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1Ti 2:11 is concerned with women being orderly in the worship services. Like Jewish synagogues, early Christian churches separated men and women for worship, so questions by women of men during the service were disruptive at best. Evidently the women in Ephesus were overzealous in their new status as freed in Christ. Consequently, Paul firmly asserts that on the basis of God’s creation of man first and the subsequent deception of woman (vv.13-14), he does not permit women (v.12) to teach or to exercise authority over men. Rather, they are to “learn in quietness” (the same word is translated “silent” in v.11). Representative of traditional rabbinic teaching, this is not congruent with Paul’s earlier affirmation in Gal 3:28 or with the general tenor of Scripture.
This section, with 1Co 11:2-16 and 14:33-40, represents directions given to a city dominated by a female deity. In Ephesus she was known as Artemis or Diana, an earth mother goddess (not the Diana of classical Greek mythology); her counterpart in Corinth was Aphrodite or Venus, the goddess of love. It seems clear that in these cultures Christian women felt so liberated that they needed stricter boundaries to guide their new freedom than did their counterparts of Galatia, Rome, or Philippi (Mickelsen, 197-212). Consequently, it is questionable whether the prohibitions in 1Ti 2 and 1Co 11 and 14 are of a universal nature. This interpretation is one of the reasons why Wesleyans ordain women.
1Ti 2:15 presents several possibilities of interpretation: (1) Women are saved through childbearing (niv); (2) the woman will be saved through the childbearing—a reference to Mary giving birth to Jesus (niv footnote); or (3) women are preserved through the bearing of children (nasb), which refers not to salvation but to the preservation of the race in fulfillment of Ge 3:16.
All the options of interpretation are fraught with difficulties. If women are saved through childbearing as the NIV suggests, what about single women and women who are unable to have children? The NIV note forces the Greek text but does have the advantage of alleviating the difficulties of options 1 and 3. The NASB seems to do a disservice to sōzō, usually translated “save,” as well as raises questions regarding option 1. The best approach is to say that Paul’s meaning is unclear.
This text does not appear to follow the teaching of salvation by faith, which is found elsewhere in Scripture and even in this very letter (2:4). V.15 closes with a triad prefaced by a condition of probability, implying that they can remain in faith, love and holiness with good sense (niv propriety). V.15 presents a high view of the lifestyle to which a woman can attain.