Thus, in the received Greek editions the apostolic testimony reads as follows1:
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Παρακαλῶ οὖν πρῶτον πάντων ποιεῖσθαι δεήσεις, προσευχάς, ἐντεύξεις, εὐχαριστίας, ὑπὲρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων,
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ὑπὲρ βασιλέων καὶ πάντων τῶν ἐν ὑπεροχῇ ὄντων, ἵνα ἤρεμον καὶ ἡσύχιον βίον διάγωμεν ἐν πάσῃ εὐσεβείᾳ καὶ σεμνότητι.
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τοῦτο γὰρ καλὸν καὶ ἀπόδεκτον ἐνώπιον τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Θεοῦ,
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ὃς πάντας ἀνθρώπους θέλει σωθῆναι, καὶ εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἀληθείας ἐλθεῖν.
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εἷς γὰρ Θεός, εἷς καὶ μεσίτης Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων, ἄνθρωπος Ἰησοῦς Χριστός,
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ὁ δοὺς ἑαυτὸν ἀντίλυτρον ὑπὲρ πάντων, τὸ μαρτύριον καιροῖς ἰδίοις.
But it is rendered in Latin by the Vulgate interpreter in these words:
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“I beseech, therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be made for all men.
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For kings and all who are in high station, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all piety and chastity.
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For this is good and acceptable before God our Savior,
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Who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
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For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
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Who gave himself a redemption for all, a testimony in its own times.”
The various readings are neither many in number nor so constituted that they alter the force and sense of the discourse.
a) Where we read παρακαλῶ, some codices in Griesbach and Lachmann have παρακάλει; and the ancient version in Sabatier, as well as Hilary2 and Ambrosiaster3, who render it “beseech, exhort,” give them their suffrage.
b) What in the Greek and Latin copies is expressed indefinitely, “I beseech—or, exhort—therefore, first of all, that there be made…,” the Syriac interpreter renders definitely by inserting the pronoun “of you”: “I ask, therefore, of you that before all things you offer supplication to God…”
c) The last clause of the sixth verse in some codices, with which the ancient version and Ambrosiaster agree, is thus: οὗ τὸ μαρτύριον καιροῖς ἰδίοις ἐδόθη, “whose testimony was given in its own times.”
Any other things, if there are any, ought to be judged not so much various readings as σφάλματα, errors, of the codices and citations.