Dana and Mantey in their Manual Grammar o f the Greek New Testament (p. 199) have this to say on the subject^: "The aorist infinitive denotes that which is eventual or particular, while the present infinitive indicates a condition or process. Thus pisteusai (aorist) is to exercise faith on a given occasion, while pisteuein (present) is to be a believer; douleusai (aorist) is to render a service, while douleuein (present) is to be a slave; hamartein (aorist) is to commit a sin, while hamartanein (present) is to be a sinner." Thus, didaxai (aorist), is to teach, while didaskein (present 2:12), is to be a teacher. Paul, therefore, says, "I do not permit a woman to be a teacher." The context here has to do with church order, and the position of the man and woman in the church worship and work. The kind of teacher Paul has in mind is spoken of in Acts 13:1, I Corinthians 12:28, 29, and Ephesians 4:11, God-called, and God-equipped teachers, recognized by the Church as those having authority in the Church in matters of doctrine and interpretation. This prohibition of a woman to be a teacher, does not include the teaching of classes of women, girls, or children in a Sunday School, fot instance, but does prohibit the woman from being a pastor, or a doctrine teacher in a school. It would not be seemly, either, for a woman to teach a mixed class of adults.

The expression, "usurp authority," Vincent says, is not a correct translation of the Greek word. It is rather, "to exercise dominion over." In the sphere of doctrinal disputes or questions of interpretation, where authoritative pronouncements are to be made, the woman is to keep silence.

(2:13-15) The reason for the above position of the man in the Church and that of the woman, Paul says, is found in the original order of creation, and in the circumstances of the fall of man. The word "formed" is plasso "to form, mold" something from clay or wax. It was used strictly of one working in soft substances, as a pottter in clay, molding or shaping. The first word "deceived," is the translation of apatab, "to cheat, deceive, beguile." The second instance of the use of the word is exapatab, "to completely or thoroughly deceive." The word "was" is ginomai, in the perfect tense, which verb when used with en (in) as it is here, often signifies the coming or falling into a condition. One could render the expression, "has fallen into transgression."

Verse fifteen is most difficult of interpretation. We will look at the expression, "she shall be saved." The salvation spoken of here is not salvation in the ordinary sense of the word, as when a sinner puts his faith in the Lord Jesus, and is saved from sin and becomes a child of God. The woman spoken of here is a Christian, for Paul speaks of her as continuing in faith and love and holiness. These things could not be said of an unsaved person. The Greek word "to save" (sōzō), has a variety of uses. It is used in the N.T., of the healing of a sick person in the sense that he is saved from illness and from death (Mark 5:34 "made whole," (sōzō). It is used in the sense of being saved from drowning in a shipwreck (Acts 27:20). Paul uses it in relation to being saved from becoming entangled in false teaching (I Tim. 4:16). In our present verse (2:15), the word is used in the sense of being saved from something other than from an unsaved condition. It should be clear, that salvation in the latter sense can only be had through faith in the atoning work of the Lord Jesus, never by good works, or by anything which the sinner might do. What that something is which child-bearing saves the woman from is made clear by the excellent note in Expositor’s Greek Testament; "The penalty for transgression, so far as woman is concerned, was expressed in the words, ‘I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children’ (Gen.3:16). But just as in the case of man, the world being as it is, the sentence has proved a blessing, so it is in the case of woman. ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread’ expresses man’s necessity, duty, privilege, dignity. If the necessity of work be a stumbling block, man can ‘make it a stepping-stone’ (Browning, The Ring and the Book, The Pope, 413). Nay, it is the only stepping-stone available to him. If St. Paul’s argument had led him to emphasize the man’s part in the first transgression, he might have said, ‘He shall be saved in his toil,’ his overcoming the obstacles of nature.

"So St. Paul, taking the common-sense view that childbearing, rather than public teaching or the direction of affairs, is woman’s primary function, duty, privilege, and dignity, reminds Timothy and his readers that there was another aspect of the story in Genesis besides that of the woman’s taking the initiative in transgression: the pains of childbirth were her sentence, yet in undergoing these, she finds her salvation. She shall be saved in her childbearing (R.V. m. nearly). That is her normal and natural duty ; and in the discharge of our normal and natural duties we all, men and women alike, as far as our individual efforts can contribute to it, ‘work out our own salvation."

To briefly state the matter, the interpretation is as follows: just as hard labor is the man’s salvation in a set of circumstances and sttrronnd^;ngs that without it, would cause him to deteriorate instead of make progress in character, so the pains of childbirth become the salvation of the woman, and in the same sense and for the same purpose, that of enabling the woman to adjust herself in her circumstances and surroundings so that she too will do the same.

As to the Greek exegesis involved, we submit the following: The words "in childbearing" are the translation of dia tes teknogonias. The preposition diaa which ordinarily has the force of "by means of" and denotes intermediate agency, Expositors says, "here has hardly an instrumental force; it is rather the dia of accompanying circumstances, as in I Corinthians 3:15 (yet so as through fire)."

As to the plural pronoun "they," the same authority says, "The subject of ‘continue’ is usually taken to be women ; but inasmuch as St. Paul has been speaking of women in the marriage relation, it seems better to understand the plural of the woman and her husband."