1 Timothy 2:14

And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) And Adam was not deceived.—Priority in creation was the ground alleged by St. Paul as the reason why the woman was never to exercise authority over man, the eldest born of God. “Adam was not deceived;” the Apostle now refers to the general basis of his direction respecting the exclusion of women from all public praying and teaching contained in 1Timothy 2:9-12. The argument here is a singular one—Adam and Eve both sinned, but Adam was not deceived. He sinned, quite aware all the while of the magnitude of the sin he was voluntarily committing. Eve, on the other hand, was completely, thoroughly deceived (the preposition with which the Greek verb is compounded here conveying the idea of thoroughness)—she succumbed to the serpent’s deceit. Both were involved in the sin, but only one (Eve) allowed herself to be deluded. So Bengel, “Deceptio indicat minus robur in intellectu, atque hic nervus est cur mulieri non liceat docere.” Prof. Reynolds thus comments on the argument of the Apostle:—“This may sound to our ears a far-fetched argument, when used to discountenance female usurpation of intellectual supremacy. It was, however, a method current at the time to look for and find in the Scriptures the concrete expressions of almost all philosophical judgments. At the present day we could hardly find a more vivid illustration of the essential difference between the masculine and feminine nature. If there be this distinction between the sexes, that distinction still furnishes the basis of an argument and a reason for the advice here rendered. The catastrophe of Eden is the beacon for all generations when the sexes repeat the folly of Eve and Adam, and exchange their distinctive position and functions.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:8-15 Under the gospel, prayer is not to be confined to any one particular house of prayer, but men must pray every where. We must pray in our closets, pray in our families, pray at our meals, pray when we are on journeys, and pray in the solemn assemblies, whether more public or private. We must pray in charity; without wrath, or malice, or anger at any person. We must pray in faith, without doubting, and without disputing. Women who profess the Christian religion, must be modest in apparel, not affecting gaudiness, gaiety, or costliness. Good works are the best ornament; these are, in the sight of God, of great price. Modesty and neatness are more to be consulted in garments than elegance and fashion. And it would be well if the professors of serious godliness were wholly free from vanity in dress. They should spend more time and money in relieving the sick and distressed, than in decorating themselves and their children. To do this in a manner unsuitable to their rank in life, and their profession of godliness, is sinful. These are not trifles, but Divine commands. The best ornaments for professors of godliness, are good works. According to St. Paul, women are not allowed to be public teachers in the church; for teaching is an office of authority. But good women may and ought to teach their children at home the principles of true religion. Also, women must not think themselves excused from learning what is necessary to salvation, though they must not usurp authority. As woman was last in the creation, which is one reason for her subjection, so she was first in the transgression. But there is a word of comfort; that those who continue in sobriety, shall be saved in child-bearing, or with child-bearing, by the Messiah, who was born of a woman. And the especial sorrow to which the female sex is subject, should cause men to exercise their authority with much gentleness, tenderness, and affection.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And Adam was not deceived - This is the second reason why the woman should occupy a subordinate rank in all things. It is, that in the most important situation in which she was ever placed she had shown that she was not qualified to take the lead. She had evinced a readiness to yield to temptation; a feebleness of resistance; a pliancy of character, which showed that she was not adapted to the situation of headship, and which made it proper that she should ever afterward occupy a subordinate situation. It is not meant here that Adam did not sin, nor even that he was not deceived by the tempter, but that the woman opposed a feebler resistance to the temptation than he would have done, and that the temptation as actually applied to her would have been ineffectual on him. To tempt and seduce him to fall, there were needed all the soft persuasions, the entreaties, and example of his wife.

Satan understood this, and approached man not with the specious argument of the serpent, but through the allurements of his wife. It is undoubtedly implied here that man in general has a power of resisting certain kinds of temptation superior to that possessed by woman, and hence that the headship properly belongs to him. This is, undoubtedly, the general truth, though there may be many exceptions, and many noble cases to the honor of the female sex, in which they evince a power of resistance to temptation superior to man. In many traits of character, and among them those which are most lovely, woman is superior to man; yet it is undoubtedly true that, as a general thing, temptation will make a stronger impression on her than on him. When it is said that "Adam was not deceived," it is not meant that when he partook actually of the fruit he was under no deception, but that he was not deceived by the serpent; he was not first deceived, or first in the transgression. The woman should remember that sin began with her, and she should therefore be willing to occupy an humble and subordinate situation.

But the woman being deceived - She was made to suppose that the fruit would not injure her, but would make her wise, and that God would not fulfil his threatening of death. Sin, from the beginning, has been a process of delusion. Every man or woman who violates the law of God is deceived as to the happiness which is expected from the violation, and as to the consequences which will follow it.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. Adam was not deceived—as Eve was deceived by the serpent; but was persuaded by his wife. Ge 3:17, "hearkened unto … voice of … wife." But in Ge 3:13, Eve says, "The serpent beguiled me." Being more easily deceived, she more easily deceives [Bengel], (2Co 11:3). Last in being, she was first in sin—indeed, she alone was deceived. The subtle serpent knew that she was "the weaker vessel" (1Pe 3:7). He therefore tempted her, not Adam. She yielded to the temptations of sense and the deceits of Satan; he, to conjugal love. Hence, in the order of God's judicial sentence, the serpent, the prime offender, stands first; the woman, who was deceived, next; and the man, persuaded by his wife, last (Ge 3:14-19). In Ro 5:12, Adam is represented as the first transgressor; but there no reference is made to Eve, and Adam is regarded as the head of the sinning race. Hence, as here, 1Ti 2:11, in Ge 3:16, woman's "subjection" is represented as the consequence of her being deceived.

being deceived—The oldest manuscripts read the compound Greek verb for the simple, "Having been seduced by deceit": implying how completely Satan succeeded in deceiving her.

was in the transgression—Greek, "came to be in the transgression": became involved in the existing state of transgression, literally, "the going beyond a command"; breach of a positive precept (Ro 4:15).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Besides, Adam was not first deceived, nor indeed at all deceived immediately by the serpent, but only enticed, and deceived by the woman, who was the tempter’s agent; so as that she was both first in the transgression in order of time, and also principal in it, contributing to the seduction or transgression of the man; which ought to be a consideration to keep the woman humble, in a low opinion of herself, and that lower order wherein God hath fixed her.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Adam was not deceived,.... There is no need to say with interpreters, that he was not deceived first; and that he was not deceived immediately by the serpent, but by Eve; and that he is never said in Scripture to be deceived, as Melchizedek is never said to have a father or mother. The apostle's positive assertion is to be taken without any such limitations or qualifications; Adam never was deceived at all; neither by the serpent, with whom he never conversed; nor by his wife, he knew what he did, when he took the fruit of her, and ate; he ate it not under any deception, or vain imagination, that they should not die, but should be as gods, knowing good and evil. He took and ate out of love to his wife, from a fond affection to her, to bear her company, and that she might not die alone; he knew what he did, and he knew what would be the consequence of it, the death of them both; and inasmuch as he sinned wilfully, and against light and knowledge, without any deception, his sin was the greater: and hereby death came in, and passed on all men, who sinned in him:

but the woman being deceived was in the transgression: and the serpent really beguiled her; she owned it herself, Genesis 3:13. And this is elsewhere said of her, 2 Corinthians 11:3 which never is of Adam. She really thought the serpent spoke truth, that she and her husband should not die, if they ate of the fruit; but that it was good to make them wise; and that, upon eating it, they should be as gods, knowing good and evil; and under this deception she fell into the transgression, and was the cause and means, by her persuasions and example, of bringing her husband into the same sin; which involved him and all his posterity in ruin and destruction. And therefore she is called by the Jews (p) , "the mother of iniquity and sin"; to which they refer, Psalm 51:5. And they say, (q) she was the cause of death to Adam, and to all the world: See Gill on Romans 5:12. And they observe (r) the order of the punishment of the serpent, Eve, and Adam, as of their sin; the serpent was first accursed, then Eve, and last of all Adam. They say

"(s) Samael (the devil) could not subvert Adam, till the serpent came and turned the heart of Eve, and Eve turned his heart, and they both sinned; wherefore it is said, "the woman which thou gavest me"; Samael had no power to turn him, till Eve came, and she was the cause of his eating.''

Now inasmuch as the serpent did not attack Adam, he being the stronger and more knowing person, and less capable of being managed and seduced; but made his attempt on Eve, in which he succeeded; and since not Adam, but Eve, was deceived, it appears that the man is the more proper person to bear rule and authority, as in civil and domestic, so in ecclesiastic affairs; and it is right for the woman to learn, and the man to teach: and seeing that Eve was the cause of transgression to Adam, and of punishment to him and his posterity, the subjection of the woman to the man was confirmed afresh: and she was brought into a more depressed state of dependence on him, and subjection to him; see Genesis 3:16. The Ethiopic version renders the text, "Adam hath not deceived, the woman hath deceived and prevaricated".

(p) Tzeror Hammor, fol. 141. 3.((q) T. Hieros. Sabbat, fol. 5. 2. Zohar in Gcn. fol. 27. 3. Caphtor, fol. 37. 2.((r) T. Bab. Erubin, fol. 18. 1. & Taanith, fol. 15. 2. Bereshit Rabba, sect. 20. fol. 17. 1.((s) Midrash Ruth in Zohar in Gen. fol. 27. 3.

Geneva Study Bible

{10} And Adam was not {g} deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

(10) Then, because after sin, God gave the woman this punishment, because the man was deceived by her.

(g) Adam was deceived, but through his wife's means, and therefore she is worthily for this reason subject to her husband, and ought to be.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Timothy 2:14. καὶ Ἀδὰμ οὐκ ἠπατήθη] In order to justify this expression, the expositors have sought to define it more precisely, mostly by supplying πρῶτος. So Theodoret; Tertullian, too (De Hab. Mul.), says, perhaps alluding to this passage: tu divinae legis prima es desertrix. Others, again, supply ὑπὸ τοῦ ὄφεως (Matthies: “As the apostle remembers the O. T. story of the fall, there comes into his thoughts the cunning serpent by which Eve, not Adam, let herself be ensnared”). De Wette thinks that the author is insisting on the notion be charmed, betrayed (by sinful desire), as opposed to some other motive to sin. Hofmann arbitrarily supplies with Ἀδὰμ οὐκ ἠπατήθη the thought: “so long as he was alone.”

The apparent difficulty is solved when we remember the peculiarity of allegorical interpretation, which lays stress on the definite expression as such. This here is the word ἀπατᾷν (or ἐξαπατᾷν). On this word the whole emphasis is laid, as is clearly shown by the very repetition of it. This word, however, in the Mosaic account of the fall, is used only of the woman, not of the man, for in Genesis 3:13 the woman expressly says: ὁ ὄφις ἠπάτησέ με; the man, however, uses no such expression. And in the story there is no indication that as the woman was deceived or betrayed through the promises of the serpent, so was the man through the woman.

Adam did certainly also transgress the command, but not, as the woman, influenced by ἀπάτη. Paul, remembering this, says: Ἀδὰμ οὐκ ἠπατήθη, ἡ δὲ γυνὴ ἐξαπατηθεῖσα. Bengel: serpens mulierem decepit, mulier virum non decepit, sed ei persuasit. To supply anything whatever, only serves therefore to conceal the apostle’s real meaning.

ἡ δὲ γυνὴ ἐξαπατηθεῖσα ἐν παραβάσει γέγονε] This betrayal of the woman by the serpent is mentioned by Paul also in 2 Corinthians 11:3, where he employs the same word: ἐξαπατᾷν.

The emphasis, as is apparent from what precedes, is not on the last words, but on ἐξαπατηθεῖσα; hence it is not right to supply πρώτη with ἐν παρ. γεγ. Παράβασις here, as elsewhere (οὗ οὐκ ἔστι νόμος, οὐδὲ παράβασις, Romans 4:15), is used in regard to a definite law.

The construction γεγονέναι ἐν occurs frequently in the N. T. in order to denote the entrance into a certain condition, a certain existence. De Wette: “fell into transgression.” Luther wrongly: “and brought in transgression.”

As to the thought itself, expositors find the force of this second reason to lie in the fact that in the fall the weakness of the woman, her proneness to temptation, was manifested, and that consequently it is not seemly for the woman to have mastery over the man. But did the man resist the temptation more stoutly than the woman? Paul nowhere gives any hint of that. The significant part of the Mosaic narrative to him is rather this, that the judgment of God was passed upon the woman because she had let herself be betrayed by the serpent, and it is in accordance with this judgment that the husband is made lord over the wife.[107]

[107] The right interpretation of this passage does not even in appearance contradict Romans 5:12. In the latter, Paul does not mention the woman, but the man, as the origin of sin; but then he is thinking of the man as the image of God, of the woman as the image of the man.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Timothy 2:14. ἡ δὲ γυνή: St. Paul says ἡ γυνή rather than Εὕα, emphasing the sex rather than the individual, because he desires to gives the incident its general application, especially in view of what follows. So Chrys.

ἐξαπατηθεῖσα: It is doubtful if we are entitled to render this, as Ell. does, being completely deceived. In 2 Corinthians 11:3 St. Paul says ὁ ὄφις ἐξηπάτησεν Εὕαν, where there is no reason why he should not have used the simple verb. St. Paul uses the compound verb in five other places, the simple verb only once (see reff.). So that the simplest account that we can give of his variation here, and in 2 Corinthians 11:3, from the ὁ ὄφις ἠπάτησέν με of Genesis 3:13, is that the compound verb came naturally to his mind.

ἐν παραβάσει γέγονεν: Inasmuch as παράβασις is used of Adam’s transgression in Romans 5:14, it may be asked, What is the force of St. Paul’s apparent restriction here of the phrase to Eve? Might it not be said of Adam as well, that he ἐν παραβ. γέγονεν? To which St. Paul would perhaps have replied that he meant that it was woman who first transgressed, in consequence of having been deceived. ἀπὸ γυναικὸς ἀρχὴ ἁμαρτίας, καὶ διʼ αὐτὴν ἀποθνήσκομεν πάντες. Sir 25:24. This notion of coming into a state of sin at a definite point of time is well expressed by γέγονεν. For γίνεσθαι ἐν cf. ἡ διακονία … ἐγενήθη ἐν δόξῃ (2 Corinthians 3:7); ἐν λόγῳ κολακίας ἐγενήθημεν (1 Thessalonians 2:5).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. the woman being deceived was in the transgression] The compound verb should be read as in 2 Corinthians 11:3, ‘as the serpent beguiled Eve’; ‘Adam was not beguiled,’ a general negative, limited by the compound verb following, ‘you may say he was not beguiled in comparison with the complete direct beguiling of Eve’; the woman being beguiled is found in transgression.

‘Was’ does not represent properly the perfect, lit. ‘is become,’ used, according to Greek idiom, because the past event is viewed as having a present influence, and continuing in its effects.

Here it helps the transition from the particular case of Eve in the past to the general case of women now. This is also aided by the further change to the future in ‘shall be saved.’

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Timothy 2:14. Οὐκ ἠπατήθη, was not deceived) The Serpent deceived the woman; the woman did not deceive the man, but persuaded him: Genesis 3:17, thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife. In the preceding verse, we are taught why the woman ought not to exercise authority, now, why she ought not to teach; more easily deceived, she more easily deceives; comp. Ecclesiastes 7:29. Deceiving indicates less strength in the understanding; and this is the strong ground on which a woman is not allowed to teach.—ἀπατηθεῖσα ἐν παραβάσει γέγονε, being deceived, fell into[18] the transgression) i.e. was guilty of falling into the deception (Genesis 3:13, ὁ ὄφις ἠπάτησέ με), and so she began to be in the transgression. It is not said, ἘΝ ΠΑΡΑΒΆΣΕΙ ΓΕΓΟΝῦΙΑ ἨΠΑΤΉΘΗ, having come to be in the transgression, she was deceived. Therefore γέγονε does not apply to the very origin of the woman; for the deception followed not until after that; but γέγονε closely agrees with ἘΝ ΠΑΡΑΒΆΣΕΙ, which has the meaning of a noun; see Acts 22:17 [ἘΝ ἘΚΣΤΆΣΕΙ, in a state of trance]; and comp. note on John 1:15. The state of transgression which quickly followed the deception, once for all admitted, is here intended. A phrase very like this is found at Numbers 26:10, ἐγενήθησαν ἐν σημείῳ.

[18] “Was in,” Engl. Vers.; rather, “Came to be in.” For it is γέγονε, not ἦν.—ED.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Beguiled (twice) for deceived, A.V.; hath fallen into for was in the, A.V. Beguiled (ἠπατήθη). The same word as is used in Genesis 3:13, "The serpent beguiled me;" ἠπάτησέ με, LXX. (comp. 2 Corinthians 11:3, where the verb used is ἐξηπάτησεν). Hath fallen into transgression. Fell (not hath fallen) is the right tense to use here in English, though the Greek perfect, it is true, contains the further idea of continuance in the fall, as in 1 Corinthians 9:22; 1 Corinthians 13:11; 1 Thessalonians 2:1; 2 Peter 2:20. So also Matthew 1:22; Matthew 19:8; Matthew 21:4; Matthew 25:6; Mark 5:33; John 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:19; and elsewhere, γέγονε is best rendered by the past (not the perfect) tense. It has frequently the notion of transition into a certain condition (see Romans 6:5; Romans 7:13; 1 Corinthians 9:22; 1 Corinthians 13:11; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 2 Corinthians 12:11; Galatians 4:16, etc.). Bishop Ellicott gives the passages in which γίγνομαι ισ followed, as here, by ἐν (Luke 22:44; Acts 22:17; 2 Corinthians 3:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:5), "denoting entrance into, and continuance in, any given state." As regards the apostle's statement, Adam was not beguiled, we must understand it as based merely upon the text in Genesis to which he refers, in which Eve (not Adam) says, Ὁ ὄφις ἠπάτησε με, "The serpent beguiled me." Just as in Galatians 3:16 he reasons from σπέρματι being in the singular number, and as the writer to the Hebrews 7:3 reasons from the silence of Genesis 14. regarding the parentage of Melchizedek. Huther (in lee.) says that this mode of reasoning is peculiar to allegorical interpretation. 1 Timothy 2:14

Vincent's Word Studies

Was not deceived (οὐκ ἠπατήθη)

Once in Paul, Ephesians 5:6. Comp. 2 Corinthians 11:3. Rev. beguiled. As it is evident that Adam was beguiled, the interpreters have tried many ways of explaining the expression, either by supplying πρῶτος first, or by saying (as Bengel) that the woman did not deceive the man, but persuaded him; or by supplying by the serpent, or so long as he was alone; or by saying that Eve was directly and Adam indirectly deceived.

Being deceived (ἐξαπατηθεῖσα)

Completely or thoroughly beguiled.

Was in the transgression (ἐν παραβάσει γέγονεν)

A.V. misses the force of γέγονεν. Γίνεσθαι ἐν often signifies the coming or falling into a condition, as Acts 12:11; Acts 22:17; Revelation 1:10; 1 Corinthians 2:3; 2 Corinthians 3:7; 1 Thessalonians 2:5. Rend. hath fallen into transgression.