21 Chris,

You said:

In verses 13-14 Adam and Eve represent any man and any woman because they are the prototypical man and woman (see Belleville). So, ‘she’ in verse 15 becomes any woman from verses 11-12 who is represented by ‘the woman’. Keep in mind that Eve represents any woman.

You have stated that “Adam” and “Eve” represent any man and any woman, but the passage does not say this and the implications of this are a big problem. Eve was deceived but not all women are deceived. Adam was not deceived but not all men are not deceived. Rather than a “prototypical man and woman”, Paul makes a very specific reference to Adam and Eve in their order of creation and he links that to deception. There is not even one iota of proof that Paul is referencing the deception of Eve to the natural state of all women.

‘[T]he woman’ in verse 14 is Eve. So, ‘the woman’ represents any woman.

This is not possible since the specific grammar rules out both Eve and all women. Eve’s transgression is not continuing and the use of the perfect tense cannot include Eve. Since Eve cannot be “the woman” referenced in verse 14, Eve cannot be representative of all women. We need to take Paul at face value and not disregard the specific grammar.

Consequently, ‘they’ in verse 15 refers back to those women in verses 9-10, each of whom is represented by the woman Eve. The difference between ‘she’ and ‘they’ is not in the set of women to which the pronouns refer, but in how the set is used. ‘[S]he’ refers to any woman in the set, but ‘they’ refers to every woman in the set. So, the method of reference is different.

Not only is Eve not a representative of all women, but if you make “she” to be any woman in the set and “they” to be every woman in the set you have a problem. It means that the salvation of any woman is dependent on the actions of all women. Unless all women continue in the faith, no woman can be saved. This is so far off the wall that you have made women to be pretty much incapable of being saved and God cannot save one woman without saving them all.

So not only do you have no proof in the passage that Paul has made Eve to be a representative of all women, but you have disregarded the perfect tense in verse 14 eliminating Eve since she is long dead. You have also bypassed the first plural (a man and a woman) to go back to a section where Paul made reference to women which is clearly a different section since Paul changed grammar when he went to the singular. I hate to say it but your offering of this explanation for verses 11-15 make the passage both convoluted and illogical. You simply are going to have to do better than that. Think through the entire grammar. Think through the flow. Remember the context is deception – the very reason why Paul left Timothy behind – and the immediate context is deception with the very first deceived woman. It is clear that Paul is giving Timothy instructions about a problem in Ephesus and anything beyond that localized problem creates a can of worms that will make one disregard the inspiration of scripture as it is written.