Good Friday, everyone.

On this podcast, we regularly take questions about how the early church did things.

And then we ask what practices we read about in our Bibles are directly transferable to

our local churches today.

And within that category, I think we'd fit today's email from a listener named Robbie

in Kentucky.

Professor John, hello to you.

In 1 Timothy 2 A, we read that Paul exhorted men to pray in church while lifting up

holy hands.

What's the connection between lifted hands and holiness?

And what about lifted hands and prayer?

Is this practice culturally dated or is it a relevant one we should adopt today in our

corporate church gatherings?

The text, namely 1 Timothy 2, 8, says, I desire then that in every place the men and the

word is men, not just persons, it's males, should pray, lifting holy hands without anger

or quarreling.

And then Paul continues interestingly, in verse 9, without a break, and shifts from men

to women and says, likewise, also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel

with modesty and self-control.

And I think it's relevant for understanding the word to men to realize that it's paired

with a word to women.

It's relevant because it relates to the question whether Paul is addressing merely a peculiar

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