Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Timothy · About this commentary
Lifting Holy Hands
1 Timothy 2:8-10
8 I desire therefore that the men in every place pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and doubting. · WEB
Two instructions are given, one to men and one to women, and both name a disposition rather than a posture.
Verse 8 returns to the prayer with which the chapter opened and adds a condition. The men are to pray in every place, lifting holy hands — an ordinary posture in that world, and not the instruction's content. The content is in what follows: without anger and doubting.
Those two words are aimed. The letter has already described teaching that produces disputes 1 Timothy 1:4 and will describe men obsessed with word battles 1 Timothy 6:4. Men arriving to pray straight from an argument are the case in view, and the letter says the hands are the easy part.
Verse 9 turns to the women with in the same way, which ties the two instructions together rather than separating them. The list — braided hair, gold, pearls, costly clothing — describes conspicuous expenditure rather than ornament as such.
What makes the instruction consistent with verse 8 is that both address the same disease. The men's fault is bringing rivalry into the assembly through argument; the women's is bringing it in through display. In a congregation where some suppose godliness is a means of gain 1 Timothy 6:5, both are the same problem wearing different clothes.
Verse 10 supplies the replacement, and it is not plainness but activity: adorned with good works, which the letter treats as what a profession of godliness ought to look like from outside.
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