Don Johnson

My take is that 1 Tim 2:15 is one of those verses that we will never by 100% sure what it means as we are not Timothy in 1st century Ephesus.  However, we can be assured that Timothy knew and therefore the word of God went forth and was effective.

For me, it is am important interpretation principle to say when I am not sure, then I am not sure and it would be wrong for me to claim to know more than I do.

I do think “tes teknogonias” is THE childbearing, namely the seed prophesied in Gen 3:15, which later is revealed as Jesus.  I believe the unusual way of phrasing it is due to Paul trying to use words used by pagans at the Artemision but in a faithful Scriptural way, in order to show that is could be done.  That is, this is Paul leaning over backwards trying to be redemptive.

I believe the “they” (3rd person plural in the verb meinosin/continue) is to be emended as “they each” as each person works out their own salvation.

Given this (assumed) emendation, I understand the “she” (3rd person singular in the verb sothesetai/saved) to be a dual reference, a dual she referring to both Eve who was deceived but later made faith statements indicating a saving faith and the un-named deceived woman at Ephesus who can be restored, if she accept the true teaching and acts in faith.  I see “saved” in this case refers mainly to the process of sanctification, which includes the steps of sinning and restoration.  In addition, Paul went thru this same process, so Paul is telling Timothy, JUST as I did it and Eve did it, so can this woman do it, as The Word is faithful (1 Tom 3:1 (pistos ho logos).

However, I agree that others can understand it differently.