2:14a
And: Here Paul gave the second reason that women should not teach or rule men. He implied that it was often easier for the devil to deceive women than it was for him to deceive men. (The view that women tend to be more easily deceived than men has historically been the more popular view. Modern western ideas make this interpretation unpopular, but I have not seen any other convincing interpretation of what Paul says here. For example, some people understand verse 14 to imply that Eve’s problem was not that she was deceived, but that she ate the fruit without consulting Adam, and then, by offering the fruit for Adam to eat, was taking an improper role by, in a sense, “teaching” him. Stott, page 81, promotes this view and says, “the essence of Eve’s part in the fall was not that she was deceived, but that she took an improper initiative, usurped Adam’s authority and thus reversed their respective roles.” However, the focus in verse 14 is on deception, not teaching. Eve stands not as a type of Ephesian women who were teaching false doctrine, but as a type of Ephesian women who were being deceived by false doctrine. If it were Paul’s point in verse 14 that Eve should not have been teaching Adam, it is strange that he should leave teaching unmentioned and refer only to her deception!Kroeger and Kroeger’s interpretation that these statements are actually combating proto-Gnostic teachings is attractive, but speculative. They say that Paul was combating the proto-Gnostic teaching which said that Adam had been tricked into thinking that he was created before Eve, that the God who had made the material universe was the highest God of all, and that he should worship this God. For more details and interaction with other views see Schreiner in Women in the Church, pages 140–146.Keener, in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, page 591, says that Paul’s argument from Eve’s deception is likely to be ad hoc: “It is far more likely that Paul instead uses Eve to illustrate the plight of the particular women he addresses in Ephesus, who are easily deceived because they are untrained. Paul elsewhere uses Eve for anyone who is deceived, not just women (2 Cor 11:3).” However, the point remains that Paul is specifically referring to women here. Furthermore, Paul sets the context by referring to all women, not just untaught women, in 2:11 and 2:12a. See the notes on 2:11.) He said that the behavior of Eve and Adam was proof of this. If a woman is deceived, she may not teach what is true.
This does not mean that woman should never teach. In Titus 2:3–5 Paul wrote that women could teach other women. In 2 Timothy 1:5 and 3:14–15 he wrote that women should teach their children. However here Paul was saying that women should not teach men.
it was not Adam who was deceived: Paul was referring to Genesis 3:1–13. These verses explain that Satan appeared to Eve as a snake. He tempted her to eat the only fruit that God had forbidden Adam and her to eat. The snake did not speak to Adam or deceive him. Adam chose to eat the fruit when Eve offered it to him.
2:14b
but the woman who was deceived: The snake tricked or deceived Eve by causing her to disbelieve what God had said about the fruit.
Paul’s point here was that Satan was able to deceive Eve more easily than he could deceive Adam.
2:14c
fell into transgression: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as fell into transgression means “deliberately broke God’s law.” Eve did not obey God’s command. (Kroeger and Kroeger say that this combats Gnostic teaching which said that Eve actually did a good thing when she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They presume that people taught this in the time when Paul and Timothy lived.) She became a person who had disobeyed God.
General Comment on 2:11–14
Paul’s conclusion is in 2:12 and his reasons are in 2:13–14. However, in some languages, it is more natural to state reasons before the conclusion. If this is true in your language, you may need to combine and reorder the verses. One way to do this is:
11When men teach about God, women should learn by listening quietly and respectfully. 12–14For God made Adam before he made Eve. Also, Adam was not the one whom Satan deceived. Satan deceived Eve and she disobeyed God. Therefore, I do not allow women to teach or have authority over men.
General Comment on 2:14a–c
In some languages, it may be necessary to conclude 2:14 with a sentence to summarize what Paul was saying. For example, you could say:
Those are the reasons why women should not teach or have authority over men.
© 2003 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.