Instructions to Women

Paul says women should adorn themselves with modesty, self-control, and what befits those who profess godliness, not with outward display or costly ornaments. Their proper adornment is good works.

L⁹ikewise, I want the women to adorn themselves with respectable apparel, with modesty, and with self-control, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, ¹⁰but with good deeds, as is proper for women who profess to worship God.

Paul says a woman is to learn quietly and with full submissiveness, and he does not permit a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man in this setting. Instead, she is to remain quiet.

¹¹A woman must learn in quietness and full submissiveness. ¹²I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet.

Paul grounds these instructions in the order of Adam and Eve and in the story of deception and transgression. He then closes by saying that women will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith, love, holiness, and self-control.

¹³For Adam was formed first, and then Eve. ¹⁴And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who was deceived and fell into transgression. ¹⁵Women, however, will be saved through childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and holiness, with self-control.