Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 1 Timothy 2:15 - 2:15
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1Ti_2:15. Σωθήσεται δὲ διὰ τῆς τεκνογονίας ] σωθήσεται δέ is in opposition to the previous ἐν παραβάσει γέγονε . Still this sentence is not intended merely to moderate the judgment pronounced in 1Ti_2:14 (Matthies); after the apostle has forbidden to the woman any activity in church assemblies as unbecoming to her, he now points to the destiny assigned her by God, the fulfilment of which brings salvation to her. The subject of σωθήσεται is ἡ γυνή , to be supplied from the preceding words; but, of course, it applies collectively to the whole sex, while referring specially to Eve.[108]
σωθήσεται is to be taken here in the sense which it continually has in the N. T. (not then equivalent to “she will win for herself merit and reward,” de Wette). Every reason to the contrary falls to the ground, if only we consider that ΤΕΚΝΟΓΟΝΊΑ is regarded as the destiny assigned to the woman by God, and that to the woman ΣΩΤΗΡΊΑ is assured by it under the condition given in the words following: ἘᾺΝ Κ . Τ . Λ . It is to be noted also, that though faith is the only source of salvation, the believer must not fail in fulfilling his duties in faith, if he is to partake in the ΣΩΤΗΡΊΑ .
ΔΙΆ is taken by several expositors (also Wiesinger) in the sense of “in;”[109] but this is wrong, for either this signification “in” passes over into the signification “by means of,” or it has much the same force as “notwithstanding, in spite of” (Rom_2:27; see Meyer on the passage); διά , however, cannot be used in this sense, since τεκνογονία would in that case have been regarded as a hindrance to the attainment of the σωτηρία . This militates also against Hofmann’s view, “that σώζεσθαι διά τινος has the same meaning here as in 1Co_3:15, to be saved as through something;” this explanation also makes the τεκνογονία appear to be something through which the woman’s σώζεσθαι is endangered.[110]
τεκνογονία , a word which occurs only here in the N. T. (as also ΤΕΚΝΟΓΟΝΈΩ only in chap. 1Ti_5:14, and ΤΕΚΝΟΤΡΟΦΈΩ only in chap. 1Ti_5:10), can have here nothing but its etymological meaning. Some, quite wrongly, have taken it as a term for the marriage state, and others have made it synonymous with ΤΕΚΝΟΤΡΟΦΊΑ . This latter view is found in the oldest expositors; thus Theophylact remarks, not without wit: Οὐ ΓΕΝΝῆΣΑΙ ΜΌΝΟΝ ΔΕῖ , ἈΛΛᾺ ΚΑῚ ΠΑΙΔΕῦΣΑΙ · ΤΟῦΤΟ ΓᾺΡ ὌΝΤΩς ΤΕΚΝΟΓΟΝΊΑ , ΕἸ ΔῈ Οὐ , ΟὐΚ ἘΣΤῚ ΤΕΚΝΟΓΟΝΊΑ , ἈΛΛᾺ ΤΕΚΝΟΦΘΟΡΊΑ ἜΣΤΑΙ ΤΑῖς ΓΥΝΑΙΞΊ .
The question, how the ΤΕΚΝΟΓΟΝΊΑ contributes to the ΣΩΤΗΡΊΑ , is answered by most by supplying[111] with the one or the other something of which there is no hint in the words of the apostle, and by which the thought is more or less altered. This much may be granted, that Paul, by laying stress on the ΤΕΚΝΟΓΟΝΊΑ (the occasion for which was probably the ΚΩΛΎΩΝ ΓΑΜΕῖΝ on the part of the heretics, chap. 1Ti_4:3), assigns to the woman, who has to conduct herself as passive in the assemblies, the domestic life as the sphere in which—especially in regard to the children—she has to exercise her activity (comp. 1Ti_5:14).
In order not to be misunderstood, as if he had said that the ΤΕΚΝΟΓΟΝΊΑ as a purely external fact affects ΣΩΤΗΡΊΑ , he adds the following words: ἘᾺΝ ΜΕΊΝΩΣΙΝ ἘΝ ΠΊΣΤΕΙ Κ . Τ . Λ . The subject of ΜΕΊΝΩΣΙΝ is the collective idea ΓΥΝΉ (see Winer, pp. 481, 586 [E. T. pp. 648, 787]), and not, as many older (Chrysostom and others) and later (Schleiermacher, Mack, Leo, Plitt) expositors think: “the children.” This latter might indeed be supplied from ΤΕΚΝΟΓΟΝΊΑ , but it would give a wrong idea.
It is quite arbitrary, with Heydenreich, to supply “man and wife.”
Paul uses the expressions ἘΝ ΠΊΣΤΕΙ Κ . Τ . Λ . to denote the Christian life in its various aspects. They are not to be limited to the relation of married life, ΠΊΣΤΙς denoting conjugal fidelity; ἈΓΆΠΗ , conjugal love; ἉΓΙΑΣΜΌς , conjugal chastity; and ΣΩΦΡΟΣΎΝΗ , living in regular marriage. ΣΩΦΡΟΣΎΝΗ is named along with the preceding cardinal virtues of the Christian life, because it peculiarly becomes the thoughts of a woman (comp. 1Ti_2:9), not because “a woman is apt to lose control of herself through her excitable temperament” (Hofmann). There is in the context no hint of a reference to female weakness.[112]
[108] Even Theophylact declared against the curious view, that Mary is to be taken here as subject. Clearly also Eve cannot here be meant.
[109] Van Oosterzee translates διά by “by means of,” and then says: “it simply indicates a condition in which the woman becomes a partaker of blessedness,” leaving it uncertain in what relation the apostle places τεκνογονία to σώζεσθαι .
[110] Hofmann says in explanation: “If it is appointed to the woman to bear children in pain, she might succumb under such a burden of life;” but, in reply, it is to be observed that τεκνογονία does not mean “to bear children with pain.”
[111] Most think of the faithful fulfilment of maternal duty in the education of children. Chrysostom: τικνογονίαν , φησι , τὸ μὴ μόνον τεκεῖν , ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ Θεὸν ἀναγαγεῖν .—According to Heinrichs, Paul means here to say: mulier jam hoc in mundo peccatorum poenas luit, διὰ τῆς τεκνογ . eo, quod cum dolore parturit, adeoque haec τεκνογ . eam quasi σώζειν putanda est, et ipsa σώζεσθαι διὰ τῆς τεκνογονίας . The passage quoted by Heinrichs, Gen_3:16, does not denote the τεκνογονία as such, but the pains connected with it as a punishment of transgression. According to Plitt, the τεκνογ . serves to farther the woman’s σωτηρία ; on the one hand, because by the fulfilment of her wish gratitude is aroused within her; on the other hand, because of her care for her children she is preserved from many frivolities.
[112] De Wette asserts too much when he says that this passage is in contradiction with 1Co_7:7 ff., 1Co_7:25 ff., 1Co_7:38 ff. The truth is rather that the matter is regarded from various points of view. In 1 Corinthians the apostle is delivering his judgment, while he considers the difficult position of Christians amid the hostility of the world, without for a moment denying that τεκνογονία is an ordinance of God. Here, however, he is considering only the latter point, without entering into every detail.