Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
First, John Piper is not necessarily the end-all of writers on many matters.
On what do you base this interesting conclusion? Did Paul make any statement about sin being a lesser sin?
|
Agree, I don't agree with Piper on some other matters. Perhaps John Piper has not been enlightened by the Spirit and blessed with a different mindset on this matter.
The interesting conclusion is based upon what the biblehub commentaries say on 1 Timothy 2:14. It is not to say that Adam's sin was less than Eve's. Both sinned, but Eve was the one deceived primarily, not Adam.
Ellicott:
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.
Barnes:
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.
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.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
But in Ge 3:13, Eve says, "The serpent beguiled me." Being more easily deceived, she more easily deceives [Bengel], (2Co 11:3)
Even though both Adam and Eve sinned, the likelihood and consequence of Eve being tempted and being deceived and tempting others (Adam) is worse than Adam voluntarily succumbing to the persuasion of his wife.