What Does 1 Timothy 2:1 Mean?
I urge you therefore, first of all, that requests, prayers, approaches, and giving of thanks be made for all humankind.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;THE KEY
The verse’s hinge is “intercessions”: prayer for everyone takes the form of entering an appeal on another person’s behalf.
THE MEANING
This verse places concern for every person at the beginning of the reader’s prayer. Need, prayer, appeal, and thanksgiving are distinct ways of bringing another person’s life before God. No one is outside the circle named here.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie it undoes is that prayer belongs only to personal needs or to people already within one’s circle.
THE ROOT
ἐντεύξεις
enteuxeis
GROWS FROM
ἐντυγχάνω
entygchanō
To meet or come before; by extension, to appeal or intercede.
“approaches” in this verse is enteuxeis. The word translated “intercessions” belongs to a family built around meeting or coming before someone, and by extension making an appeal. That gives this prayer a relational shape: another person’s need is carried into an encounter.
ALSO GROWS
tynchanō: To meet, encounter, or happen upon.
τυγχάνω
This base verb contributes the sense of meeting or encounter to the word family.
entygchanō: To approach, appeal to, or intercede.
ἐντυγχάνω
This verb form appears in Romans 8:27, linking the “intercessions” here to the act of interceding there.
εὐχαριστίας
eucharistias
GROWS FROM
χάρις
charis
Favor; in this word family, gratitude or thanks.
“giving of thanks” in this verse is eucharistias. Εὐχαριστία (eucharistia, thanksgiving) carries χάρις (charis, favor) in its word family. A related verb means to grant freely, so thanksgiving resonates with favor received and extended to the people named here.
ALSO GROWS
eucharisteō: To give thanks.
εὐχαριστέω
This verb names the act described by the noun here, making thanksgiving a practice within the same word family.
charizomai: To grant freely or show favor.
χαρίζομαι
This related verb keeps favor connected with free giving, illuminating thanksgiving as a response to what is received.
THE PATTERN
Prayer moves concern beyond the self and across the boundaries of belonging.
And seek the wholeness of the city where I have carried you away, and pray to the LORD for it, for in its wholeness you will have wholeness.But I say to you, love your enemies, speak well over those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who abuse you and pursue you.And he set his knees down, and cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not make this shortcoming stand against them. And saying this, he fell asleep.THE THREAD
And the one who searches the hearts knows what is the setting of the breath, because it approaches on behalf of the set apart ones according to the will of God.Romans uses ἐντυγχάνει (entygchanei, intercedes), the verb from the same word family as ἔντευξις (enteuxis, intercession) here. The shared language of encounter opens this verse’s prayer for everyone into a wider picture of intercession moving on behalf of people.
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