Cheryl Schatz

Hi Marg,
Thanks for your comments!

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.

Giving birth is a verb. It is difficult for us to get our head around that as our words for birth are verbs. Paul’s use of the word is very unique and I do not believe there is another example of this word in the New Testament that is a noun. And with a noun the definite article shows that it is a definite thing, not a representative of something like a representative birth.

I have heard a lot about different theories of the kind of false teaching that was in Ephesus. But the words that Paul uses in 1 Timothy 2:13 explain the reason for the prohibition rather than the false teaching. If the reason for the prohibition has something to do with the deception of the woman and the non-deception of the man that correlates with the man’s first creation, then I think we need to think more of a reason for the prohibition rather than what the false teaching was about. Is there not a way that Paul could have worded the post-prohibition to focus on the false teaching rather than just the issue of deception? It seems to me that he could have been clearer that it was a special deception (gnostic teaching) that caused the prohibition rather than just any old deception that is compared to learning. I think this because the emphasis is on Adam’s non-deception and I don’t think that any gnostic teaching can explain that. So we need to answer why Adam was not deceived in order to unravel the prohibition. If a gnostic teaching works in with that, then perhaps it could be worked into the solution as well. But the fact is that Adam’s non-deception was a big part of Paul’s reasoning and we need to ask ourselves why?

Bravo for finding John 4:7. That is a good example of “a woman” without the article that is about a specific woman. Kudos to you for that!!