It is more likely that Paul uses childbearing as a figure of speech known as a synecdoche.¹ A synecdoche is a figure in which the part stands for the whole. Childbearing is a part of a larger whole, which is the woman’s wider role to care for the home. This is the same role Paul describes in Titus 2:4–5: “Young women [are] to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.”

Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control.
—1 Timothy 2:15

A Great Debate

The interpretation of 1 Timothy 2:15 has been an item of great debate among commentators. The confusion over the meaning of this verse is reflected in different English translations. For example, the NASB says that “women will be preserved,” whereas the ESV says that “she will be saved.”

The NASB reflects the view that Paul is merely stating that faithful Christian women will be preserved physically when they give birth. But this is implausible, because we know that not all faithful Christian women survive childbirth. The ESV is nearer the mark. This particular Greek word always refers to spiritual salvation elsewhere in the Pastoral Epistles, and we have no reason to think the verb is being used differently here.

If this is the case, is Paul suggesting that women are saved by means of bearing children? This would seem to contradict Paul’s teaching that salvation is by grace through faith apart from works (e.g., Eph. 2:8).

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This articles is adapted from ESV Expository Commentary: Ephesians–Philemon: Volume 11 edited by Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr, and Jay Sklar. Used with permission.