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1Ti_2:2. Ὑπὲρ βασιλέων ] βασιλεῖς are not merely the Roman emperors, the apostle using the plural because of the emperor’s colleagues (Baur); the word is to be taken, in a more general sense, as denoting the highest authorities in the state.
καὶ πάντων τῶν ἐν ὑπεροχῇ ὄντων ] not only denoting the governors in the provinces, but all who hold the office of magistrate anywhere. The expression is synonymous with ἐξουσίαι ὑπερέχουσαι in Rom_13:1; comp. 2Ma_3:11 : ἀνὴρ ἐν ὑπεροχῇ κείμενος . Josephus calls the magistrates simply αἱ ὑπεροχαί (Antiq. vi. 4. 3). In the old liturgies we find, in express accordance with this passage, the δέησις ὑπὲρ βασιλέων καὶ τῶν ἐν ὑπεροχῇ , ὑπὲρ τῆς εἰρήνης τοῦ σύμπαντος κόσμου . The purpose for which intercession is specially to be made for all men in authority is given in the words that follow: ἵνα ἤρεμον καὶ ἡσύχιον βίον δίαγωμεν , which, as de Wette rightly remarks, denotes the objective and not the subjective purpose. Paul does not mean here to direct attention to the value which intercession has for our own inner life, and by means of this for outward peace, as Heydenreich (“Christians are to pray also for heathen rulers, that by this prayer they may keep alive within themselves the quiet submissive spirit of citizens”), Matthies (“animated with loving thoughts towards the representatives of the government, they are to be blameless in their walk, and to strive after the undisturbed enjoyment of outward peace”), and others think; but the apostle is speaking of the still, quiet life as a blessing which the church obtains by prayer to God for the rulers.[84] The prayer is directed, as Wiesinger rightly remarks, not for the conversion of the heathen rulers, but for the divine blessing necessary to them in the discharge of their office (Rom_13:14).
The adj. ἬΡΕΜΟς occurs only here[85] in the N. T., and ἡσύχιος only here and in 1Pe_3:4 (synonymous with πραΰς ). The expression βίον διάγειν also occurs only here; in Tit_3:3, διάγειν is used without βίον .
No exact distinction can be established between ἤρεμος and ἡσύχιος . Olshausen (in Wiesinger) says, without reason, that the former means: “not disquieted from without;” the latter, “from within.” Ἠρέμα denotes, in classic Greek at any rate, “still, tranquil existence;” but ἡσύχιος ( ἥσυχος ) has the same meaning, and also denotes that there is no disturbance from without. The collocation of the two words serves to give more force to the thought; a ἤρ . κ . ἡσύχ . βίος is a life led without disturbance from without, with no excitement of fear, etc.
βίον διάγειν ] “spend life, more than ἄγειν ” (Wiesinger); the same expression is often found in classical writers.
ἐν πάσῃ εὐσεβείᾳ καὶ σεμνότητι ] Not on this, but on ἠρ . καὶ ἡσύχ . is the chief emphasis of the sentence laid (Plitt); the words only add a more precise definition. Εὐσέβεια , a word foreign to the other Pauline Epistles, and (with εὐσεβής , εὐσεβῶς , εὐσεβέω ) occurring only in the Pastoral Epistles, in Acts, and in 2 Pet., denotes the godliness of the heart; σεμνότης , also peculiar to the Pastoral Epistles ( σεμνός , only here and in Php_4:8), denotes the becoming conduct of the Christian in all the relations of life. Hofmann is arbitrary in separating this addition from what immediately precedes, and joining it with ποιεῖσθαι δεήσεις κ . τ . λ ., as “denoting the manner in which the prayer commended is to be made.”
[84] Hofmann maintains, without grounds, that ἵνα κ . τ . λ . does not give the purpose of the prayer for all men and for rulers, but “the purpose for which rulers exist” (!).
[85] Nor is the positive ἤρεμος used in the Greek classics. As yet it has been found only in the Inscript. Olbiopol. n. 2059, v. 24, by Lobeck; see Winer, p. 68 [E. T. p. 82]; Buttmann, p. 24.—The substantives ἡσυχία and ἠρεμία are frequently found together in the classics; e.g. Demosth. de Contributione, § 8; Bekk. s. Dorville, On Chariton. p. 411.