I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; [1 Timothy 2:8, ESV]
Βούλομαι οὖν προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς ἄνδρας ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ ἐπαίροντας ὁσίους χεῖρας χωρὶς ὀργῆς καὶ διαλογισμοῦ. [Nestle-Aland 28th ed.]
In 1 Timothy 2 verse 8, Paul instructs the men of Ephesus to pray, but he does not tell them what to pray for. The little Greek word οὖν, however, gives us the clue we need. In classical Greek, it was a particle of ‘retrospective reference’, which is to say that it recalled attention to something which has been said previously. By New Testament times, it could signify inference from what had been said previously, but it was also used to indicate continuation, or the resumption of the main theme.