TL

Quoting from CBE Scroll:

Then in 1 Tim 2:14 Paul points out that (1) Adam (in this case, referring to the man) was NOT deceived, while (2) the woman was deceived and (3) broke God’s command.”

Well said, Don. And in continuing along this thought, one might ask why Paul brought this up at all. In fact, these thoughts follow along quite well with the progression of the topic of false teaching. There were some who deliberately spoke falsely (Hymenaeus and Alexander) and some who were deceived in their false teachings: 1:3-7. Both Adam and Eve broke God’s command, but one did so knowingly and the other was deceived and fell into transgression. The phrase ‘fell into transgression’ is important.

In Genesis, although both suffered the just reward for choosing to disobey, there was still a difference in God’s approach toward them. To the woman who was deceived into disobeying, God cursed the one who led her to sin, the serpent, and promised the redeemer would come through her seed. To the man who deliberately chose to disobey, God cursed the ground from which they would both gain their sustenance (no longer would they just reach for food as in the garden), but which the brunt of work would lay on the man’s shoulders as the stronger. She does not get off the hook from her disobedience so that no one in the future can claim innocence when sinning because of deception. After all we do choose who we listen to.

Going back to Paul’s epistle we see that he is treating the ones from vs. 3-7 differently than those who ‘rejected the faith’. And this is after Paul points out that he himself received mercy because he was an insolent blasphemer who did these things ignorantly in unbelief. There is a difference in not knowing (ignorantly in unbelief) and in one who knows and then rejects (Hymenaeus and Alexander).

The woman spoken of in 2:11-12 is one (vs. 1:3-7) who was ignorant in her knowledge of Scripture, who probably desired to be a teacher but really didn’t understand what she was talking about. Therefore, there was hope for her (or them) if she were allowed to learn in the demeanor of a student (quietly with full submission), and stopped trying to usurp another’s authority or stopped pushing her beliefs upon others. She was deceived like Eve. And if she (or they) or she and her husband would continue on in their lives with faith, love, holiness and most importantly self control, she would be saved thru the childbearing, the Messiah.

If one understands it anything like this, they can see it has nothing at all to do with men being preferred first in any fashion, but is about a woman (or a group of women?) who should have mercy extended toward them in their sin because they were duped into it like Eve.

Now I cannot say that I’ve explained this perfectly. But at this point in time this is how I see it.

more in a minute……