John Calvin Commentary 1 Timothy 2:13

"For Adam was first formed, then Eve;" — 1 Timothy 2:13 (ASV)

For Adam was first created. He assigns two reasons why women should be subject to men: because not only did God enact this law at the beginning, but he also inflicted it as a punishment on the woman (Genesis 3:16). He accordingly shows that, even if mankind had remained in their first and original uprightness, the true order of nature, which proceeded from the command of God, establishes that women shall be subject. Nor is this inconsistent with the fact that Adam, by falling from his first dignity, deprived himself of his authority; for in the ruins that followed sin, there still linger some remains of the divine blessing, and it was not proper that woman, by her own fault, should make her condition better than before.

Yet the reason that Paul assigns, that woman was second in the order of creation, appears not to be a very strong argument for her subjection; for John the Baptist was before Christ in the order of time, and yet was greatly inferior in rank. But although Paul does not state all the circumstances that are related by Moses, he intended that his readers should take them into consideration. Now Moses shows that the woman was created afterwards, so that she might be a kind of appendage to the man, and that she was joined to the man on the express condition that she should be at hand to render obedience to him (Genesis 2:21). Since, therefore, God did not create two leaders of equal power, but added to the man an inferior aid, the Apostle justly reminds us of that order of creation in which the eternal and inviolable appointment of God is strikingly displayed.