they" (there is a change to the class of Christian mothers, or more generally of Christian women, one depending to a certain extent on all) they continue in faith," i.e. toward Christ, "and love," i.e. especially toward the needy, "and sanctification," i.e. attention to the rules of personal purity, with such sobriety as shall keep them to their proper sphere. R.F.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will - A word strongly expressing his apostolical authority. Therefore - This particle connects the eighth with the first verse. That men pray in every place - Public and private. Wherever men are, there prayer should be. Lifting up holy hands - Pure from all known sin. Without wrath - In any kind, against any creature. And every temper or motion of our soul that is not according to love is wrath. And doubting - Which is contrary to faith. And wrath, or unholy actions, or want of faith in him we call upon, are the three grand hindrances of God's hearing our petitions. Christianity consists of faith and love, embracing truth and grace: therefore the sum of our wishes should be, to pray, and live, and die, without any wrath or doubt.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

8. I will therefore that men pray everywhere. This refers back to verse 1. Everywhere. In all places of public worship. Lifting up holy hands. This seems to indicate an attitude in prayer. The hands lifted up must be sanctified to holy deeds. Without wrath and doubting. Wrath would unfit for prayer. So would doubt; but the word rendered “doubt,” is better rendered “disputing,” as in the Revision.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul finishes his instructions on prayer then gives some special instructions for women.

I want men in every place to pray and to lift up holy hands

Here "holy hands" means the entire person is holy. AT: "I want men in every place who are holy to lift up their hands and pray" (See: Metonymy)

men in every place

"the males in all places" or "the males everywhere." Here the word "men" refers specifically to males.

lift up holy hands

It was a normal posture for people to raise their hands while praying.

with modesty and self-control

Both of these words mean basically the same thing. Paul is emphasizing that women should wear clothes that are appropriate and do not attract improper attention from men. (See: Doublet)

They should not have braided hair

During Paul's time, many Roman women braided their hair to make themselves attractive. Braiding is only one way a woman can give undue attention to her hair. If braided hair is unknown, it can be stated in a more general way. AT: "They should not have fancy hairstyles" or "They should not have elaborate hairstyle that attract attention" (See: Metonymy)

pearls

These are beautiful and valuable white balls that people use as jewelry. They are formed inside the shell of a certain kind of small animal that lives in the ocean. (See: Translate Unknowns)

who profess godliness through good works

"who want to honor God by the good things they do"

translationWords

pray

holy

self-control

gold

godly

works

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

8–15. ii. FURTHER DIRECTIONS AS TO THE DEMEANOUR AT PUBLIC WORSHIP OF (a) MEN, (b) WOMEN

8. διαλογισμοῦ. So א*AD2KLP d f m and the received text; the plural διαλογισμῶν (used everywhere else in N.T. except Luk 9:46-47) is supported by אcGg and the Syriac versions, and is preferred by Westcott and Hort, who put διαλογισμοῦ in their margin.

8. (a) THE DUTY OF MEN

8. βούλομαι οὖν. βούλομαι is more specific than θέλω, and conveys here the idea of an authoritative desire; cp. 1Ti 5:14; οὖν resumes the general subject, after the quasi-digression of 1Ti 2:3-7.

τοὐς ἄνδρας. the men, in antithesis to the women, for whom separate instructions follow in 1Ti 2:9. The men are to lead the worship of the faithful; the women are to be silent.

ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ. This makes the directions general, in every region, i.e. where the Gospel is known; cp. 1Co 1:2; 2Co 2:14; 1Th 1:8. St Paul is only speaking of public prayers, not of private devotion; but he lays down as his first rule that men shall lead the worship of the congregation wherever Christians are assembled. Observe the connexion is προσεύχεσθαι ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ, not ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ ἐπαίροντας κ.τ.λ. The thought that prayer may be offered in any and every place, as at every time (1Th 5:17), is not relevant to the context here.

ἐπαίροντας ὁσίους χεῖρας. To pray with uplifted and outspread hands was the Jewish habit. See Psa 141:2; Psa 143:6; Lam 3:41; 1Ki 8:22; 2Ma 14:34, and (an interesting parallel) Philo, de Hum. 2, τὰς καθαρὰς … χεῖρας εἰς οὐρανὸν ἀνατείνας; cp. de vita Cont. §§ 8, 11. It was also the posture adopted in blessing (Lev 9:22; Luk 24:50). The practice seems to have been followed in the early Christian Church. Cp. Clem. Rom. 29, προσέλθωμεν αὐτῷ ἐν ὁσιότητι ψυχῆς, ἁγνὰς καὶ ἀμιάντους χεῖρας αἴροντες πρὸς αὐτόν. See also Clem. Alex. Strom. VII. 7, and Tert. Apol. 30; de Orat. 11. The posture of the orantes depicted in the Catacombs is one of standing with uplifted and outstretched arms.

As the attitude of body is described, so is the state of mind. The hands must be holy, i.e. the life must be without reproach; compare for this phrase Psa 23:4 and Jas 4:8. Observe that we have ὀσίους χεῖρας, not ὁσίας, as we should naturally expect. But adjectives in -ιος are not infrequently used as if they were of two terminations only; cp. Luk 2:13.

χωρὶς ὀργῆς καὶ διαλογισμοῦ, without wrath and disputation. Either would mar the charity which prays for all men. “Anger,” says Jeremy Taylor, “is a perfect alienation of the mind from prayer.” χωρὶς ὀργῆς is the reflexion of that clause in the Lord’s Prayer “as we forgive them that trespass against us”; to be able to recite it with sincerity is to have advanced far indeed in the Christian life. And again, χωρὶς διαλογισμοῦ, without disputation; in our prayers we leave our differences behind us, and in the awe of the Divine presence we realise in some measure how poor a thing is theological controversy.

διαλογισμοῦ (see critical note) is probably the true reading. διαλογισμός might mean ‘doubting’ (see Luk 24:38), but this would seem foreign to the context here; the general N.T. sense (see e.g. Rom 14:1; Php 2:14) is ‘disputation.’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8.] See summary at beginning of chapter. I will then (“in βούλομαι the active wish is implied: it is no mere willingness or acquiescence,” Ellic. On the distinction between βούλομαι and θέλω, see Donaldson, Cratyl. § 463, p. 650 f. Exo_2: and Ellic. on ch. 5:14) that the men (the E. V. by omitting the article, has entirely obscured this passage for its English readers, not one in a hundred of whom ever dream of a distinction of the sexes being here intended. But again the position of τοὺς ἄνδρας forbids us from supposing that such distinction was the Apostle’s main object in this verse. Had it been so, we should have read τοὺς ἄνδρας προσεύχεσθαι. As it now stands, the stress is on προσεύχεσθαι, and τοὺς ἄνδρας is taken for granted. Thus the main subject of ver. 1 is carried on, the duty of prater, in general—not (as Schleierm. objects) one portion merely of it, the allotting it to its proper offerers) pray in every place (these words ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ regard the general duty of praying, not the particular detail implied in τοὺς ἄνδρας: still less are we to join τοὺς ἄνδρας (τοὺς) ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ. It is a local command respecting prayer, answering to the temporal command ἀδιαλείπτως προσεύχεσθε, 1Th 5:17. It is far-fetched and irrelevant to the context to find in the words, as Chr., Thdrt., al., Pel., Erasm., Calv., Beza, Grot., al., the Christian’s freedom from prescription of place for prayer—πρὸς τὴν νομικὴν διαγόρευσιν τέθεικεν· οὐ γὰρ (vulgo ὃς γὰρ) τοῖς Ἱεροσολύμοις περιέγραψε τὴν λατρείαν, Thdrt.: and Chrys., ὅπερ τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις θέμις οὐκ ἦν), lifting up holy hands (see LXX, ref. Ps.: also Psa 27:2, 43:20; Clem. Rom. Eph_1 to Corinthians, ch. 29, p. 269: προσέλθωμεν αὐτῷ ἐν ὁσιότητι ψυχῆς, ἁγνὰς καὶ ἀμιάντους χεῖρας αἴροντες πρὸς αὐτόν. These two passages, as Huther observes, testify to the practice in the Christian church.

The form ὁσίους with a feminine is unusual: but we must not, as Winer suggests (edn. 6, § 11. 1), join it to ἐπαίροντας. His own instances, στρατιὰ οὐράνιος, Luk 2:13,—ἶρις … ὅμοιος, Rev 4:3, furnish some precedent: and the fact that the ending -ιος is common to all three establishes an analogy. “Those hands are holy, which have not surrendered themselves as instruments of evil desire: the contrary are βέβηλοι χεῖρες, 2 Macc. 5:16: compare, for the expression, Job 17:9, Psa 23:4, and in the N. T., especially Jas 4:8, καθαρίσατε χεῖρας καὶ ἁγνίσατε καρδίας.” Huther. See classical passages in Wetst.) without (separate from, “putting away,” as Conyb.) wrath and disputation (i.e. in tranquillity and mutual peace, so literally, sine disceptatione, as vulg., see note on ref. Phil. Ellic.’s objection, that we should thus import from the context a meaning unconfirmed by good lexical authority, is fully met by the unquestionable usage of the verb διαλογίζω in the N. T. for to dispute. At the same time, seeing that the matter treated of is prayer, where disputing hardly seems in place, perhaps doubting is the better sense; which, after all, is a disputation within one’s self).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8-15. Paraphrase. The second point which I wish to stress is the spirit and order of public prayer. Men when they pray to God must lay aside all personal ill-will and irritation; women must dress quietly, for they are engaged in a sacred task, and their true adorning is that of good works, not of costly jewels and dress. The women should listen to the teaching quietly and submissively: I do not allow a woman to be herself a teacher, nor to dictate to men; and that for two reasons. The order of creation suggests man’s taking the lead, first Adam, then Eve. The history of the Fall suggests women’s weakness: it was not Adam but Eve who was deceived and so fell. Yet God’s will to save all men extends to her:

“A child from woman’s seed to spring

Shall saving to all women bring.”

That is a true saying; but to be saved they must continue faithful, loving, holy, and self-controlled.

The whole section refers primarily only to public prayer (though it appeals at times to principles that have a wider application); this is clear (a) from its position between 1-8 and 3:1-13. (b) From the analogy of 1Co 11:2-16, 1Co 14:34-36 which were apparently in the writer’s mind. (c) From its influence on subsequent Church orders; cf. Canon. Hippol. §§ 81-88, “mulier libera ne veniat veste variegata in ecclesiam ... neve omnino loquantur in ecclesia quia est domus Dei.” Test. Dom. Nostri, ii. 4; Const. Apost. iii. 6; cf. Clem. Alex. Pæd. iii. 11, ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν ἄκτεον τὴν γυναῖκα καὶ τὸν ἄνδρα ἐστολισμένους κοσμίως.

(d) Perhaps from the analogy of heathen priestesses; cf. 10 note.

The purpose of the section is twofold. (a) Primarily, to secure a right spirit and character in those who pray, both men and women; cf. 8, 9, 10, 15. (b) To check a freedom which women were claiming to teach at the meeting. Nothing is mentioned about women prophesying, which was always exceptional, and the writer is laying down general rules. It is less clear whether any rule is laid down as to leading the prayers. This is not stated, and the language is consistent (1) with the theory that there was no leader, but that all prayed in silence until the Spirit moved some one, man or woman, to pray aloud (cf. Ramsay, Exp., Sept. 1909): (2) with the theory that the ἐπίσκοπος acted as leader, the rest joining in with the Amen (1Co 14:16). This is more consistent with 1, 2 supra, and 3:1-7.

8. βούλομαι. (cf. 5:14, Tit 3:8, Php 1:12) οὖν parallel to 1, but perhaps suggesting a slight connexion with the last paragraph. The thought of God’s universal salvation is still in his mind, σωθῆναι, 4; σωθήσεται, 15, and the ideal of the true Christian life; Cf. 2 with 9-11.

ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ] “Wherever you meet for public worship”; or more probably the writer means the rule to be universal for all churches under his influence, παντί being an echo of πάντας (4), πάντων (6); cf. 1Co 1:2, 1Co 7:17, 1Co 14:33 ὡς ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις τῶν ἁγίων. There is possibly a reminiscence of Mal 1:11 ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ θυμίαμα προσάγεται . . . καὶ θυσία καθαρά· διότι μέγα τὸ ὄνομά μου ἐν τοῖς ἒθνεσιν, which was a favourite quotation in 2nd-century writers, as pointing to the universal offering of the Eucharist; cf. Justin, Dial. 41 and 117; Iren. iv. 17; so Didache, c. 14, where it is given as a reason why no one who has a quarrel with another should join in the Eucharistic sacrifice.

ἐπαίροντας χεῖρας] Standing to pray, as was customary with pagans and Jews alike, and common with the early Christians; cf. Dict. Chr. Antiq., s.v. Oranti. For Greek and Roman illustrations, cf. Wetstein, Wohlenberg, and Deissmann, L.A.E., p. 421.

ὁσίους χεῖρας] Combines the idea of moral purity (“quae sanctis operibus ministraverint,” Origen on Rom_6; cf. Job 16:17 ἄδικον δὲ οὐδὲν ἦν ἐν χερσί μου, εὐχὴ δέ μου καθαρά: Psa 24:4, Isa 1:15, Isa 1:16, Jas 4:8; Clem. Rom 1:29, ἐν ὁσιότητι ψυχῆς ἁγνὰς καὶ ἀμιάντους χεῖρας αἴροντες) with that of consecration, hands like those of consecrated priests, performing the tasks of holy priesthood (1 P 2:9). It is partly explained by χωρὶς ὀργῆς καὶ διαλογ. They must have the consecration of Christian Love, if they are to pray aright. Cf. Tert. Apol. 30, “manibus expansis quia innocuis”; De Orat. 14, “manus expandimus, de dominica passione modulati,” in imitation of the Cross. It is difficult to imagine after Our Lord’s teaching that Christians had taken over the Jewish practice of ceremonial ablutions. So Ramsay, ubi s., but cf. Hippol. Canon, § 241, “Christianus lavet manus omni tempore quo orat.”

χωρὶς ὀργῆς (cf. Mat 5:23-25, Mat 5:6:14, Mat 5:15), καὶ διαλογισμοῦ, probably “disputing” (“disceptatione,” Vulg.); cf. Php 2:14 χωρὶς γογγυσμῶν καὶ διαλογισμῶν: Mar 7:21 οἱ διαλογισμοὶ οἱ κακοί, evil thoughts against one’s neighbour, the chief of the things which really pollute. Did. 14, πᾶς ἔχων τὴν ἀμφιβολίαν μετὰ τοῦ ἑταίρου αὐτοῦ μὴ συνελθέτω ὑμῖν, ἕως διαλλαγῶσιν. Tertull. De Or. 11. 12, Thd. and Thdt. interpret it as “doubt,” “hesitation” (cf. Mar 11:23, Jas 1:6, Herm. Mand. ix. 1); with right feeling to man and God, with love and faith (cf. 15 and 1:14); but the idea of doubt is alien to the context, which emphasizes man’s relation to his fellow-men.

8-15. This section deals only with the dress and conduct of women at the meetings; but compare the general relation of husband to wife in 1 P 3:1-8, which appears to be influenced by the passage; cf. also Cyprian, De Hab. Virg., where an a fortiori argument is drawn from this passage to the ordinary dress of virgins, and Tertull. De cultu Fem., where it is used as an argument for the ordinary dress of all Christian women, who may have to face martyrdom at any moment. Compare also the contrast between Virtue, κεκοσμημέην τὸ μὲν σῶμα καθαρότητι, τὰ δὲ ὄμματα αἰδοῖ, τὸ δὲ σχῆμα σωφροσύνῃ, ἐσθήτι δὲ λευκῇ, and Vice, κεκαλλωπισμένην τὸ μὲν χρῶμα . . . ἐσθῆτα δʼ ἐξ ἧς ἂν μάλιστα ἡ ὥρα διαλάμποι, in the story of Prodicus, Xen. Mem. ii. 1.

9. ὡσαύτως] Perhaps carries on to women all that has been said about men (Chrys., Ramsay), but not necessarily (cf. 3:8, 11, Tit 2:3, Tit 2:6), and it does not affect the construction, which is βούλομαι κοσμεῖν.

καταστολῇ Possibly “demeanour,” “deportment” (Ambros., Dibelius, M.M. s.v.); but as this is expressed in μετὰ . . . σωφροσύνης, more probably “dress,” which is implied by the contrast μὴ . . . πολυτελεῖ cf. Isa 61:3; Clem. Alex. Pæd. iii. 11, quoted above.

αἰδοῦς] “That shamefastness which shrinks from overpassing the limits of womanly reserve and modesty”; καὶ σωφρ., “that habitual inner self-government with its constant rein on all the passions and desires which would hinder temptation from arising, or at all events arising in such strength as should overbear the checks and barriers which αἰδώς opposed to it.” Trench, Syn. s.v.; cf. Tert. de C. Fem. ii. 8, “ubi Deus, ibi pudicitia, ibi gravitas, adjutrix et socia ejus.” For its meaning as applied to different ages and sexes, cf. additional note, p. 148.

πολυτελεῖ] Cf. 1 P 3:4, which seems suggested by this place.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I will [βουλομαι] . Better, I desire. See on Mt 1:9, and comp. Phi 1:12. Paul 's word is qelw I will. See Rom 16:19; 1Co 7:32; 1Co 10:20; 1Co 14:5, 19, etc.

Everywhere [εν παντι τοπω] . Lit. in every place. Wherever Christian congregations assemble. Not every place indiscriminately.

Lifting up holy hands [επαιροντας οσιους χειρας] . The phrase is unique in N. T. o LXX Among Orientals the lifting up of the hands accompanied taking an oath, blessing, and prayer. The custom passed over into the primitive church, as may be seen from the mural paintings in the catacombs. See Clement, Ad Corinth. xxix, which may possibly be a reminiscence of this passage. The verb ejpairein to raise, twice in Paul, 2Co 10:5; 2Co 11:20; but often in Luke. Osiouv holy, o P. See on Luk 1:75.

Without wrath and doubting [χωρις οργης και διαλογισμων] . The combination only here. Orgh is used by Paul mostly of the righteous anger and the accompanying judgment of God against sin. As here, only in Eph 4:31; Col 3:8. Dialogismov in N. T. habitually in the plural, as here. The only exception is Luk 9:46, 47. By Paul usually in the sense of disputatious reasoning. It may also mean sceptical questionings or criticisms as Phi 2:14. So probably here. Prayer, according to our writer, is to be without the element of sceptical criticism, whether of God 's character and dealings, or of the character and behavior of those for whom prayer is offered.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.