Paul urged that prayers
and thanksgiving be made for all people (v. 1), for heathen kings and all
in authority (v. 2). He said that praying for all people inclusively is
right and pleasing to God who wants all to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth (v. 4). In 2:5-6, Paul said that there is one God (for
all people) and there is one mediator between God and (all) people, who gave himself
a ransom for all. Coming immediately after such a presentation of the
universal scope of God’s salvation, his assertion that he was appointed an
apostle to the Gentiles (heathen) (2:7) was aimed at correcting the insular thinking
of the Ephesian Christians (both Jews and Gentiles). He was directing them back
to the original apostolic perspective of the church’s mission to the world,
namely, evangelism to all people.
We can also view the
urgency for prayers for all people, specifically for kings and those in
authority, as a tactical opposition to the imperial cult. Greeks and Romans
frequently made prayers to their gods on behalf of their human patrons. For
example, in inscription number 1063 in I. Eph. IV, is a record of “prayer
for the prytanis [council member] Tullia that the gods [Hestia and
Artemis] give her children ‘as she accomplished her prostasia (patronage),
and therefore that merited the right to be prayed for by her clients in
gratitude for her financial patronage. Romans also had their gods whom they
recognized as their patrons, prayed to them and thanked them for their
patronage. For example, they had Jupiter as the patron god of Rome. They
worshipped and prayed to him for victory during war. Whenever they succeeded in
battle, they celebrated in thanksgiving and praise to him. Similarly, in 31 BC,
Augustus attributed his victory at the battle of Actium to Apollo. He dedicated
to him a splendid temple on the Palatine Hill in gratitude. Prayers to the gods
for patrons in gratitude for their patronage, and thanksgiving to them for
their benefaction to people was a common practice. Concerning 2:5, Liefeld says
the statement that “there is one God” implies both inclusiveness and
exclusiveness. It is exclusive in that God has “no competitors other than in
the imagination of pagan idolaters” (Walter L. Liefeld, 1 & 2 Timothy/Titus,
NIVAC [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999], 87). IT is inclusive in that God is God
and saviour of all people.
In the Intertestamental
Period, the god Apollo was acknowledged as the ancestor and patron of the
Seleucid dynasty. At the time of writing, the Greeks in and around Ephesus and
Crete were worshippers of many gods, as well as worshippers of the emperor. The
most prominent god and they worshipped at Ephesus was Artemis or Diana (Acts
19:23-41). Similarly, Zeus (Jupiter), Hermes and others were gods that the
Greeks worshipped in the early church times (Acts 14:11-13). The Greeks regarded
those gods as sole providers of life and prosperity and as protectors and they
worshipped them. Consequently, the statement in 1 Timothy 2:5 could have been
targeted at countering dependence on and allegiance to those false gods. Paul
saw God the Father as overall benefactor to all humans and Christ as the overall
mediator between God and humans. He therefore urged that prayers and
thanksgiving be made to God and not to any other.
A significant
grammatical item to note in connection with benefaction and patronage is the
preposition that Paul used in reference to the object of the prayers. He used υπερ in both 2:1 and 2: υπερ παντων
ανθρωπων (2:1) and υπερ βασιλεων και παντων των εν υπεροχη οντων
(2:2). In both cases, especially when used with words of request or prayer, the
right translation of the preposition is “for,” “on behalf of,” or “for the sake
of” (BDAG). Hence, it means that prayers should be made “for the sake of” all
people (2:1), and “for the sake of” kings and all those in authority. What is
important to note is that Paul did not use the preposition προς. As Mounce
observers, “in contrast to examples of secular prayers, Christians’ prayers are
υπερ, ‘on behalf of,’ and not προς, ‘to,’ the rulers” (Mounce, Pastoral
Epistles, 81). This means that instead of viewing and depending on the
rulers as their main benefactors and patrons. Christians were to take God as
the overall benefactor and patron for all people, including the rulers. In the
prayer, in 1 Timothy 2:3, God is presented as being “our saviour,” του σωτηρος ημων θεου . . . the title “saviour”
was given to both divine and human benefactors and patrons because of the
benefaction they were giving to people.
Coming after the
urgency to pray “for all people,” υπερ παντων ανθρωπων, in 2:1, the
genitive clause υπερ βασιλεων και παντων των εν υπεροχη οντων in 2:2 is epexegetical. It specifies a subgroup among “all people.” Prayers
and sacrifices for pagan kings and their families, as a form of thanksgiving
for the good things that they had done and were doing for the people, was not a
new thing (as in Ezra 6:9-10; Ep Ar 45; Philo, Alleg. Leg. 157,
317; Josephus, War 2.197). D[ibelius]-C[onzelmann] says that, among the
Jews, the custom of praying for pagan leaders was “the equivalent of the cult
of the emperor and thus the most important sign of loyalty” (Pastoral
Epistles, 37). Although sometimes in the pagan setting obedience and prayer
for those in authority were acts of slavish subservience in repayment of
benefaction, in the context of the church it was obedience and service to God
(as in Rom 13:1ff). The practice of prayers for pagan rulers were seen as God’s
servants and pagans were gradually viewed as included in God’s plan of
universal redemption. Therefore, to Paul, prayer for pagan leaders was a key
Christian obligation and it formed part of the rationale for Christian
existence, namely, for witness and service in the world. As seen in 2:3, Paul
gave the second purpose for the prayer as that “it is right and pleasing to
God.”
The first purpose of
the prayer is found in the ινα clause that it used to express with in
2:2, ἵνα ἤρεμον καὶ ἡσύχιον βίον διάγωμεν ἐν πάσῃ εὐσεβείᾳ καὶ σεμνότητι “so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”
D-C takes the exhortation for amicable relationship of the church and the secular
state as indication of a change of theological perspective of the church. It
says that the church was experiencing a “changeover from an eschatological
world view to an ecclesiastical existence within an expanding world that
provided more room for a Christian life” (Pastoral Epistles, 37),
meaning that the church was somehow trading its godliness for peaceful coexistence
with the world. IT is true that this could have been the case with those who
had become apostate. Nevertheless, Paul states clearly that the main purpose
of the prayers was to ask God to dominate the ruling authorities to the extent
that there would be calm and quietness (peace), a concrete discernible condition
that was also ideal and understandable in the Hellenistic world. Submission
and obedience to the secular authorities and devotion to good works were evidence
of the change that Christian faith brings (Titus 3:1-11, also Rom 13:1-7). Paul
also knew that suffering was part of Christian life (2 Tim 3:12). Therefore, he
encouraged Timothy to excel in all situations (2 Tim 2:3; 4:2). However, as
seen in the wish clause, “so that we may lead a calm and quiet life in
all godliness and dignity,” Paul longed for peace, godliness and dignity for
the church.” For the church, the serene environment would be conducive to the
spreading of the gospel . . . it is possible that the plural “we” in the subjunctive
verb διαγωμεν also included “all people.” In 2:4 Paul said that God desires that all
people saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Therefore, peace and quiet
life also were good for all people. (Nathan Nzyoka Joshua, Benefaction and
Patronage in Leadership: A Socio-Historical Exegesis of the Pastoral Epistles
[Langham Monographs; Carlisle, UK: Langham Publishing, 2018], 122-26, emphasis
in bold added)
