First Letter to Timothy 2

¹ My advice is that, first of all, there should be prayers offered for everyone – petitions, intercessions and thanksgiving –

² and especially for kings and others in authority, so that we may be able to live religious and reverent lives in peace and quiet.

³ To do this is right, and will please God our saviour:

⁴ he wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth.

⁵ For there is only one God, and there is only one mediator between God and mankind, himself a man, Christ Jesus,

⁶ who sacrificed himself as a ransom for them all. He is the evidence of this, sent at the appointed time, and

⁷ I have been named a herald and apostle of it and – I am telling the truth and no lie – a teacher of the faith and the truth to the pagans.

⁸ In every place, then, I want the men to lift their hands up reverently in prayer, with no anger or argument.

⁹ Similarly, I direct that women are to wear suitable clothes and to be dressed quietly and modestly, without braided hair or gold and jewellery or expensive clothes; their adornment is

¹⁰ to do the sort of good works that are proper for women who profess to be religious.

¹¹ During instruction, a woman should be quiet and respectful.

¹² I am not giving permission for a woman to teach or to tell a man what to do. A woman ought not to speak,

¹³ because Adam was formed first and Eve afterwards,

¹⁴ and it was not Adam who was led astray but the woman who was led astray and fell into sin.

¹⁵ Nevertheless, she will be saved by childbearing, provided she lives a modest life and is constant in faith and love and holiness.