But the Apostle proceeds, and immediately adds1 to the words ὑπὲρ πάντων ἀνθρώπων that prayer must be made ὑπὲρ βασιλέων, for kings, under whose name Roman emperors principally come, who, although they refused the royal appellation, nevertheless were frequently adorned with it by Greeks and Jews2: καὶ πάντων τῶν ἐν ὑπεροχῇ ὄντων, “and for all who are constituted in eminence,” who elsewhere3 are called ἡγεμόνες, κείμενοι ἐν ὑπεροχῇ, and by Josephus4 ὑπεροχαί: ἵνα ἤρεμον καὶ ἡσύχιον βίον διάγωμεν ἐν πάσῃ εὐσεβείᾳ καὶ σεμνότητι, “that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all piety and gravity.” For ἐν has the same force as σύν, and σεμνότης, which properly is reverence and veneration, by metonymy signifies both whatever produces veneration and, most of all, gravity opposed to levity and inconstancy. Hence Aristotle interprets σεμνότητα as βαρύτητα εὐσχήμονα, seemly gravity.
But by what connection are these things joined with the preceding? They do not cohere a) in such a way that the subject of prayer is extended, since βασιλεῖς καὶ πάντες ἐν ὑπεροχῇ ὄντες are comprehended within the compass of πάντων ἀνθρώπων. Nor do they cohere b)—
—in such a way that the subject of prayer is contracted. For no indication of this limitation appears, whether verbal or real, whether taken from the course of the discourse or from the matter. Therefore, c) the connection by which the latter things cohere with the former is that by which the contained is bound to the containing, and the particular to the universal. Now d) in prescribing offices we are accustomed to use this form of discourse when proper and private reasons are added to universal ones, and when we reckon what is particular to be of greater moment and worthy of being inculcated more vehemently. And there were indeed proper and private reasons which moved Paul to command prayers by name for kings and rulers. There were those of which he himself makes mention when he writes, “that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all piety and gravity”; for quiet and the peaceful condition of civil life are owed chiefly to princes and rulers. There were also others, and these no less perspicuous than grave. For several ἑτεροδιδάσκαλοι, whom Jude5 calls impious, were stirring up no slight odium against the Christian religion on this account: that they despised κυριότητα, dominion, but blasphemed δόξας, majesties. There was therefore reason for Paul, by enjoining prayers by name for kings and rulers, to show how greatly Christian piety abhorred crimes of opinion of this kind. Peter seems to me to have looked not obscurely to this when he says6: “Be subject, therefore, to every human creature for God’s sake; whether to the king as excelling, or to rulers as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, but for the praise of the good; because thus is the will of God, that by doing good you may make the ignorance of imprudent men silent… Honor all: love the brotherhood: fear God: honor kings.” Paul writes twin precepts to these7; and for commending prayers specifically for kings it must have seemed to him a matter of no small weight also that Christ expressly commanded that prayer be made for those who persecute and harass us. For the Roman emperors and the rulers of the provinces were those who, when Paul wrote to Timothy, were raging against the Christian assemblies. Therefore—
—the most fitting paraphrase of the whole passage is this: “I admonish and exhort that prayers of every kind be poured forth for all men; but especially that God be entreated for kings and the others who excel in authority.”