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About this book

1 Timothy

About this book
Chapter 2

1 First of all, then, I urge that requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanks be offered on behalf of all people,⁠ 2 even for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, 4 since he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human,⁠ 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God’s purpose at his appointed time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and apostle—I am telling the truth; I am not lying—and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 8 So I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or dispute.⁠ 9 Likewise the women are to dress in suitable apparel, with modesty and self-control. Their adornment must not be with braided hair and gold or pearls or expensive clothing,⁠ 10 but with good deeds, as is proper for women who profess reverence for God. 11 A woman must learn quietly with all submissiveness. 12 But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man. She must remain quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first and then Eve. 14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman, because she was fully deceived, fell into transgression.⁠ 15 But she will be delivered through childbearing, if she continues in faith and love and holiness with self-control.

Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 84:1 and 1 Timothy 2:8

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · New Testament

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Summary

1 Enoch 84 describes lifting hands in righteousness while blessing the divine king, a gesture that appears in many ancient texts as a posture of prayer. 1 Timothy similarly urges prayer with uplifted hands, following this Jewish tradition.

Passages

1 Enoch 84:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 And I raised my hands in righteousness and blessed the Holy and Great One, and spoke with the breath of my mouth and with the tongue of flesh, which God has created for the children of men, that they should speak with it, and He gave them breath and a tongue and a mouth to speak with: 2 'Blessed are You, Lord, King, Great and mighty in Your greatness, Lord of the entire creation of heaven, King of kings, and God of the entire world. And Your power and kingship and greatness endure forever and ever, And through all generations Your dominion; And all the heavens are Your throne forever, And the whole earth Your footstool forever and ever.
300 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

1 Timothy 2:8

New Testament
3 Such prayer for all is good and welcomed before God our Savior, 4 since he wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one intermediary between God and humanity, Christ Jesus, himself human, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, revealing God’s purpose at his appointed time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and apostle—I am telling the truth; I am not lying—and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. 8 So I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or dispute.
90–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Timothy

References

"... Lifting both hands in prayer is perhaps the best-attested ritual gesture of antiquity. The gesture is found both in iconography and in texts from the Holy Land, starting in the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000–1500 BC) and continuing throughout late antiquity. The Hebrew Bible contains twenty-two occurrences of the gesture, denoted by six different Hebrew idioms, the most common of which are pāraś kappayim “spread the hands” and nāśāʾ yādayim “lift up the hands ... The gesture of lifting both hands in prayer is also found in the Apocrypha (2 Maccabees 3:20; 14:34; 15:12, 21; 3 Maccabees 2:1; 5:25; Tobit 3:11; Sirach 48:20), as well as in many ancient pseudepigraphic texts. One instance found in 1 Enoch 84:1 is particularly comparable to the one in 1 Timothy: “Then I lifted up my hands in righteousness and blessed the Holy and Great One.” There are references to this gesture in 1 Clement 2:3; 29:1, attesting to the practice of prayer with uplifted hands in the early Christian church. John Tvedtnes has assembled further sources on this gesture, although even this represents only a fraction of the textual and iconographic sources bearing witness to this gesture ..."
David M. Calabro, "Nonverbal Communication in the New Testament" in Blumell, Lincoln H. (ed.) New Testament History, Culture, and Society: A Background to the Texts of the New Testament (Salt Lake City: Deseret, 2019), 555–572.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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1 Enoch 84:1 and 1 Timothy 2:8

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