All Paul Fall #10: First Timothy
This is Part 10 of a 13-part series of brief reflections on the letters of Paul. These reflections are part of the Saturday Morning Prayer service for St. Stephen’s Episcopal Cathedral’s Facebook Live Ministry.
First of all, then, I ask that requests, prayers, petitions, and thanksgiving be made for all people. Pray for kings and everyone who is in authority so that we can live a quiet and peaceful life in complete godliness and dignity. This is right and it pleases God our savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. There is one God and one mediator between God and humanity, the human Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a payment to set all people free. This was a testimony that was given at the right time. I was appointed to be a preacher and apostle of this testimony—I’m telling the truth and I’m not lying! I’m a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-10 (Common English Bible)
Therefore, I want men to pray everywhere by lifting up hands that are holy, without anger or argument. In the same way, I want women to enhance their appearance with clothing that is modest and sensible, not with elaborate hairstyles, gold, pearls, or expensive clothes. They should make themselves attractive by doing good, which is appropriate for women who claim to honor God.
A Pastoral Epistle
The letters to Timothy and Titus are known as the Pastoral Epistles because they seem to be advice that Paul is giving to those two men who are serving as pastors of church communities. In the Pastoral Epistles, Paul provides advice on how the pastor should conduct their personal lives, how they should govern their churches, and how they should identify potential leaders in the church.
First Timothy contains many different bits of advice: how to deal with false teachers, what are the qualities of good leaders, what are the roles of various demographic groups within the church, and so on. The passage we read today gives advice about the public worship of the church. Paul is letting Timothy know what kind of prayers should be included in the church service.
Christian Quietism
In particular, Paul asks that the church pray for those in authority. It seems that the letter is advocating for a kind of acquiescence to civil authority, in the hopes of keeping the church in a state of peace and also to avoid alienating outsiders who are potential converts. In effect, Paul is advocating for a kind of political quietism: he wants the church to remain on the good side of the civil authority and political leaders, rather than shaking things up and potentially putting the church at risk.
Many churches continue this practice today; the Church of England still includes prayers for the Royal Family in its worship; after the American Revolution, the Episcopal Church substituted the President and Congress in place of the royals. And yet, there are also parts of scripture that seem to decry this kind of political engagement; certainly, the writer of the Book of Revelation would be horrified to see a letter encouraging the church to pray for Roman officials. Christianity always has an uneasy relationship with civil power, and that relationship is still precarious in our present day.
Men and Women: Division or Unity?
We should also address the second paragraph of this reading, where Paul seems to set out different rules for men and women in worship. Men are admonished to lift up hands that are not soiled by anger or argument; women are told to make themselves attractive by good deeds rather than by elaborate and expensive clothes.
Many people cite this passage, and others like it, as evidence that men and women are somehow designed to have different roles in the church. Many will also cite this passage as evidence that Paul is a sexist. I think there is some merit in both of these contentions; but personally, I don’t subscribe to either viewpoint.
Paul always focused on unity in his letters, so we must ask: is there a way of interpreting this passage that is not divisive? Perhaps. Paul could be using a rhetorical technique whereby he addresses the entirety of the congregation by addressing its individual parts. Paul cites vices that he thinks are representative of each sex: anger for men, and vanity for women. Perhaps his larger point is that every believer must work to set aside their own vices when they come to worship. We can see similar linguistic constructions elsewhere in scripture: when Proverbs 10:1 says, “A wise child makes a father glad, but a foolish child brings sorrow to his mother,” it doesn’t mean to imply that a foolish child won’t disappoint a father or that a wise child won’t bring joy to a mother.
Paul was wrapped up in his context, and that context included some uncharitable assumptions about women. In our context, we are more sensitive to the damage that this type of speech can cause. A rhetorical technique that might have helped Paul communicate his message 2000 years ago now stands as hindrance to his message. The question for modern interpreters of scripture is this: Without excusing Paul’s bigoted language, can we see past that language to see the truth that lies beyond it.
