1 Timothy 2:2

ὑπὲρ βασιλέων : Prayer for all men must be given intensity and directness by analysis into prayer for each and every sort and condition of men. St. Paul begins such an analytical enumeration with kings and all that are in high place; but he does not proceed with it. This 1 Timothy 2:2 is in fact an explanatory parenthesis, exemplifying how the prayer “for all men” is to begin. The plural kings has occasioned some difficulty; since in St. Paul's time, Timothy and the Ephesian Church were concerned with one king only, the Emperor. Consequently those who deny the Pauline authorship of the Pastorals suppose that the writer here betrays his consciousness of the associated emperors under the Antonines. But, in the first place, he would have written τῶν βασιλέων : and again, the sentiment was intended as a perfectly general one, applicable to all lands. St. Paul knew of kingdoms outside the Roman empire to which, no doubt, he was sure the Gospel would spread; and even within the Roman empire there were honorary βασιλεῖς whose characters could seriously affect those about them. The plural is similarly used in Matthew 10:18 and parallels.

On the duty of prayer for kings see Jeremiah 29:7; Ezra 6:10, Bar 1:11, 1Ma 7:33, Romans 13:1; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13.

Such prayer was a prominent feature in the Christian liturgy from the earliest times to which we can trace it (e.g., Clem. Rom. ad Cor. i. 61). It is specially noted in the Apologies as a proof of the loyalty of Christians to the Government, e.g., Justin Martyr, Apol. i. 17; Tert. Apol. 30, 31, 39; Athenagoras, Legatio, p. 39. Origen, Cont. Cels. viii. 12.

ἐν ὑπεροχῇ : in high place (R.V.). The noun occurs in an abstract sense, καθʼ ὑπεροχὴν λόγου ἢ σοφίας, 1 Corinthians 2:1; but the verb is found in this association: Romans 13:1, ἐξουσίαις ὑπερεχούσαις; 1 Peter 2:13, βασιλεῖ ὡς ὑπερέχοντι. The actual phrase τῶν ἐν ὑπεροχῇ ὄντων is found in an inscription at Pergamum “after 133 B.C.” (Deissmann, Bible Studies, trans. p. 255).

ἵνα ἤρεμον : This expresses not the reason why prayer was to be made for kings, but the purport of the prayer itself. Cf. Tert. Apol. 39, “Oramus etiam pro imperatoribus, pro ministeriis eorum ac potestatibus, pro statu seculi, pro rerum quiete”. So Clem. Rom. ad Cor. i. 60, δὸς ὁμόνοιαν καὶ εἰρήνην ἡμῖν … [ὥστε σώζεσθαι ἡμᾶς] ὑπηκόους γινομένους … τοῖς ἄρχουσιν καὶ ἡγουμένοις ἡμῶν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, and esp. § 61. Von Soden connects ἵνα, κ. τ. λ. with παρακαλῶ.

ἤρεμος and ἡσύχιος, tranquil and quiet (R.V.), perhaps refer to inward and outward peace respectively. See Bengel, on 1 Peter 3:4. ἡσυχία also has an external reference where it occurs in N.T., Acts 22:2 2 Thessalonians 3:12, 1 Timothy 2:11-12. ἠρεμέω is found in a papyrus of ii. A.D. cited by Moulton and Milligan, Expositor, vii., vii. 471.

διάγω is used in the sense of passing one's life, absolutely, without βίον expressed, in Titus 3:3.

ἐν πάσῃ εὐσεβείᾳ κ. σεμνότητι : with as much piety and earnestness or seriousness as is possible. This clause, as Chrys. points out, qualifies the prayer for a tranquil and quiet life. εὐσέβεια and σεμνότης, piety and seriousness, belong to the vocabulary of the Pastoral Epistles, though εὐσ. occurs elsewhere; see reff. In the Pastorals εὐσέβεια is almost a technical term for the Christian religion as expressed in daily life. It is used with a more general application, religious conduct, in 1 Timothy 6:11 and in 2 Peter. It and its cognates were “familiar terms in the religious language of the Imperial period” (Deissmann, Bible Studies, trans. p. 364). σεμνότης is rather gravitas, as Vulg. renders it in Titus 2:7, than castitas (Vulg. here and 1 Timothy 3:4) just as σεμνός is a wider term than pudicus as Vulg. always renders it (Philippians 4:8; 1 Timothy 3:8; 1 Timothy 3:11; Titus 2:2). The A.V. honesty is an older English equivalent for seemliness. σεμνός and σεμνότης connote gravity which compels genuine respect.