Cheryl

Truthseeker,

Welcome!!
Regarding the “a woman” words of Paul’s in 1 Timothy 2:11, 12. There is nothing in the way that “woman” is written that would stop it from being either a single woman or women in general. The only way that we can know for sure is to check the context. There are two compelling clues that stand out. The first clue is that Paul switches from the plural in 1 Timothy 2:9 to singular in verse 11. If Paul had meant to continue with women in general, it would have been so easy to continue with the plural word women.

The second compelling argument is that verse 15 has both the singular and the plural. The only possible “home” we can find for the “she” in verse 15 is “a woman” in verse 11 & 12. At this point it still could be generic woman because “a woman” as generic woman would also be called “she”. But verse 15 doesn’t just have “she”, Paul also says “they”. It is grammatically wrong to call “a woman” as “they”. You can say “a woman” = “she” OR “women” = “they”, but you cannot say “a woman” = “they”. Once we have identified that “she” refers back to “a woman”, then we can also identify “they” as the man and woman found in verse 12. There is no other identifiable solution unless one disregards the singular “she” in verse 15.

There have been many complementarians who have examined my argument from 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and I have challenged them to find a hole in my argument or at least point out who else the “she” and “they” could be that are found in verse 15. I have not had anyone who could poke a hole in my argument. One lady tried by saying that the old testament talks about women in general and man in general by calling them “they”. The problem is that it is “a man” and “a woman” called “they” and never “a woman” as generic woman ever called “they”. Many who have been honest enough to consider the grammatical evidence have said that it is the best explanation of this hard passage they have ever seen.

You also asked:

“Also, per the phrase a bit further in 1 Tim. 2:15, when it says ‘women shall be saved by the childbirth’, does the word saved definitely refer to eternal salvation as opposed to some other kind of salvation?”

CBMW who is the key organization who promotes the complementarian view has admitted in their book “Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood” admits that Paul never uses the word “Sozo” (saved) in his epistles for anything other than spiritual salvation. This is a very important fact. Since Paul only uses this word for salvation in this one way we can be sure that 1 Timothy 2:15 is also used in this one way.

As far as versions of the bible I use the NASB, the NKJV and the ISV have been quite helpful to me. I use e-sword bible software (e-sword.net) which is mostly free. There lots of free resources that you can download and use and I find this very helpful. I hope that helps!

Cheryl