σωθήσεται δὲ διὰ τῆς τεκνογονίας,
ἐὰν μείνωσιν ἐν πίστει καὶ ἀγάπῃ καὶ ἁγιασμῷ μετὰ σωφροσύνης· (1 Tim 2:15)
But she will be delivered
through childbearing, if she continues in faith and love and holiness with
self-control. (NET)
In the note
for 1 Tim 2:15, we read the following from the NET Bible:
24 tn Or “But she will be preserved
through childbearing,” or “But she will be saved in spite of childbearing.”
This verse is notoriously difficult to interpret, though there is general
agreement about one point: Verse 15 is intended to lessen the impact of vv.
13–14. There are several interpretive possibilities here, though the first
three can be readily dismissed (cf. D. Moo,”1 Timothy 2:11–15: Meaning and
Significance,” TJ 1 [1980]: 70–73).
(1) Christian women will be saved, but only if they bear children. This view is
entirely unlikely for it lays a condition on Christian women that goes beyond
grace, is unsupported elsewhere in scripture, and is explicitly against Paul’s
and Jesus’ teaching on both marriage and salvation (cf. Matt 19:12; 1 Cor
7:8–9, 26–27, 34–35; 1 Tim 5:3–10). (2) Despite the curse, Christian women will
be kept safe when bearing children. This view also is unlikely, both because it
has little to do with the context and because it is not true to life
(especially life in the ancient world with its high infant mortality rate). (3)
Despite the sin of Eve and the results to her progeny, she would be saved
through the childbirth—that is,
through the birth of the Messiah, as promised in the protevangelium (Gen 3:15). This view sees the singular “she” as
referring first to Eve and then to all women (note the change from singular to
plural in this verse). Further, it works well in the context. However, there
are several problems with it: [a] The future tense (σωθήσηται, sōthēsētai) is unnatural if referring to the protevangelium or even to the historical fact of the Messiah’s
birth; [b] that only women are singled out as recipients of salvation seems odd
since the birth of the Messiah was necessary for the salvation of both women and men; [c] as ingenious as this view
is, its very ingenuity is its downfall, for it is overly subtle; and [d] the
term τεκνογονία (teknogonia) refers to the process of childbirth rather than the product. And since it is the person of
the Messiah (the product of the birth) that saves us, the term is unlikely to
be used in the sense given it by those who hold this view. There are three
other views that have greater plausibility: (4) This may be a somewhat veiled
reference to the curse of Gen 3:16 in order to clarify that though the woman
led the man into transgression (v. 14b), she will be saved spiritually despite
this physical reminder of her sin. The phrase is literally “through
childbearing,” but this does not necessarily denote means or instrument here.
Instead it may show attendant circumstance (probably with a concessive force):
“with, though accompanied by” (cf. BDAG 224 s.v. δία A.3.c; Rom 2:27; 2 Cor 2:4; 1 Tim
4:14). (5) “It is not through active teaching and ruling activities that
Christian women will be saved, but through faithfulness to their proper role,
exemplified in motherhood” (Moo, 71). In this view τεκνογονία is seen as a synecdoche in which
child-rearing and other activities of
motherhood are involved. Thus, one evidence
(though clearly not an essential
evidence) of a woman’s salvation may be seen in her decision to function in
this role. (6) The verse may point to some sort of proverbial expression now
lost, in which “saved” means “delivered” and in which this deliverance was from
some of the devastating effects of the role reversal that took place in Eden.
The idea of childbearing, then, is a metonymy of part for the whole that
encompasses the woman’s submission again to the leadership of the man, though
it has no specific soteriological import (but it certainly would have to do
with the outworking of redemption). (The NET Bible First Edition
Notes [Biblical Studies Press, 2006], Logos Bible Software edition)
