Paul, I’ve Got a Couple Questions

April 5, 2025

I would love to discuss this Bible excerpt with the Apostle Paul:

“A woman must learn in quietness and full submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet.

• For Adam was formed first, and then Eve.
• And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression.

Women, however, will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.” — 1 Timothy 2:11–15, BSB (with my structural edit).

While I am sure Paul was much smarter than I’ll ever be, and he knew the Scriptures miles beyond my basic elementary level, and he did a huge amount more for Jesus than I will ever be able to do, I’d love to sit down to ask him some questions.

• What does having babies have to do with being saved? Being saved in what particular way? (I’m confused.)

• Isn’t continuing in “faith, love, and holiness, with self-control” a directive for all Born Again Believers?
• If :the woman” was deceived, where, then, does Adam stand since he voluntarily partook in what was forbidden?
• Standing in the presence of God, shouldn’t everyone — especially men — learn in quietness and full submissiveness

There are cultural norms in every culture and perhaps Paul was concerned about going against the grain for no surpassing accomplishment.. Agitating for such socio political changes would be counterproductive and not serve the cause of the Gospel of Christ… In other words, please leave your Revolution at home. You can organize your protests away from the rest of us and on your own time. We don’t need the authorities crashing our party. We have more important priorities — like working for the Almighty, declaring the Kingdom of God.

Paul also did address disruptive behaviors during church services in the letters to the Corinthians — as in instructing married couples should be taking their questions home for discussion — so as not to allow everyone’s chatter to prevent others hearing the sermon.

So, maybe in this excerpt he had in mind the same type of thing.

My question about childbearing at first I found one lengthy answer which did somersaults in trying to finagle an explanation. It was confusing to me, and there was no answer at that website at all.

So, I went to the old reliable at biblehub.com, hit the Interlinear Bible tab, selected the Greek word, and went to Strong’s Greek for the definition of the word. “childbearing.” — https://biblehub.com/greek/

Curiously, it also gave an eye-opening definition, “the rearing of a family.”

It occurred to me that a man feels more fulfilled covered in grease after fixing a car or sweating while working to provide for his family, and a woman feels more fulfilled providing support and social awareness surrounded by children — hers or somebody else’s…

Does that make any sense?

A man finds salvation — temporal or spiritual — in one way, and women find salvation by another.

What was it that Rose said at the end of the “Titanic” movie? “He saved me in every way…”

It might be important to add here that the English word, “salvation,” has English synonyms, “regeneration” and “restoration.”

Refreshed and restored keep coming to mind.

Still and all, I don’t know how you might understand all this or if I am making any sense of this at all or how you might relate to this Bible excerpt, but here goes:

Jesus said to them, “Are you asking one another why I said, ‘In a little while you will not see Me, and then after a little while you will see Me’? Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.- John 16:19–22, BSB.