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1 TiMOTHY 2:15 She will be saved through childbearing. Why is a woman ‘unclean’ after giving birth (Leviticus 12:2)? Questions about uncleanliness could be ask of every issue that require a ritual ‘decontamination’ but yet we wonder why by the act of giving birth, which is one of the highest form of obedience to God, a woman becomes ‘unclean’. We need to remember that ‘uncleanliness’; has nothing to do with personal sin, and that technically, it is solely related to presence in the Temple. When you clean house or do the natural things that need to be done while working, you get dirty. You haven’t sinned by a personal lack of hygiene but you still need a bath. I’d almost like to call it a spiritual ‘debriefing’ before re-entering in the presence of God. As far as childbirth is concerned, Paul actually addresses it as a way for a woman to be ‘saved’ We must not be fooled by the English terminology though; childbirth is not a special ‘plan of redemption’ for women only. The word ‘saved’ in this sentence could be better defined today as, ‘preserved’, or ‘completed’ (see Strong’s Concordance). I do not have first-hand experience at conception, but science having exposed the mechanics of childbirth stole from us its miraculous nature. After thirty years plus of active married life without practicing any form of birth-control, my wife and I have only had six children. I’d like to therefore argue that whereas God may use (or not) human ‘mechanics’, conception is more a matter of God’s doings than of human’s mechanics. Conception is the result of God’s workings within our body, and something solely experienced by women. In the case of the woman suspected of adultery, pregnancy was the sign of her vindication by God (Numbers 5:28). Again the Hebrew of this text is very interesting; it says ‘she shall conceive seed (my translation), using the same terminology of a woman having ‘seed’ as in the verse when God mentions the ‘seed of Eve terminating the devil’s power (Genesis 3:15). I am sure that God is savvy in human biology and that He Is aware of the fact that women carry eggs but no seed. The man carries ‘seed’. Only twice this terminology of women carrying ‘seed’ is used in the Torah text, and they are used in relation to a redemptive sign for women (Numbers 5:28; Genesis 3:15). In the apostolic Scriptures, using the Septuagint text of Isaiah 7 Matthew informs us that Miriam, the mother of Yeshua was a virgin when she conceived, implying therefore that she carried egg and ‘Seed’. The Child Miriam carried became ‘cleanlines/tahor-ness’ not only for women but for the whole world. This represents a fulfillment of the prophecy concerning Eve’s ‘Seed’ overcoming the enemy, and of the women suspected of adultery. In Him and in His Words do we ‘immerse and become ‘clean/tahor’ unto God (John 14:3).
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Seed, Mary, Miriam, adultery, Eve,
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