"Saved through Childbearing": Women and Authority in 1 Timothy 2:11-15

Translation

The NIV translates 1 Timothy 2:11-15 as follows:

11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing–if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Translators face several difficulties here:

'Quiet' or 'silent'? - The NIV renders en hesuxia as "in quietness" in v. 11 but as "silent" in v. 12. Both options are grammatically and contextually viable.[2]

'Man/woman' or 'husband/wife'? - The words "man" and "woman" can also mean "husband" and "wife". Andros, however, is not used with the definite article as we would expect if v. 12 meant that a wife cannot "have authority over her husband." That andros is indefinite suggests that a woman is not permitted to teach or have authority over any man, regardless of her relationship to him.

'Have authority', 'domineer', or 'wield influence'? - The NIV translates authentein "to have authority." Ann Bowman allows that it might mean "domineer," but prefers "exercise authority."[3] Andrew Perriman's more complete analysis concludes that there are "two closely related meanings." The first is to perpetrate a crime; the second is to actively wield influence over a person or to initiate an action. The passive idea of having authority appears on the whole to be a later development.[4] "To wield influence over" is probably the best rendering.

'Women' or 'She'? - The NIV refers to "women" in v. 15, but the Greek text actually just says "she". This was an interpretive choice made by the translators.

V. 12 a margin note? - The repetition of en hesuxia in vv. 11 and 12 is redundant, and v. 12 is awkwardly constructed. Since the passage also makes sense without v. 12, Perriman concludes that it was added as an afterthought: a "hastily constructed" marginal note that was later inserted into the body of the text. There is, however, no manuscript evidence to support this theory. Moreover, v. 13 reads better as a justification for the submission of women than for their silence, and thus more naturally follows v. 12 than it does v. 11.

Was there conflict at Ephesus? - Some commentators see in vv. 7-10 an indication that a specific kind of conflict is taking place in Ephesus: the men are debating during prayer and the women are being ostentatious. But this inference goes beyond the evidence. These verses may simply be a negative statement of the positive ideal promoted in v. 2: "That we may live quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."

In light of the above discussion, my modified translation of these verses reads as follows:

11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to wield influence over a man; she must be in quietness. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But she will be saved through childbearing–if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Commentary

The directive here does not seem to be situational. The first-person pronoun used in v. 12 ("I do not permit") seems to indicate that the directive here is universal. The justification cited for it is also universal. It consists of an appeal to the created order (man was formed first) and to Eve’s great mistake. Her action in the Garden casts suspicion on all women after her.Thus if women speak or "wield influence" over men the way Eve influenced her husband in the Garden, the consequences might be equally disastrous.[5]

It is very possible that the "she" in v. 15 refers to Eve rather than to women in general (though women in general are no doubt included to some degree in Eve as their archetype). Eve was deceived and became a sinner, but now there is a possibility of salvation for her. After her ejection from the Garden she was cursed with pain in childbearing; now childbearing may become the source of her salvation. If "they" (her children, the women) will continue to learn with love, faith, holiness, and propriety, Eve may be vicariously redeemed.

Obviously this passage is absurdly chauvinistic. It's hard to believe that some maintain inerrancy in the face of such patent nonsense. The redemptive thread here lay in the fact that this passage seems to leave the door open for women to be "saved" from the terrible consequences of Eve's mistake. The epistle is explicit that "she"—whether women or their archetype—will be saved if the women will obey his command to learn in quietness. Surely after almost two millennia of quietness, Woman's redemption is accomplished. Surely we ought no longer to fear that she will be deceived again by Satan and lead men astray. And if we have any further doubts, we may perhaps take some comfort in the fact that the writer of the epistle phrased his edict in the first person: "I do not permit a woman to teach or to wield influence over a man." He did not say that God does not permit these things.

NOTES:

[1] Zane C. Hodges, Arthur L. Farstad, and et al., The Greek New Testament According to the Majority Text (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1982), 627.
[2] Except that "silent" is more literally "in silence."
[3] Ann L. Bowman, "Women in Ministry: An Exegetical Study of 1 Timothy 2:11-15," Bibliotheca Sacra 149, no. 2 (1992): 201.
[4] Andrew C. Perriman, "What Eve Did, What Women Shouldn't Do: The Meaning of Authentew in 1 Timothy 2:12," Tyndale Bulletin 44, no. 1 (1993): 138.
[5] The prohibition against women wielding influence should perhaps be understood as a restriction against female overseers. It does not seem meant to restrict women from all church service, since deaconesses seem to be referred to in 1 Timothy 3:11. See Jennifer H. Stiefel, "Women Deacons in 1 Timothy: A Linguistic Look at 'Women Likewise...' (1 Tim 3.11)," New Testament Studies 41, no. Jl (1995).