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| 1 Timothy 2:15 |
Notwithstanding she shall be saved
in childbearing, if they continue in faith and
charity and holiness with sobriety.
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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:
She shalt be saved in
child-bearing - She shall be saved through
child-bearing - she shall be saved by means, or
through the instrumentality, of child-bearing or of
bringing forth a child. Amidst the different
opinions given of the meaning of this very singular
text, that of Dr. Macknight appears to me the most
probable, which I shall give in his paraphrase and
note.
“However, though Eve was first in the transgression,
and brought death on herself, her husband, and all
her posterity, the female sex shall be saved (equally
with the male) through child-bearing -
through bringing forth the Savior, if they live in
faith, and love, and chastity, with that sobriety
which I have been recommending.
“The word saved, in this verse refers to, the woman,
in the foregoing verse, which is certainly Eve. But
the apostle did not mean to say that she alone was
to be saved through child-bearing, but that all her
posterity, whether male or female, are to be saved
through the child-bearing of a woman; as is evident
from his adding, If they live in faith and love and
holiness, with sobriety. For safety in child-bearing
does not depend on that condition at all; since many
pious women die in child-bearing, while others of a
contrary character are preserved. The salvation of
the human race, through child-bearing, was intimated
in the sentence passed on the serpent, Genesis 3:15
: I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and
between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy
head. Accordingly, the Savior being conceived in the
womb of his mother by the power of the Holy Ghost,
he is truly the seed of the woman who was to bruise
the head of the serpent; and a woman, by bringing
him forth, has been the occasion of our salvation.”
This is the most consistent sense, for in the way in
which it is commonly understood it does not apply.
There are innumerable instances of women dying in
child-bed who have lived in faith and charity and
holiness, with sobriety; and equally numerous
instances of worthless women, slaves to different
kinds of vices, who have not only been saved in
child-bearing, but have passed through their travail
with comparatively little pain; hence that is not
the sense in which we should understand the apostle.
Yet it must be a matter of great consolation and
support, to all pious women labouring of child, to
consider that, by the holy virgin’s child-bearing,
salvation is provided for them and the whole human
race; and that, whether they die or live, though
their own child-bearing can contribute nothing to
their salvation, yet he who was born of a woman has
purchased them and the whole human race by his
blood.
If they continue - is
rightly translated, if they live; for so it
signifies in other passages, particularly
Philippians 1:25. The change in the number of the
verb from the singular to the plural, which is
introduced here, was designed by the apostle to show
that he does not speak of Eve; nor of any particular
woman, but of the whole sex. See Macknight.
Without faith it is impossible to please God, or to
be saved; and without love it will be impossible to
obey. Faith and Love are essentially necessary to
holiness and sobriety; and unless both men and women
live in these, they cannot, scripturally, expect to
dwell with God for ever. Some foolish women have
supposed, from this verse, that the very act of
bringing forth children shall entitle them to
salvation; and that all who die in childbed
infallibly go to glory! Nothing can be more
unfounded than this; faith, love, holiness, and
sobriety, are as absolutely requisite for the
salvation of every daughter of Eve, as they are for
the salvation of every son of Adam. Pain and
suffering neither purify nor make atonement. On the
mercy of God, in Christ, dispensing remission of
sins and holiness, both men and women may
confidently rely for salvation; but on nothing else.
Let her that readeth understand.
~Adam Clarke
Now the John Gill...
Notwithstanding she shall be
saved in childbearing - which is to be
understood not of a temporal salvation, or being
saved through childbearing, through the perilous
time, and be delivered out of it; for though this is
generally the case, yet not always, nor always the
case of good women. Rachel died in childbed: the
Jews say, for three transgressions women die in
childbearing; because they do not take care of their
menstrues, and of the cake of the firstfruits, and
of lighting the lamp (when
the sabbath approaches). But spiritual
and eternal salvation is here meant; not that
bearing children is the cause, condition, or means
of salvation; for as this is not God's way of
salvation, so it confines the salvation of women to
childbearing ones; and which must give an uneasy
reflection to maidens, and women that never bore
any; but rather the meaning is, that good women
shall be saved, notwithstanding their bearing and
bringing forth children in pain and sorrow,
according to the original curse, in Genesis 3:16.
And so the words administer some comfort to women,
in their present situation of subjection and sorrow;
though they may be rendered impersonally thus,
"notwithstanding there is salvation through the
birth of a son": and the sense is, that
notwithstanding the fall of man by the means of the
woman, yet there is salvation for both men and
women, through the birth of Immanuel, the child
born, and Son given; at whose birth, the angels sung
peace on earth, good will to men; through the true
Messiah, the deed of the woman, through the
incarnate Saviour, who was made of a woman, there is
salvation for lost sinners: he was born of a woman,
and came into the world in order to obtain salvation
for them; and he has effected it, and it is in him,
for all such who apply to him for it; and with it
all true believers, men and women, shall be saved
through him,
If they continue in faith and
charity, and holiness, with sobriety - The
Vulgate Latin version reads in the singular, "if she
continues", &c. but the sense is the same; for the
"she", or woman, is to be taken in a collective
sense, as it is in the context, for many women; even
for such as profess faith and godliness. The Syriac
and Ethiopic versions render the words, "she shall
be saved by her children", if they continue, &c.
i.e. she shall be saved by bearing of children, and
bringing of them up in a religious way; if they, the
children, continue as they were brought up; which is
a very strange rendering of the words, and is as
strange an interpretation of them; and yet is what
many have given into, but needs no confutation. The
meaning of the words is, that there is salvation
through the incarnate Messiah, for all sorts of
persons; for all men and women who believe in him,
with that faith which works by love, and shows
itself in holiness and sobriety; provided that they
continue herein. For there are some that profess
these things, that have only a temporary faith, and
feigned love, and not true holiness; and these fall
away, and are not saved; but such who have these
graces in truth, as they do, and shall continue in
them, so they shall certainly be saved.
~John Gill
Let us continue in Barnes Notes for the second half
of the verse
If they continue - If
woman continues - it being not uncommon to change
the singular form to the plural, especially if the
subject spoken of have the character of a noun of
multitude. Many have understood this of children, as
teaching that if the mother were faithful, so that
her children continued in faith, she would be saved.
But this is not a necessary or probable
interpretation. The apostle says nothing of
children, and it is not reasonable to suppose that
he would make the prospect of her salvation depend
on their being pious. This would be to add a hard
condition of salvation, and one nowhere else
suggested in the New Testament. The object of the
apostle evidently is, to show that woman must
continue in the faithful service of God if she would
be saved - a doctrine everywhere insisted on in the
New Testament in reference to all persons. She must
not imitate the example of the mother of mankind,
but she must faithfully yield obedience to the laws
of God until death.
Faith - Faith in the
Redeemer and in divine truth, or a life of fidelity
in the service of God.
Charity - Love to all;
compare notes on 1 Corinthians 13.
Holiness - She must be
truly righteous.
With sobriety - All
these things must he united with a becoming
soberness or seriousness of deportment; notes,
1Timothy 2:9. In such a life, woman may look to a
world where she will be forever free from all the
sadnesses and sorrows of her condition here; where,
by unequalled pain, she will be no more reminded of
the time when.
- “Her rash hand in evil hour.
Forth reaching to the fruit, she pluck’d, she ate;”
And when before the throne she shall be admitted to
full equality with all the redeemed of the Lord.
Religion meets all the sadnesses of her condition
here; pours consolation into the cup of her many
woes; speaks kindly to her in her distresses; utters
the language of forgiveness to her heart when
crushed with the remembrance of sin - for “she loves
much” Luke 7:37-48; and conducts her to immortal
glory in that world where all sorrow shall be
unknown. ~ Barnes Notes
Quoted verse:
Luke 7:37-48
37 And, behold, a woman in the city, which
was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat
in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of
ointment,
38 And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and
began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them
with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and
anointed them with the ointment.
39 Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw
it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he
were a prophet, would have known who and what manner
of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a
sinner.
40 And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have
somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say
on.
41 There was a certain creditor which had two
debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the
other fifty.
42 And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly
forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them
will love him most?
43 Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to
whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou
hast rightly judged.
44 And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon,
Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house,
thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath
washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the
hairs of her head.
45 Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the
time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
46 My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this
woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
47 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are
many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom
little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
48 And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.
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