>> Do we know the reason for the orant posture?
It is of course commended by St Paul at 1 Timothy 2:8,
"I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands
without anger or quarrelling."
This is clearly not the origin of the gesture; Paul is referring to an
already-existing custom. But it would certainly have helped to popularise
the gesture among the Christian community.
It is interesting that Paul (or whoever wrote 1 Timothy - there is some
critical doubt as to Pauline authorship) evidently regarded the gesture as
specifically masculine. He writes that "the men" ('tous andras', not the
unisex 'tous anthropous') should do this, and indeed the whole of chapter 2
is devoted to what is appropriate to men and women respectively.
Oriens.
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