Handout - In 1 Timothy 2:15, what does teknogōnia mean?

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In 1 Timothy 2:15, what does teknogōnia mean?

 

The claim

 

In their paraphrase of this verse, Ian and Averil make the following suggestion:

 

‘Yet, though Eve was deceived, a wife will be saved, and there will be no deception and no sin, if she lives a proper married life, bearing children and continuing in faith and love and holiness, with modesty.’¹

 

They therefore understand teknogōnia to mean ‘bearing children’, though they also see it as representing part of ‘a proper married life’.² In ‘The Sister’s role – The Bible‟s large picture’, brother Brian Luke gave the following understanding of this word in verse 15:

 

‘“Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing (i.e. all that is motherhood, Gk TEKNOGONIA), if THEY continue in faith and love and holiness with sobriety” 1Timothy 2:15.’³

Ian and Averil challenged this understanding in ‘Reply 2’:

 

‘On what grounds does Brother Luke redefine “teknogonia” as “all that is motherhood”. The word means “childbearing” not “childrearing”. Compare 1 Timothy 5 where the two Greek words are distinguished:

 

I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children (“teknogoneo”), guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. (1 Timothy 5:14, KJV)

and 1 Timothy 5:10 Let not a widow be taken into the number under threescore years old, having been the wife of one man. Well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children (“teknotropheo”), if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet, if she have relieved the afflicted, if she have diligently followed every good work. (1 Timothy 5:9-10)’

⁴

 

The facts

 

The word itself means ‘child bearing’, but its use in the context of verse 15 suggests more than this; EDNT identifies its use in verse 15 as ‘childbearing/motherhood’,⁵ and ANLEX likewise has ‘motherhood’⁶ for its use in verse 15.Ian and Averil have been too hasty here. There is no evidence that brother Luke has attempted to redefine the word teknogōnia.

 

On the contrary, he has used a meaning found in two professional lexicons as the sense of the word in this verse. Given this fact, and that Ian and Averil themselves see teknogōnia as meaning ‘bearing children’ but representing part of ‘a proper married life’⁷ (a phrase they insert in their paraphrase of verse 15), there are no good grounds for their objection.

 

Standard scholarly commentaries understand teknogōnia as having a non-literal sense in verse 15, representing the God given role of the woman by a figure of speech:

 

‘In a somewhat awkward manner, Paul is saying that a woman’s salvation and the practical outworking of that salvation (cf. Phil 2:12) do not consist in altering her role in the church. Rather, she is to accept

her God-given role, one of the specific functions being the bearing of children (synecdoche).’⁸

 

This view (which is the same given by brother Luke), is described as the majority view in one standard commentary:

 

‘The final interpretation may be termed “the majority view.” 44 This view would hold that Christian women are not saved through teaching and asserting authority, but by attention to their traditional role.

 

“Childbearing” serves as a figure of speech to illustrate Paul’s argument that women need not behave as men but rather fulfill their divinely appointed role to find salvation. The figure may be termed either a metonymy 45 [original footnote reproduced in footnote ⁹ below] or a synecdoche. [original footnote reproduced in footnote ¹⁰ below]’ ¹¹

 

In fact one commentary notes that the word is being used to describe the salvation demonstrated by women becoming ‘model wives’, a phrase similar to Ian and Averil’s own ‘a proper married life’:¹²

 

‘Paul is not suggesting that women must have children to be saved. Childbearing represents Paul’s teaching “that women prove the reality of their salvation when they become model wives and mothers whose good deeds include marriage and raising children (1 Tim 5:11, 14).” 47 [original footnote reproduced in footnote ¹³ below]’¹⁴

 

Leaving aside the difference between brother Luke’s ‘all that is motherhood’¹⁵ and Ian and Averil’s ‘a proper married life’, ¹⁶ it is clear that brother Luke’s understanding is recognized in professional lexical sources and standard commentaries, and that Ian and Averil’s understanding is not far from such support either.

 

The NET footnote on 1 Timothy 2:15 discusses various proposed interpretations of the meaning of the Greek word teknogōnia in verse 15, of which the following is given as one of the most plausible:

 

‘(5) “It is not through active teaching and ruling activities that Christian women will be saved, but through faithfulness to their proper role, exemplified in motherhood” (Moo, 71). In this view τεκνογονία is seen as a synecdoche in which child-rearing and other activities of motherhood are involved.’¹⁷

 

 

(Jonathan Burke, 2010)

 

 

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¹ ‘All One’, p. 93 (March 2009).

² Ibid., p. 93.

³ ‘The Sister’s role – The Bible’s large picture’, p. 8 (January 2009).

⁴ ‘Reply 2’, p.p. 8-9 (April 2009).

⁵‘ According to 1 Tim 2:15 in its interpretation of Gen 3:16, bearing children / motherhood is the special task of women, including according to v. 15b a life in faith (possibly a reference to the rearing of children in faith; cf. b. Ber. 17a): σωθήσεται δὲ διὰ τῆς τεκνογονίας.’, Balz & Schneider, ‘Exegetical dictionary of the New Testament. Translation of: Exegetisches Worterbuch zum Neuen Testamen’, volume 3, p. 340 (1990-c1993).

⁶ ‘bearing children, childbearing, motherhood (1T 2.15)’, Friberg, Friberg, & Miller ‘Analytical lexicon of the Greek New Testament’, volume 4, p. 376 (2000).

⁷ Ibid., p. 93.

⁸ Mounce (complementarian), ‘Pastoral Epistles’, Word Biblical Commentary, p. 146 (2002).

⁹ ‘A figure in which the name of one thing is used for another because the two are closely associated. For example we may say “the White House reported today that …” which really means the president and his staff have reported.’.

¹⁰ ‘A synecdoche is a figure in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part or a species is used for the genus. Cf. Lea and Griffin, p. 102.’.

¹¹ Moss (complementarian), ‘1, 2 Timothy & Titus’, The College Press NIV Commentary (1994).

¹² Ibid., p. 93.

¹³ ‘Ibid., p. 102.’.

¹⁴ Moss, ‘1, 2 Timothy & Titus’, The College Press NIV Commentary (1994).

¹⁵ ‘The Sister’s role – The Bible’s large picture’, p. 8 (January 2009).

¹⁶ Ibid., p. 93.

¹⁷‘24 tn Or “But she will be preserved through childbearing,” or “But she will be saved in spite of childbearing.” This verse is notoriously difficult to interpret, though there is general agreement about one point: Verse 15 is intended to lessen the impact of vv. 13–14. There are several interpretive possibilities here, though the first three can be readily dismissed (cf. D. Moo, ”1 Timothy 2:11–15: Meaning and Significance,” TJ 1 [1980]: 70-73).

(1) Christian women will be saved, but only if they bear children. This view is entirely unlikely for it lays a condition on Christian women that goes beyond grace, is unsupported elsewhere in scripture, and is explicitly against Paul’s and Jesus’ teaching on both marriage and salvation (cf. Matt 19:12; 1 Cor 7:8–9, 26–27, 34–35; 1 Tim 5:3–10).

(2) Despite the curse, Christian women will be kept safe when bearing children. This view also is unlikely, both because it has little to do with the context and because it is not true to life (especially life in the ancient world with its high infant mortality rate).

(3) Despite the sin of Eve and the results to her progeny, she would be saved through the childbirth - that is, through the birth of the Messiah, as promised in the protevangelium (Gen 3:15). This view sees the singular “she” as referring first to Eve and then to all women (note the change from singular to plural in this verse). Further, it works well in the context. However, there are several problems with it:

[a] The future tense (σωθήσηται, sōthēsētai) is unnatural if referring to the protevangelium or even to the historical fact of the Messiah’s birth; that only women are singled out as recipients of salvation seems odd since the birth of the Messiah was necessary for the salvation of both women and men; [c] as ingenious as this view is, its very ingenuity is its downfall, for it is overly subtle; and [d] the term τεκνογονία (teknogonia) refers to the process of childbirth rather than the product. And since it is the person of the Messiah (the product of the birth) that saves us, the term is unlikely to be used in the sense given it by those who hold this view.

There are three other views that have greater plausibility:

(4) This may be a somewhat veiled reference to the curse of Gen 3:16 in order to clarify that though the woman led the man into transgression (v. 14b), she will be saved spiritually despite this physical reminder of her sin. The phrase is literally “through childbearing,” but this does not necessarily denote means or instrument here. Instead it may show attendant circumstance (probably with a concessive force): “with, though accompanied by” (cf. BDAG 224 s.v. δία A.3.c; Rom 2:27; 2 Cor 2:4; 1 Tim 4:14).

(5) “It is not through active teaching and ruling activities that Christian women will be saved, but through faithfulness to their proper role, exemplified in motherhood” (Moo, 71). In this view τεκνογονία is seen as a synecdoche in which child-rearing and other activities of motherhood are involved. Thus, one evidence (though clearly not an essential evidence) of a woman’s salvation may be seen in her decision to function in this role.

(6) The verse may point to some sort of proverbial expression now lost, in which “saved” means “delivered” and in which this deliverance was from some of the devastating effects of the role reversal that took place in Eden. The idea of childbearing, then, is a metonymy of part for the whole that encompasses the woman’s submission again to the leadership of the man, though it has no specific soteriological import (but it certainly would have to do with the outworking of redemption).’ The NET Bible First Edition, footnote on 1 Timothy 2:15 (Biblical Studies Press, 2006).

 

Handout_teknogonia.pdf