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| 1 Timothy 2:14 |
And Adam was not deceived, but the
woman being deceived was in the transgression.
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Note:
before doing a study on any
single verse, read all the verses from the beginning
of the chapter to this point and maybe a verse or
two beyond. Do this so you have the verse in context
before you begin.
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Let us begin the second half of 1st Timothy 2
with a reading from the Barclay Commentary.
"The second part of this passage deals with the
place of women in the church. It cannot be read out
of its historical context, for it springs entirely
from the situation in which it was written "It was
written against a Jewish background. No nation ever
gave a bigger place to women in the home and in
family matters than the Jews did; but officially the
position of a woman was very low.
"It was written against a Greek background. The
Greek background made things doubly difficult, as
the place of women in Greek religion was low.
Further, in Greek society there were women whose
whole life consisted in elaborate dressing and
braiding of the hair.
"In any event, there is much on the other side. In
the Genesis story, it was the woman who was created
second and who fell to the seduction of the serpent
tempter; but it was Mary of Nazareth who bore and
who trained the child Jesus; it was Mary of Magdala
who was first to see the risen Lord; it was four
woman who of all the disciples stood by the stake.
Priscilla with her husband Aquila was a valued
teacher in the early church, a teacher who led
Apollos to a knowledge of the truth (Acts 18:26).
Euodia [o'dia] and Synthche
[syn'ca thee], in spite of their quarrel, were
women who laboured in the gospel (Philippians
4:2-3). Philip, the evangelist, had four daughters
who were prophetesses (Acts 21:9). The older women
were to teach [the young women] (Titus 2:3-4). Paul
held Lois and Eunice in the highest honor (2 Timothy
1:5), and there are many women's names held in honor
in Romans 16.
"All the things in this chapter [1 Timothy 2] are
mere temporary regulations to meet a given
situation. If we want Paul's permanent view on this
matter, we get it in Galatians 3:28:
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither
bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for
ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
~ Barclay's
Commentary
It is important here that we understand that
none
of this verse or lesson is about putting women down
or making them second class to men. Points to
keep in mind:
1] We are talking about public worship.
2] We are discussing the living metaphor of men and
women and Christ and the church.
3] We are talking about the procedure and conduct of
services before God which set themselves apart from
the worship of pagan idols elsewhere on the earth.
4]
that the phrase “keep silent in church” has a
specific and narrow meaning that speaks to a woman’s
attempt to teach or usurp authority over the man.
It is not stating that a woman was to be absolutely
silent from the time she arrived at church services
to the time she departed.
Now to the commentaries:
And Adam was not deceived
- This is the second reason why the woman
should occupy a subordinate rank in all things. It
is, that in the most important situation in which
she was ever placed she had shown that she was not
qualified to take the lead. She had evinced a
readiness to yield to temptation; a feebleness of
resistance; a pliancy of character, which showed
that she was not adapted to the situation of
headship, and which made it proper that she should
ever afterward occupy a subordinate situation. It is
not meant here that Adam did not sin, nor even that
he was not deceived by the tempter, but that the
woman opposed a feebler resistance to the temptation
than he would have done, and that the temptation as
actually applied to her would have been ineffectual
on him. To tempt and seduce him to [sin], there were
needed all the soft persuasions, the entreaties, and
example of his wife.
Satan understood this, and approached man not with
the specious argument of the serpent, but through
the allurements of his wife. It is undoubtedly
implied here that man in general has a power of
resisting certain kinds of temptation superior to
that possessed by woman, and hence that the headship
properly belongs to him. This is, undoubtedly, the
general truth, though there may be many exceptions,
and many noble cases to the honor of the female sex,
in which they evince a power of resistance to
temptation superior to man. In many traits of
character, and among them those which are most
lovely, woman is superior to man; yet it is
undoubtedly true that, as a general thing,
temptation will make a stronger impression on her
than on him. When it is said that “Adam was not
deceived,” it is not meant that when he partook
actually of the fruit he was under no deception, but
that he was not deceived by the serpent; he was not
first deceived, or first in the transgression. The
woman should remember that sin began with her, and
she should therefore be willing to occupy an humble
and subordinate situation.
But the woman being deceived
- She was made to suppose that the fruit
would not injure her, but would make her wise, and
that God would not fulfil his threatening of death.
Sin, from the beginning, has been a process of
delusion. Every man or woman who violates the law of
God is deceived as to the happiness which is
expected from the violation, and as to the
consequences which will follow it.
~Barnes Notes
The Adam Clarke commentary now:
Adam was not deceived -
It does not appear that Satan attempted the man; the
woman said: The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Adam received the fruit from the hand of his wife;
he knew he was transgressing, he was not deceived;
however, she led the way, and in consequence of this
she was subjected to the domination of her husband:
Thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
rule over thee; Genesis 3:16. There is a Greek
verse, but it is not English law, that speaks a
language nearly similar to that above:
For nature suffers not a woman’s rule.
God has not only rendered her unfit for it, but he
has subjected her, expressly, to the government of
the man. ~Adam Clarke
Next the John Gill:
And Adam was not deceived
- There is no need to say with interpreters,
that he was not deceived first; and that he was not
deceived immediately by the serpent, but by Eve; and
that he is never said in Scripture to be deceived,
as Melchizedek is never said to have a father or
mother. The apostle's positive assertion is to be
taken without any such limitations or
qualifications; Adam never was deceived at all;
neither by the serpent, with whom he never
conversed; nor by his wife, he knew what he did,
when he took the fruit of her, and ate; he ate it
not under any deception, or vain imagination, that
they should not die, but should be as gods, knowing
good and evil. He took and ate out of love to his
wife, from a fond affection to her, to bear her
company, and that she might not die alone; he knew
what he did, and he knew what would be the
consequence of it, the death of them both; and
inasmuch as he sinned willfully, and against light
and knowledge, without any deception, his sin was
the greater: and hereby death came in, and passed on
all men, who sinned in him:
but the woman being deceived
was in the transgression - and the serpent
really beguiled her; she owned it herself, Genesis
3:13. And this is elsewhere said of her, 2
Corinthians 11:3 which never is of Adam. She really
thought the serpent spoke truth, that she and her
husband should not die, if they ate of the fruit;
but that it was good to make them wise; and that,
upon eating it, they should be as gods, knowing good
and evil; and under this deception she fell into the
transgression, and was the cause and means, by her
persuasions and example, of bringing her husband
into the same sin; which involved him and all his
posterity in ruin and destruction. And therefore she
is called by the Jews "the mother of iniquity and
sin"; to which they refer, Psalm 51:5. And they say,
she was the cause of death to Adam, and to all the
world: See Gill on Romans 5:12. And they observe the
order of the punishment of the serpent, Eve, and
Adam, as of their sin; the serpent was first
accursed, then Eve, and last of all Adam. They say
"Samael (the devil)
could not subvert Adam, till the serpent came and
turned the heart of Eve, and Eve turned his heart,
and they both sinned; wherefore it is said, "the
woman which thou gavest me"; Samael had no power to
turn him, till Eve came, and she was the cause of
his eating.''
Now inasmuch as the serpent did not attack Adam, he
being the stronger and more knowing person, and less
capable of being managed and seduced; but made his
attempt on Eve, in which he succeeded; and since not
Adam, but Eve, was deceived, it appears that the man
is the more proper person to bear rule and
authority, as in civil and domestic, so in
ecclesiastic affairs; and it is right for the woman
to learn, and the man to teach: and seeing that Eve
was the cause of transgression to Adam, and of
punishment to him and his posterity, the subjection
of the woman to the man was confirmed afresh: and
she was brought into a more depressed state of
dependence on him, and subjection to him; see
Genesis 3:16. The Ethiopic version renders the text,
"Adam hath not deceived, the woman hath deceived and
prevaricated [to stray from
or evade the truth]".
~John Gill
Quoted Verses:
Genesis 3:13
And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this
that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent
beguiled me, and I did eat.
2 Corinthians 11:3
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent
beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds
should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ.
Psalm 51:5
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my
mother conceive me.
Romans 5:12
Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned: |
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