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Changing the Feminine Face of Poverty: Reading 1 Timothy 2:15 from a Socio-Economic Perspective

The distinctive feminine face of poverty in Africa is increasingly coming under the spotlight. Despite the existence of several initiatives to empower women and their place in Africa, there are still huge mountains to be moved in the process. These mountains are often not only the physical borders between people, countries and continents, but virtual divisions between traditional, modern and postmodern society, between fundamentalists and liberalists. This article will investigate the different forces that are playing in on the hermeneutical process of understanding and interpreting the role of women in modern African society. The focus will be on distinguishing the internal and lateral trichotomies within Africanisation, modernisation and the interpretation of biblical texts in this regard. The fundamentalist and modern interpretations and re-interpretations of the first letter to Timothy will be discussed, with special focus on the economic and societal role of women, ancient and modern, as well as the view on childbearing as synecdoche (1 Timothy 2:15). The article’s desired outcome is a contribution towards identifying focus areas in which attitudes and perceptions of societies (especially in Africa) can be addressed to facilitate improvement of the economic position of women in Africa.