Who will listen to anybody is literally “always being taught” (compare New Revised Standard Version “always being instructed”). This of course refers to the women. One wonders why this should be considered a weakness; shouldn’t this be a positive thing instead? Two things should be mentioned to clarify the issue. (1) In 1 Tim 2.11 women are instructed to learn in silence; in other words they should not be asking any questions. From this we can deduce that there is a negative attitude toward the full education of women. (2) Perhaps the people doing the instructing are the false teachers themselves, and they are taking advantage of the desire of these women to learn. It is very likely that monetary considerations are involved. But more importantly, these women are being taught heresies, and no matter how much they learn or how long they are taught, they can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth (for which see 1 Tim 2.4). Truth is a general term that in this context refers to the gospel message itself, together with the teachings and doctrines that are derived from it. Obviously it is not this kind of teaching that the false teachers are sharing with these women.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• These women are always trying to learn new things, but they are never able to know (or, discover) God’s true message (or, doctrine).

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s Second Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .