The reason for not rejecting any food is stated in verse 5: the food is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. Consecrated is the verb form of the word “holy” (literally “made holy,” “sanctified”). When things are consecrated, they are set aside for God; in this context, however, it is perhaps best to connect the consecration with the idea of rejection in verse 4. The sense then is that the unacceptability of any food is removed by the act of consecration.

Two means of consecration are mentioned: the word of God and prayer. Prayer is perhaps best understood as identical with the prayer of thanksgiving mentioned in verses 3 and 4. Word of God is more difficult to analyze. One possibility is to understand it as referring to a passage of Scripture that is read before the meal. If this is the case, what is its relationship to prayer? There are at least two possibilities:

First, the expression the word of God and prayer can be interpreted as a hendiadys, where the two parts of the expression are taken together as one expression. In this case the word of God can be understood in two ways: (1) It is identified with the scripture passages contained in the prayer; in Jewish practice the whole prayer would in fact consist of quotations from the Scriptures. So a possible restructuring is “by prayer and the word of God contained in it” or “by the word of God that constitutes the prayer of thanksgiving.” (2) It describes the quality of the prayer; that is, the prayer is scriptural in the sense that it is in harmony with God’s message as revealed in the Scriptures.

Secondly, however, word of God and prayer can be taken separately. In this case the word of God can be interpreted in three ways: (1) It is the scripture passage that is read before the meal and which precedes the prayer of thanksgiving. (2) The word of God is God’s own response to the prayer of thanksgiving. This means that, when Christians pray before the meal, God at the same time responds by blessing the food. (3) The word of God may refer back to God’s pronouncements in Genesis 1 regarding the goodness of creation, and by implication the goodness of all kinds of food. This third option, however, is a problem for some scholars because of the present tense of the verb is consecrated; they believe that, if this third option was in the author’s mind, he would probably have used a past tense, “was consecrated.” Nevertheless the present tense is not ruled out, since God’s creating word may be thought of as causing today’s food to be consecrated.

Alternative translation models for this verse are:
• because the prayer and the word of God which is contained in it make the food acceptable to God.

Or:
• For the food becomes acceptable to God because of the prayer and the word of God which is contained in that prayer.

Or:
• because when we pray using the word of God, the food becomes acceptable to God.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .