1 Timothy 2:11-15

11 Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.
12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.
13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve;
14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
15 Yet she will be saved through childbearing–if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.

In our last post on this passage I asked if those reading think of this passage as a tough passage? I assumed everyone would agree.

I mentioned that for the purpose of the last post, I wanted to delve into the conditional security topic this particular passage speaks to and that I would not address the difficult phrase of “saved through childbearing” in the previous post

This is a new post and I would like to offer a few thoughts and maybe a possible solution to this difficult passage.

The phrase that sticks in my throat every time I read it is “she will be saved through childbearing”. How to understand this phrase spins my head in loops, for it seems to say that only mothers have the opportunity for salvation, but this is obviously incorrect, for the apostles themselves were believers and not one of them had given birth.

Of course Paul may be speaking only to women in this passage – check the context – but that still knocks out all women who have never given birth. How does that jive?

In my reading about this passage I found that the Greek word for childbearing has the definite article associated with it. That is, it may be referring to “the child” borne into this world. Could Paul be referring to a specific child, the God – man Jesus, that though born through a fallen woman, may provide salvation to not only specific women, but off to all women no matter their condition.

One additional aspect of this phrase that seemed to help me swallow some of this passage is that some translations translate the term saved, as preserved, and may refer to not only to specific women, but also to the preservation of the dignity and character womankind began with.

Hopefully I have not caused any deeper confusion, but in my looking at this passage last week, I found myself digging, and wanted to provide some of my preliminary thoughts.

Your thoughts (preliminary or other) are always welcomed.

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