[c] saved in child-bearing] Some difficulty there is what is here meant by σωθήσεται διὰ τεκνογονίας, she shall be saved by child-bearing. A first notion that may be thought to belong to it is, that as σώζεσθαι, to be saved, signifies oft to escape, noting some temporal deliverance, (of which see note [b] on Luke xiii.,) so διὰ may note by, that is, through, not as a means or condition, but as the term out of or through which the deliverance is wrought, as σώζεσθαι δι' ὕδατος, being saved through the water, 1 Pet. iii. 10, and διὰ πυρὸς, through the fire, 1 Cor. iii. 15, is being delivered out of the water and fire; and then the meaning of it will be, that she shall pass, though with some difficulty, safe through childbearing; and this as a moderation of that curse inflicted upon woman-kind upon Eve's sin, that she should bring P Hist. 70. Interpret. p. 890 D. Now to thee, O Timothy, thou who wert first converted by me, I give this commission, as a trust I commit to thee, (agreeable to the revelations which were made of thee, that, though young, thou shouldst be ordained a bishop in the church, ch. iv. 14. though we find no mention of this in the Acts, as we do of Saul and Barnabas, Acts xiii. 2,) that according to that appointment of God thou shouldst carefully discharge that episcopal office committed to thee, Holding fast and continuing constant in the true faith and discharge of a good conscience; not as some, which falling into impure lives have afterward fallen into foul errors in point of faith.