ARE WOMEN SAVED THROUGH CHILD-BEARING? (I TIMOTHY 2:15)

 In addressing women in the congregation, Paul states that she, the woman, “will be saved through childbearing, provided they continue in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.” This is located within a chapter devoted to Paul's views concerning the behavior suitable for a woman. Mitchell notes that this appears to express “a soteriology (theology of salvation) at odds with Paul's justification by faith (Gal 2.16; Rom 1. 16-17).” Of course that poses less of a problem to those liberal scholars who feel that someone other than Paul wrote the Pastoral Letters. In any case, it brings up the interesting question as to how an unmarried or barren women is to be saved.

Brauch declares, “The passage has been more intensely debated and analyzed than almost any other single text in the Bible.”

I generally turn to the overall literary structure of a book to see if there is a parallel section which might shed light on a given passage. The center section of I Timothy, at least according to my own analysis, takes the following symmetrical form in which the closest parallel to I Timothy 2:9-15 is seen to be found in 5:3-16, addressing a particular group of women – widows:

I. Household Codes (2:1-3:13)

A. Men—All (2:1-8)

B. Women (2:9-15)

A'. Men–Bishops and Deacons (3:1-13)

II. Instructions to Timothy (3:14-4:16)

A. Instructions (3:14-15)

B. Hymn (3:16)

A'. Instructions (4:1-16)

I'. Household Codes (5:1-22)

A. Older Men (5:1-2)

B. Widows (5:3-16)

A'. Older Men (5:17-22)

In that latter passage, Paul instructs that widows can receive material support from the church as long as they were known for their “good works,” which include the bringing up of their children (see 3:9-10). Again we seem to run into the same emphasis for women on works and on rearing children. I was curious over what scholars had to say about this difficult passage, and here are some of the opinions I found:

Hanson presents us with a host of possible ways of explaining Paul's words here:

    A. The RSV offers the alternative translation “by the birth of the child,” referring to the birth of Christ. Hanson rejects this view as being inconsistent with the original Greek wording.

    B. Another proposed meaning is that if the woman meekly accepts childbearing, she will be brought through the process safely.

    C. Jebb combines the thoughts of verses 12 and 15 in an unlikely manner to come up with the idea that she will be saved from the temptation to lord it over her husband by devoting her time and energy to the raising of her children.

From Guthrie we get some additional possibilities:

    D. Chrysostom felt that the verse meant that the nurturing of children in general by women, something which was open to all women, was in mind. But as Guthrie points out, that still leaves us with a salvation by works.

    E. According to Scott, the phrase meant that the women would be linked with men in salvation although the former would still have to bear the pain of childbirth as a consequence of Eve's original sin.

But that does not end the possible interpretations, as shown below:

    F. Ward takes the unusual tack of explaining it in the following way – “Paul means...something like this: 'You want to teach in church and be equal to men? It is against the order of creation. You do not want a marriage and a family? “The pressure of the 'curse' is off. Salvation will be enjoyed in the life of motherhood.”

And from Lea and Griffin come the following:

    G. “Paul was teaching that women prove the reality of their salvation when they become model wives and mothers whose good deeds include marriage and raising children.”

Finally, we have Towner's valuable survey of prior proposals, among which is the following:

    H. “Winter sees in the instruction a more precise reference to the option of aborting a pregnancy – possibly an attractive alternative for a progressive Roman woman who found herself pregnant: 'the Christian wife would be preserved by continuing in her pregnant condition (and thereby in bearing a child) instead of termination her pregnancy.' Presumably, his 'preserved by' is a reference to continuing in salvation or escaping from a temptation (from Satan?) to take some action that would put her faith in jeopardy (e.g., terminating her pregnancy).”

I. Finally, since I began with a comment by Brauch, I will conclude with another one by him. He views the background of these words in I Timothy against the context of teachers who “despise[d] physical, bodily reality” and thus “viewed marriage, and its specific expression in the bearing of children, as negative, or as unworthy of those who were truly spiritual members of a new community of 'saved' persons. Over against that heretical teaching, Paul may be affirming that the bearing of children, which is a woman's natural procreative, life-giving function, does in fact not keep her from full participation in the community of the saved.”