“And capture gullible women.” “Do you see how these men imitate the ancient deceiver, using the same instrument that the devil used against Adam?” (Saint Chrysostom). “Of course, through the women they also had in mind to draw the husbands to their side” (Oecumenius).
“Capturing,” αιχμαλωτιζοντες, means taking captive. It is characteristic of women to be seduced by novelty and appearances. Once seduced, they give themselves into slavery to the seduction and to the seducers. Having reached this point, they become very convenient instruments in the hands of those who seek to attain their purposes by indirect means.
“Gullible women,” γυναικαρια, is a derogatory word. The Apostle expressed himself this way to expose their readiness to be seduced, or their inclination toward seductions. At the same time he hints that even a man, if he proves easily seduced, is no better than a woman. It is not nature that is reproached, but character (cf. Saint Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Blessed Theophylact).
“Loaded down with sins,” σεσωρευμενα, means piled over with sins, as with a heap of every kind of refuse. “This signifies both the multitude, the disorder, and the mixture of sins” (Blessed Theophylact). “He does not condemn nature, for he did not simply say ‘women,’ but precisely such women. And see why they surrender to seductions: because of sins, because they do not know the good and cannot distinguish what is not good” (Saint Chrysostom).
“Such a person usually inclines more readily toward false dogmas” (Blessed Theophylact).
“Led away by various desires.” Of course, not all women carried away by false teachings are burdened with sins. Yet rare is the woman who is not enslaved to vanity, and from vanity comes a swarm of wishes and desires. Let only a skillful man get into this, and he will surely take possession of the woman’s mind and heart and sow in them whatever he wishes.
However, “various desires” may also signify a heap of passions that are not light. Saint Chrysostom says: “What does ‘various’ mean? Here he means many things: luxury, shamelessness, corruption. He says ‘various desires,’ that is, covetousness, love of glory, vainglory, and ambition. Perhaps he also points to other shameful desires.”
Having said this, the Apostle showed whom to turn away from. And, of course, such people existed. Yet one may suppose that in them he also points to teachers similar to them who would appear afterward, foretelling also how those entrusted with souls and their salvation should relate to them.
Ambrosiaster had this side of the matter in mind: “Although it is characteristic of all heretics to slip into houses and capture women with cunningly woven seductive words, in order then through them to draw husbands to their side, imitating their father the devil, who circumvented Adam through Eve, this applies more than anything to the Manichaeans.
“For no one is so persistent, insinuating, and false as they are. They hold one thing within and show another outwardly. They preach holy chastity, but under the cover of their law live impurely. They praise mercy, but among themselves wrong one another. They insist that one must despise the world, but always move in its midst.
“They boastfully assure people that they keep a strict fast, but in appearance they are always rather full. Only by some artifice do they appear pale, in order to deceive. Thus the Apostle prophesied of them in these words, because they did not exist in the time of the Apostles. Diocletian, in one of his decrees, calls their heresy profane and unclean, recently come out of Persia.
“They find women who, out of vanity, desire to hear something new. By presenting things pleasing to them, they succeed in luring them to their unclean teaching. Those women listen to them greedily, wishing to learn, yet not having enough sense to distinguish truth from falsehood. Thus it happens that they are always learning, but do not have the knowledge of the truth.”
2 Tim 3:5.
THEOSIS