Marg Mowczko

Hi Cheryl,

I don’t quite understand comment 16.

“She will be kept safe” is a (third person, future, passive, indicative, singular) verb.

And “child birth” is a noun. While it does have a definite article, it does not necessarily mean that it is a one-off occasion of childbirth. As you are very aware, the use and non-use of the definite article in Greek often follows very different rules in English!

I don’t believe that verse 15 is implying that the woman will be kept safe through giving birth to one child, or giving birth the one time. It just says she will be kept safe through childbirth.

When I view 1 Timothy 2:11-15 with the understanding that false doctrine was a serious problem in the church at Ephesus, and that there are several verses in 1 Timothy which significantly indicates that this false teaching was an early form of gnosticism; and that Ephesus was famous for it enthusiastic devotion to the fertility goddess Artemis, Paul’s instructions become coherent and make complete sense.

BTW I think the anarthrous (without a definite article) woman in 1 Timothy 2:11-12 is most likely one woman. (The Samaritan woman at the well is also anarthrous in the Greek John 4:7, and she was definitely one particular woman. She did not represent all women from Samaria. Thus in English we say THE woman of Samaria.)