Cheryl Schatz

@181 Kay,
You said:

The thing I see is that if the false doctrine Paul was refuting was gnostisim (Eve worshipped as a perfect, spirit being, Adam’s creator) or Artemis worship, then he may be using this in a two-fold fashion – reminding the reader that Eve was not perfect, but rather the one deceived…while Adam was not deceived.

Cheryl, your thoughts?

Paul does give us a little idea of what the false teaching was that had permeated Ephesus. He said that they were “strange doctrines” which means that they were not consistent with the gospel. There were also myths and endless genealogies and a teaching relying on the law.

What we would need to do is to decide whether the example of Adam and Eve was meant to show the seriousness of the silence of one man on his wife’s error or whether the naming of Adam and Eve had anything to do with the actual false doctrine.

It is my belief that the mention of Adam and Eve had nothing to do with the actual kind of false doctrine that was being taught, but was placing a historical event of the first deception and the first silence alongside the problem with this one woman.

While Paul could have called her “a person” instead of “a woman” thus hiding her identity as a female, I believe that it was intentional to reveal that she was a woman because the parallel problem in the garden showed the opportunity for God to bring His good out of what the enemy meant for evil.

~One woman was deceived in the garden and her husband, the undeceived person remained silent.

~One woman was deceived in Ephesus and her husband, the undeceived person remained silent.

~God brought mercy to Eve because of her deception and unbelief parallels in chapter 1 to God bringing mercy to Paul because of his deception and unbelief and this parallels to Paul being sure that God will bring mercy to the Ephesian woman because of her unbelief and deception.

~The first deception resulted in the deceiver being destroyed through the woman’s seed.

~The deception in Ephesus will result in the deceived woman being saved through the seed of the first deceived woman.

~God brings justice to the serpent who is the deceiver. At the same time God brings mercy to the deceived.

~The story of Adam and Eve is used to parallel the plight of the deceived rather than a connection to the “kind” of deception. Eve’s status is not elevated as a source of Adam (a myth), but as the example of the mercy of God brought through the victim of the deceiver.

With this understanding it doesn’t really matter what the deception was that had caught the woman. What matters is that she has the opportunity to receive mercy just like the very first deceived woman received mercy and just like Paul received mercy. And it is an example of once again where what the enemy meant for harm is turned around by God for good. It is a beautiful story of redemption from deception.