[B-Greek] Arthur Way and 1 Tim 2:15

Mark Lightman lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sat Nov 20 13:11:12 EST 2010


Kevin egrapsed:

<...the plural reflects the husband and wife, contrasting them with Adam and 
Eve...>

Hi, Kevin,

I had never heard this before, but I like it. My current (what time is it?) 
solution to this, the mother of all cruxes about mothers, is to accept:

1.  Your idea that μείνωσιν (MEINWSIN) refers to the Christian husband and wife.
2.  Daniel Buck's idea that τῆς τεκνογονίας (THS TEKNOGONIAS) refers to THE 
birth of Jesus.
3.  Iver's idea that the subject of σωθήσεται is the Christian wife.

Thus the verse means:

BUT (don't worry about the sin of Eve) because the Christian wife will get saved 
through the birth of Jesus, as long as she and her husband remain in faith and 
love and holiness and  prudence.

This interpretation, while not completely satisfactory, seems to me to do the 
least damage to both the Greek and to Paul's idea that salvation is never about 
anything other than faith in Jesus. 


Mark L
Φωσφορος


FWSFOROS MARKOS




________________________________
From: Kevin P. Edgecomb <kevin at bombaxo.com>
To: b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org
Sent: Fri, November 19, 2010 4:17:09 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Arthur Way and 1 Tim 2:15

George F. Somsel wrote:
Are you suggesting that "Paul" is stating that "she" shall be preserved during 
childbirth if "they" continue in faith ...?  Of course, the "she" could be 
simply the genus "woman."  It's an interesting problem.  I don't know as there 
is a solution which would be generally acceptable, but that isn't unusual in 
virtually any passage.

I write:
Yes, precisely.  The number agreement between clauses differs no matter what the 
construal of the first clause, though this disagreement is generally avoided in 
translation.  The second clause may be read as alluding to Adam and Eve, just 
under discussion, who pointedly did not "remain etc", so that the plural 
reflects the husband and wife, contrasting them with Adam and Eve.  And, of 
course, the converse is that unfaithful couples suffer from the women not being 
preserved through the course of childbirth.  There is a  logic there.

An interesting problem, to be sure.

Regards,
Kevin P. Edgecomb
Berkeley, California

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