Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Timothy 2:13
For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
13. ‘The Apostle appeals to the original order and course of things. By inverting this relative position and calling the helpmate assuming the place of the head or guide, and the head facilely yielding to her governance was the happy constitution of Paradise overthrown.’ Fairbairn.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For Adam was first formed, then Eve – The apostle, in this verse, and the following, gives reasons why a woman should occupy a subordinate situation, and not usurp authority. The first is, that she was second in the act of creation, or was made subsequent to man. The reason here assigned cannot be understood to be merely that of priority of existence – for then it would give every old person authority over a younger one; but it must refer to the circumstances of the case as detailed in the history of the creation; Gen. 12. Man was made as the lord of this lower creation and placed in the garden, and then the woman was made of a rib taken from his side, and given to him, not as a lord, but as a companion. All the circumstances combine to show the subordinate nature of her rank, and to prove that she was not designed to exert authority over the man; compare notes on 1Co 11:8-9.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Ti 2:13
For Adam was first formed.
Man and woman: their relative work
As to the question, Which is the most important, man or woman? if I may be allowed to speak in editorial style, I should say, the discussion must now stop. Let those who like it sit apart upon a hill retired and discuss the kindred questions, which is the most important, convex or concave, night or morning, east or west, green land or glancing water? For ourselves we are, I hope, content to take Florence Nightingales advice–Keep clear of all jargons about mans work and womans work, and go your way straight to Gods work in simplicity and singleness of heart, each one to do what each one can do best. Now, we know that, as a rule, some things that women can do right nobly at a crisis, are not best for them to do when men are to be had. As a rule, I think it is not best for women to man a lifeboat; but one black night at Teignmouth last year, when the men were all out of the way, or else were not sharp enough, the women got the lifeboat out. With shrill, quivering cheers they carried it through the battling breakers, dragged a vessel off the sand-bar, and saved precious life. When we hear that they did all this without any help from the unfair sex, who can help saying, Well done! I go farther and say that, as a rule, in my private opinion, it is not best for women to preach in public, but where, in exceptional cases and with extra ordinary gifts, women like Mary Fletcher and Priscilla Gurney go out of their way, and all by themselves publicly launch the lifeboat of the gospel to snatch souls from the sea of sin and from the rocks of death, again I say to the praise of grace, Well done! They remind me of the Roman who said, I have broken the law, but I have saved the State! They are under a higher law than the law they violate, and I am no more able to doubt the validity of their orders than I can doubt the sanity of the New Testament. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
Punishment no hindrance to salvation
1. The punishment of the woman–in child-bearing.
2. The comfort of the woman–she shall be saved.
3. The condition of the salvation–if they continue. Wherein is implied an exhortation to continue in faith, etc.
Many observations might be raised.
1. The pain in childbearing is a punishment inflicted upon the woman for the first sin.
2. The continuance of this punishment after redemption by Christ, doth not hinder the salvation of the woman, if there be the gospel-conditions requisite.
3. The exercise of faith, with other Christian graces, is a peculiar means for the preservation of believers under Gods afflicting hand. I shall sum them up into this one. The continuance of the punishment inflicted upon the woman for the first sin doth not prejudice her eternal salvation, nor her preservation in child-bearing, where there are the conditions of faith and other graces.
I. Concerning the punishment. Child-bearing itself is not the punishment, but the pain in it. For the blessing, Increase and multiply, was given in innocency. And because this punishment is the greater, it is disputed in the schools whether Adams or Eves sin were the greater. We may, I think, safely make these conclusions.
1. In regard of the kind of sin, it was equal in both. They both had an equal pride, an equal aspiring to be like God.
2. In regard of the first motion to this sin, Eves sin was the greater. She was the seducer of Adam, which the apostle expresseth in the verse before the text.
3. In regard of the womans condition, the sin was greater on Adams part.
(1) Because he, being the man, had more power to resist, more strength to argue the case.
(2) Eve had a stronger and craftier adversary to deal with, the subtlest of all the beasts of the field (Gen 3:1), animated and inspired by a craftier devil. The stronger the tempter, the more excusable the sin.
(3) Eve had the command of not eating immediately from her husband, which laid not altogether so strong a tie upon her as it did upon him, who had it immediately from the mouth of God, and therefore was more certain of the verity of the precept.
II. Of what nature is this punishment?
1. It is not a punishment in a rigid sense, nor continued as such.
(1) Because it is not commensurate to the nature of the sin, neither is it that penalty which the law required. Death was due, and death immediately upon the offence; but death was kept off by the interposition of the mediator, and this which is less than death inflicted at present. Where death is deserved, and a lighter punishment inflicted, it is rather an act of clemency than strict justice, and may be called by the name of a partial pardon or reprieve, as well as a punishment.
(2) It is not a reparation of the injury done to God. One reason of the institution of punishment is to repair the damage the person offended sustains by the malefactor, as far as he is capable.
(3) It is not continued as a part of satisfaction to the justice of God; as though Christ needed the sufferings of the creature to make up the sum which He was to pay for us, and which He hath already paid. These punishments are to awaken men to a sight of their first sin.
(4) The proper impulsive cause of punishment is wrath. In inflicting it He preserves the authority of a Judge; in preserving under it, and pardoning the sin for which it was inflicted, He evidenceth the affection of a Father.
2. Yet it is in some sort a punishment, and something more than an affliction.
(1) In respect of the meritorious cause, sin. This is not inflicted as an act of absolute sovereignty, but a judicial legal act upon the demerit of sin.
(2) Because if man had stood in innocency, neither this grief, nor indeed any other, had been.
III. This punishment doth not hinder salvation though it be continued.
1. God intended not in the acceptance of Christs mediation to remove in this life all the punishments denounced after the Fall. God takes away the eternal, but not the temporal. Some parts of Christs purchase are only payable in another life, and some fruits of redemption God intends for growth only in another soil; such are freedom from pain, diseases, death, and sin. But the full value of Christs satisfaction will appear when there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, when the day of redemption shall dawn, and all tears be wiped from believers eyes. But God never promised the total removal of them in this life to any saint; no, though he should have all the faith and holiness of all the catalogue of saints in the Book of Life centred in him.
2. Christ never intended, in the payment of the price of our redemption, the present removal of them. He sent, after His ascension, the Spirit to be our Comforter, which supposeth a state wherein we should need comfort; and when are we under a greater necessity of comfort than when the punishment of sin is actually inflicted on us?
3. Christ intended, and did actually take away the curse of those punishments from every believer.
4. Hence it will follow that to a believer the very nature of these punishments is altered. In the one the sting remains; in the other it is pulled out. The cord that binds a malefactor and a patient may be made of the same hemp, and a knife only go between; but it binds the malefactor to execution, the other to a cure.
5. Therefore all temporal punishments of original sin, though they remain, do not prejudice a believers present interest.
(1) They cut not off his relation to God.
(2) They debar not from the presence of God. God may be and is as near to us in supporting as He is in punishing.
(3) They break not the covenant. His rod and His stripes, though they seem to break ore, backs, make no breaches in His covenant (Psa 89:32-34).
6. Add to all this, that the first promise secures a believer under the sufferings of those punishments. Gods affection in the promise of bruising the serpents head was more illustrious in His wrath than the threatening. There are the bowels of a father in the promise before there was the voice of a judge in the sentence. But it may be asked, What is the reason these punishments are continued since the redemption wrought by Christ? There are reasons–
(1) On Gods part.
(a) It is congruous to the wisdom of God to leave them upon us while we are in the world.
(b) It is congruous to the holiness of God. God keeps up those punishments as the Rector and Governor of the world, to show His detestation of that sin which brought a disorder and deformity upon the creation, and was the first act of dishonour to God, and the first pollution of the creature.
(c) It is a declaration of His justice.
(d) It is useful to magnify His love. We should not be sensible of what our Saviour suffered, nor how transcendently He loved us if the punishment of sin had been presently removed upon the first promise.
(2) On our parts. It is useful to us
(a) To make us abhor our first defection and sin.
(b) To make us fear to sin and to purge it out. Sin hath riveted itself so deep that easy medicines will not displace it. It hath so much of our affections that gentle means will not divorce us from it. We shall hate it most when we reap the punishment of it.
(c) To exercise grace.
1. Faith and trust–She that is desolate trusts in God (1Ti 5:5). The lower the state, the greater necessity and greater obligation to trust; such exercises manifest that the condition we are in is sanctified to us.
2. Obedience in a believer hath a greater lustre by them. It was the glory of Job that he preserved his integrity under the smartest troubles.
3. Humility. These punishments are left upon us to allay our pride, and be our remembrancers of our deplorable miscarriage.
4. Patience. Were there no punishments there would be but little occasion for patience. (S. Charnock.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 13. For Adam was first formed, then Eve.] And by this very act God designed that he should have the pre-eminence. God fitted man, by the robust construction of his body, to live a public life, to contend with difficulties, and to be capable of great exertions. The structure of woman’s body plainly proves that she was never designed for those exertions required in public life. In this the chief part of the natural inferiority of woman is to be sought.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The man had the priority of the woman in his creation, he was not made for her, but she was made for a help-mate mate for him; therefore she, being made for him, ought to usurp no authority over him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. Forreason of the precept;the original order of creation.
Adam . . . firstbeforeEve, who was created for him (1Co 11:8;1Co 11:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For Adam was first formed,…. Immediately by God, out of the dust of the earth; and the breath of life was breathed into him, and he became a living soul; thus wonderfully and fearfully was he made; after this he was put into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and all creatures were brought to him, to give them names; and still an help meet or a companion was not found for him. All this while Eve was not as yet formed, but after this,
then Eve. She was formed out of him, was made out of one of his ribs; and was formed for him, for his use, service, help and comfort; and here lies the strength of the apostle’s reason, why the woman should be in subjection to the man; not so much because he was made before her; for so were the beasts of the field before Adam; and yet this gave them no superiority to him; but because she was made out of him, and made for him, see 1Co 11:8. So that the woman’s subjection to the man is according to the laws of nature and creation; and was antecedent to the fall; and would have been, if that had never been; though that brought her into a lower, and meaner, and more depressed estate; which the apostle next mentions. The words may be rendered, “the first Adam”, or “Adam the first was formed, and then Eve”. See 1Co 15:45.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Was first formed ( ). Note , not , first before Eve. First aorist passive indicative of , old verb, in N.T. only here and Ro 9:20 (cf. Ge 2:7f.).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Was formed [] . Comp. Rom 9:20. Strictly of one working in soft substances, as a potter in clay; moulding or shaping. Often in Class. and LXX
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For Adam was first formed,” (adam gar protos eplathe) “First in order or rank,” as head of the family, home, Gen 3:16; Gen 1:26-28; Gen 2:18-24.
2) “Then Eve.” (eita eve) (was formed) “then Eve,” in succeeding order or rank or subjection to Adam as an help mate, Gen 2:18; Gen 2:21-23.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
13 For Adam was first created He assigns two reasons why women ought to be subject to men; because not only did God enact this law at the beginning, but he also inflicted it as a punishment on the woman. (Gen 3:16.) He accordingly shews that, although mankind had stood in their first and original uprightness, the true order of nature, which proceeded from the command of God, bears that women shall be subject. Nor is this inconsistent with the fact, that Adam, by falling from his first dignity, deprived himself of his authority; for in the ruins, which followed sin, there still linger some remains of the divine blessing, and it was not proper that woman, by her own fault, should make her condition better than before. (42)
Yet the reason that Paul assigns, that woman was second in the order of creation, appears not to be a very strong argument in favor of her subjection; for John the Baptist was before Christ in the order of time, and yet was greatly inferior in rank. But although Paul does not state all the circumstances which are related by Moses, yet he intended that his readers should take them into consideration. Now Moses shews that the woman was created afterwards, in order that she might be a kind of appendage to the man; and that she was joined to the man on the express condition, that she should be at hand to render obedience to him. (Gen 2:21.) Since, therefore, God did not create two chiefs of equal power, but added to the man an inferior aid, the Apostle justly reminds us of that order of creation in which the eternal and inviolable appointment of God is strikingly displayed.
(42) “ Que la femme par son peche amendast son condition.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) For Adam was first formed, then Eve.The Holy Spirit seems often (comp. especially Gal. 3:16 and following verses, and 4:22 and following verses, and 1Co. 10:1-10) to have moved St. Paul to weave into the tapestry of his arguments and exhortations to the different churches, facts and principles drawn from Old Testament history. His early training in the great Rabbinical schools of Jerusalem had well supplied him with a vast store of this Old Testament learning.
The argument here based on priority of creation is much assisted by the additional statement of 1Co. 11:9, neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. This teaching of St. Pauls respecting the public position of woman as regards man, in which he shows that she is to hold a subordinate placeis based upon no arbitrary human speculation, but upon Gods original order in creationthat divine order which first created man, and after mans creation, formed woman as his helpmeet.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. This law of nature our apostle authenticates by the sacred history of the creation.
Adam was first formed And Eve added as the “help meet” for the original man.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled has fallen into transgression,’
The reasons that Paul gives are twofold. Firstly man’s priority to woman in creation, (‘Adam was first formed, then Eve’), and secondly that the woman proved the fallibility of her thinking by allowing herself to be deceived in the Garden of Eden.
a). The priority of man over the woman in creation. Paul deals with this subject in 1 Corinthians 11 where he points out the order of creation. God is the head of Christ. Christ is the head of man. Man is the head of the woman. This neither demeans Christ, nor the man, nor the woman. It merely indicates their place in God’s scheme of things. If no one is set over anyone else the result will only be chaos. This is seen in the fact that human employers grade their workers and make some ‘head’ over the others. It may not always be ‘fair’, but as a rule we accept it. It makes for good employer/employee relations, and usually for good management. In the same way accepting God’s appointments makes for good relationships with God. And God’s appointment is that the man will be ‘head’ of the woman.
Of course, God can always intervene to arrange exceptions, as He did in the cases of Deborah (Judges 4-5) and Huldah (2Ki 22:14), both prophetesses. And the work of women on some mission fields have proved His case. But we would be foolish to accept such appointments as a matter of course just because some of them worked. And this is especially so as Jesus had many women disciples, but never appointed one as an Apostle (not even an Apostle to women). Nor would it be true to say that in the days of the early church a woman never lorded it over men outside church circles. Influential women often did so in certain societies, and many Christian slaves were owned by women. But women were never allowed to behave like that in the orthodox Christian church. Indeed a Christian woman slave-owner might well have come to the church and found that her slave was one of the elders, and while no doubt, being her slave, he would be very careful what he did and said, she would be subject to his authority within the church, and would submit to him in that regard. Nor did any women that we know of rebel against the fact in New Testament days. They humbly recognised the authority of the Apostles, and the wisdom of their decisions. In fact the word of God is quite clear on the matter, wives are to subject themselves to their husbands, and the Christian woman is to subject herself to the male leadership. And this is seen to be a ressult of the order of creation. The Scriptural position is that for us to deny this principle is to rebel against God’s word, and ultimately against God.
b). The fallibility of women’s thinking as revealed in the Garden of Eden. In this regard Paul stresses that Adam was not beguiled. He sinned knowingly. It was Eve who was beguiled, and while that made her less culpable, it also made her less intellectually reliable. Furthermore, while it is not to deny their overall quality of intellect, nor that some women are the intellectual superior of most men, even the most biased person arguing the woman’s case cannot deny that women think differently from men. And therein lies the danger. They tend to be intuitive rather than logical. And when it comes to sound teaching that can be dangerous, especially at a time when there was no New Testament to act as a final arbiter.
We must repeat that, as there were in Old Testament days with people like Deborah and Huldah, there are no doubt exceptions, especially in view of today’s standard of training for all, but the rules could not be based on exceptions. They had to be based on everyday life and the general course of things. And this regulation of Paul’s no doubt prevented many from teaching and falling into heresy. Rev 2:20 gives us an example of such a fall, and it devastated many lives.
Today, of course, in Western societies women claim ‘equality’ with men, although no one has yet defined the meaning of equality. Men are not equal with each other, so how can women be equal with men? (What many women mean, of course, is that they want their piece of the action and to dominate men, because they think that they are better and wiser). And certainly we cannot argue with the principle of equal opportunity in modern society. We can also recognise that because we have the New Testament the dangers of allowing women access to ministry on a similar basis to that of men is not so great as regards the whole church as it would otherwise have been. The danger begins to arise when there is lack of immediate oversight over doctrine. Paul is saying that in such situations women are more likely to go doctrinally astray (although it must be admitted that some men have also made a good job of it). Thus as in the present day they begin to multiply in church leadership it is probable on the basis of the words of Scripture that it will begin to result in even more heresy within the church, and cause great spiritual harm to some individual congregations. So the Scriptural viewpoint is that while exceptions may be allowed under adequate controls, takeover by women is not to be seen as being on the whole for the good of the Christian church (in spite of women’s frustration). But like many important lessons it will probably be proved only too late, after it has done a great deal of harm. This is not a question of the general capability of women. We do not doubt a woman’s ability for such minor things as running a country, or even the United Nations, what we doubt is the ability of women, on the whole, to keep Christian doctrine sound. (The introduction of God as a woman, that then leads on to unsatisfactory inferences, is a case in point). To put it bluntly, women’s lib in the church, while possibly good for women, will probably not be good for Scriptural truth, which is why Paul emphasised his restrictions.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Ti 2:13. Adam was first formed, It is plain that the apostle does not mean to put the whole of his argument upon the priority of the man’s creation in point of time; for, on that principle, the birds and beasts would have the pre-eminence even of Adam; but he refers only to the human species, and to the regard which God expressed for the ease and comfort of man, by making the woman to be his helpmate and companion. So that it is the same thought, in fewer words, which is expressed more fully, 1Co 11:8-9. The man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Ti 2:13 . First reason for the previous prohibition, taken from the history of the creation. 1Ti 2:14 . The second reason, taken from the history of the fall. Elsewhere in the Pauline Epistles we find proofs that the historical facts of the O. T. are to the apostle full of meaning as symbols of higher, universal truths. So here, the facts that Adam was first created, and that Eve, not Adam, was tempted by the serpent, are to him prototypes and proofs that it is becoming for the wife not , but to be meekly subordinate to the husband. Hence he says: , . The verb occurs in the N. T. only here and in Rom 9:20 , both times in its original meaning. The meaning “ create ,” here appropriate to the word, is, however, found in the LXX. Gen 2:7 , from which passage the apostle here has drawn (comp. also 2Ma 7:23 : ). Compare 1Co 11:2 ff., where the apostle says that the husband is , and the wife , because the husband is not , but the wife . De Wette, without reason, thinks that the author of this Epistle to Timothy had that passage in mind.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
Ver. 13. For Adam was first formed ] . As the vessel is formed by the potter out of the clay. SeeGen 2:7Gen 2:7 . The common opinion is, that the very same day , he was formed and driven out; that he lodged not one night in Paradise; so sudden was the serpent’s seducing, his wife’s consenting, his yielding, God’s execution.
Then Eve ] For Adam’s use and help, therefore she must not take upon her. Howbeit the Jews are out, that hold women to be of a lower creation, made only for the propagation and pleasure of man; also that they have not so divine a soul as men, and therefore they suffer them not to enter into the synagogue, but appoint them a gallery without. Their Rabbis (who have as many foolish dreams about the Old Testament as the Friars have about the New) conceive both Adam and Eve to be created without the use of reason; and that the tree of knowledge was to accelerate it. Socinians also say (but falsely) that they were as simple and weak as little children; otherwise they would not have so sinned. Cuius contrarium verum est.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
13 .] Reason of this precept, in the original order of creation . For Adam was first (not of all men, which is not here under consideration, and would stultify the subsequent clause: but first in comparison with Eve) made (see ref. Gen., from which the word seems to be taken: cf. 1Co 11:8-9 , and indeed that whole passage, which throws light on this), then Eve .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Ti 2:13 . It would not be fair to say that St. Paul’s judgment about the relative functions of men and women in the church depended on his belief as to the historicity of the Biblical story of the Creation. He certainly uses this account in support of his conclusions; yet supposing the literal truth of the early chapters of Genesis, it would be possible to draw quite other inferences from it. The first specimen produced of a series is not always the most perfect. The point in which Adam’s superiority over Eve comes out in the narrative of the Fall is his greater strength of intellect; therefore men are better fitted for the work of public instruction. “The woman taught once, and ruined all” (Chrys.). Eve’s reasoning faculty was at once overcome by the allegation of jealousy felt by God, an allegation plausible to a nature swayed by emotion rather than by reflection. The Tempter’s statement seemed to be supported by the appearance of the fruit, as it was rendered attractive by hopes of vanity to be gratified. Adam’s better judgment was overcome by personal influence (Gen 3:17 , “Thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife”); he was not deceived. But the intellectual superior who sins against light may be morally inferior to him who stumbles in the dusk.
: The elder should rule. A more profound statement of this fact is found in 1Co 11:9 , , .
is the term used in Gen 2:7 and expresses the notion of God as a potter, Rom 9:20 . ( am here has figuratus .)
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
formed. Greek. plasso. Only here and Rom 9:20.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
13.] Reason of this precept, in the original order of creation. For Adam was first (not of all men, which is not here under consideration, and would stultify the subsequent clause:-but first in comparison with Eve) made (see ref. Gen., from which the word seems to be taken: cf. 1Co 11:8-9, and indeed that whole passage, which throws light on this), then Eve.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Ti 2:13. , for Adam) The reason which applies to the first man, holds good for all men; and that which applies to Eve, holds good for all women. Again, what is said of the salvability [safety] of the woman, 1Ti 2:15, is also appropriate to be understood of the first woman.-) first; so that the woman was created for him, 1Co 11:8-9.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Ti 2:13
For Adam was first formed, then Eve;-The reasons for this teaching are here given, which show the reach or extent of the principles. Adam had priority in creation. He was the original human being. Eve was from him and subordinate to him, and was formed a help suited to him. The argument here based on priority of creation is much strengthened by the following statement: For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. (1Co 11:9.) This teaching of Paul respecting the public position of woman as regards man, in which he shows that she is to hold a subordinate place, is based upon no arbitrary human speculation, but upon Gods original order in creation-that divine order which first created man and after mans creation formed woman as his helpmeet.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Gen 1:27, Gen 2:7, Gen 2:18, Gen 2:22, 1Co 11:8, 1Co 11:9
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ti 2:13. In this and the following verse, Paul gives two reasons for his restrictions upon the woman, which are not identical but are related. The one in this verse is based upon the prestige one has by reason of priority; Adam was first formed. The man was not created for the sake of the woman, but it was the other way around, which indicates that the man possessed some precedence or importance over the woman.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Ti 2:13. That argument is(1) from the priority of man as such in the history of Genesis 2. So in 1Co 11:8-9, the woman was created for the sake of the man. The record (received, of course, by St. Paul as the record of a fact) bore witness to an order which it was not for individual men or women to set aside.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here St. Paul offers a double argument to enforce the duty of subjection upon the woman, and to prevent her usurping of authority over the man; namely, because the man was first in the creation: Adam was first formed, then Eve, and the woman was first in the transgression. Adam was not deceived, that is, first and immediately deceived, but the woman being deceived, was first in the transgression; she was therefore guilty of her own and her husband’s transgression; and accordingly, not only by the law of her creation, but as a punishment for her transgression, God has placed her in a state of subjection, and given the man authority over her; which authority she usurps over him, whenever she undertakes to be a public teacher of him.
These two considerations doth the apostle make use of, to humble the woman, and to keep her within the sphere of her proper duty.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Verse 13
For Adam, &c.; in token of the superior position which man was intended to hold. Compare 1 Corinthians 11:8,9.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
1Ti 2:13 “For Adam was first formed, then Eve.”
Woman was formed to give man a helpmeet, someone that could minister to him in ways that he has need.
Wesley stated that this verse shows that the woman was inferior to the man – HE SAID IT NOT ME!
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
2:13 {9} For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
(9) He proves this ordinance of God, by which the woman is subject to man, first because God made the woman after man, for man’s sake.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Paul gave two reasons why women should conduct themselves in church meetings as he just specified. First, from Creation it was God’s intention that the male should lead the female. He reminded his readers that God made Adam first and then made a suitable companion for him in Eve. God made Eve for Adam; He did not make Adam for Eve. This implies no essential superiority of the male over the female. God created Adam and Eve equals in the sense that they needed and complemented one another. However, God entrusted Adam with leadership responsibility over his wife. Eve was not responsible to God for Adam in the same sense that Adam was responsible for Eve. [Note: See Benjamin L. Merkle, "Paul’s Arguments from Creation in 1 Corinthians 11:8-9 and 1 Timothy 2:13-14: An Apparent Inconsistency Answered," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 49:3 (September 2006):527-48.]
". . . the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved." [Note: Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, p. 7.]
Second (1Ti 2:14), as part of the judgment on Eve at the Fall God confirmed (i.e., made permanent) the leadership of the male over the female (Gen 3:16). It was a result of her deception by the serpent that Eve fell. I do not believe that God confirmed Eve and all women as followers because they are congenitally more susceptible to deception than males. Adequate evidence to support such a sweeping generalization is lacking (cf. 2Ti 1:5; Tit 2:4). Rather it was evidently because Eve on that one occasion was deceived that God confirmed her and her daughters in their position as followers. Some writers believed that Paul argued only from Creation and used the Fall to illustrate his argument. [Note: E.g., Knight, p. 144.] It has seemed to most that he used two arguments.
In the Ephesian church, some of the women had been led astray by false teachers (1Ti 5:15) who were themselves misled by Satan (cf. 1Ti 4:1).
"Verse 14 is almost certainly a local reference to the deception of some women in the Ephesian church . . . [cf. 2Ti 3:6-7]." [Note: Towner, 1-2 Timothy . . ., p. 79.]
That is, one of the reasons Paul referred to the Fall was that some women in the Ephesian church were in danger of doing what Eve did, namely, being deceived by false teachers. [Note: See Royce Gordon Gruenler, "The Mission-Lifestyle Setting of 1 Timothy 2:8-15," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 41:2 (June 1998):215-38, for defense of the view that Paul addressed only those women in Ephesus who considered themselves "liberated."]
"Paul’s point [in 1Ti 2:14] is that this role reversal that caused such devastation at the beginning must not be repeated in the church. The woman must not be the one who leads the man in obedience to her. Thus when the teaching of the Word of God in the assembly occurs, a qualified male elder should fill the role of teacher." [Note: Ann L. Bowman, "Women in Ministry: An Exegetical Study of 1 Timothy 2:11-15," Bibliotheca Sacra 149:594 (April-June 1992):206.]
Some people conclude that women are to be under male authority in all areas of life, not just in church meetings, since Paul appealed to Creation and the Fall. They believe that a man should not submit himself to female authority at all, even in the workplace. Personally I do not think this is what Paul meant. He cited God’s intention for male female relationships specifically in marriage, not in general social situations. Christian men and women should bring their proper relationship to one another in marriage over into church life and apply it in the household of faith (cf. 1Ti 3:15) as well as in the household of the family.