TL

““but the woman, like Eve….” instead of just “but the woman….”. Then we would have numbers 1,2,3 all clearly stated! Oh well……..”

my guess is that in Paul’s mind he did just that, but in Hebrew/Greek thinking format, not English. 🙂 When Paul gave Adam and Eve as a reason, he stated two things 1) Adam came first and wasn’t deceived 2) the woman was deceived. This is why I’m thinking that perhaps the woman in question may have been teaching some gnostic misinformation maybe even claiming that Adam was deceived or that the man she was teaching was deceived. So Paul tells Timothy she needs to learn and not teach or seek to take authority over some person, because the truth of the matter was 1 & 2, implying that she was like Eve. But we have no way of knowing exactly what Paul was referencing. We have to stick with what is clear.

What is clear is that this was a particular woman who needed to learn and stop teaching and wresting authority from another. The mention of Adam and Eve is confusing without all the facts yet it does relate to the first chapter talking about people want to be teachers but not really understanding Scripture. And finally if this woman would simply seek the basics of faith, love and holiness (with her husband?) then she would be saved through the childbearing (Jesus).

Trying to make much more of it than that, seems to grate with the rest of Scripture and not fit.