<p>2:15 <i>But she shall be saved through the child-bearing</i>- Contrary to what is sometimes claimed, there is no article here. No reference is being made to &quot;the child bearing&quot;, as if the birth of Messiah is in view. The sentence continues &quot;If they continue in faith...&quot;- so the reference is to plural women and not to the singular woman, Mary, who bore the Lord Jesus. And the salvation of Mary or women generally is surely not just because Mary was the channel for the Lord's birth. Likewise, general child-bearing is not the salvation of women.</p><p>We must look for the answer to this apparently strange statement in the context. And a glance at standard reference works (such as the <i>International Standard Bible Encyclopedia</i> edited by James Orr) reveals that the priestesses of Diana / Artemis in Ephesus &quot;were all virgins&quot;. They did not have children because they were devoted to Diana; even although some of them slept with the worshippers, they aborted their children conceived as a result of this. Such abortion was common amongst temple prostitutes of many cults, but was apparently particularly enforced in the worship of Diana at Ephesus. Paul is saying that the group of sisters in the Ephesian church who were acting like these priestesses, claiming to make the prayers of males acceptable (:9), acting like mediators rather than accepting the one mediator (:5), dressing up in luxurious clothing in imitation of the Jewish Eve cult and the pagan Diana cult... these women were not to teach. Their influence was to be cut off by Timothy. They were to have children, and not abort them, and not to denigrate child-bearing. And they were to realize that Eve was not a heroine to be pretended to in that she sinned, was deceived by false teaching- as they had been. Instead they were to copy her in moving on after she realized her sin- by doing what first century women generally did, child-bearing. But with the difference that they were to raise a Godly seed, doing this work in faith and Godliness. Paul is advising this group of Ephesian women to get on and have children rather than imitate the Diana cult priestesses by not having children. The only other time the Greek word for &quot;child-bearing&quot; occurs is in 1 Tim. 5:14, where a group of young widows in the Ephesian church are advised to &quot;bear children&quot; and focus on leading their families- rather than giving the enemy an opportunity. Perhaps this same group are being referenced here. A group of young widows were becoming attracted to the cults of both Eve and Diana. Paul didn't want Timothy allowing them to teach, and he advises them to settle down and have children rather than playing at being priestesses.</p><p>So it would seem to me that Paul is addressing a particular group of women in Ephesus, and is advising Timothy how to deal with them. Those women are probably those referenced in 2 Tim. 3:6, influenced by false teachers &quot;that creep into houses house churches and take captive weak minded women laden with sins, led away by various lusts&quot;. Timothy had been charged to stop and root out this false teaching, as it was particularly influencing the sisters. But Paul is not making global statements about women and their place. For as pointed out, there is New Testament evidence of other more Godly women speaking and teaching in the churches.</p><p><i>If they continue in faith, love and sanctification with sobriety</i>- These terms are used elsewhere about men as well. So there is no intention of telling all women globally how they as women must behave. Instead of their involvement in the behaviour discussed above, these women in Ephesus were to focus upon the positive spiritual attributes required of all believers, male or female. Paul uses the same words translated here &quot;continue in faith&quot; in saying that God continues faithful (2 Tim. 2:13); His abiding faithfulness to us is to result in our abiding faithfulness to Him. This same idea of mutuality between God and man, whereby we both trust in each other, has just been used by Paul in 1:12 see note there.</p>