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The meaning of οὐδέ in 1 Timothy 2:12 | Women in theDenominationWomen in theDenominationRestoring order and releasing into ministry Menu Skip to content Home Vision Restoring order Releasing into ministry Contact Research αὐθεντεω αὐθεντέω resources αὐθεντέω: Lexicons, commentaries, extracts The Philodemus fragment (αὐθεντ[οῦ]σιν) αὐθέντης in Alexander Rhetor 2.1.6 and 2.6.3 Κεφαλή οὐδέ 1 Timothy 2 vv 11-15 Testimonies The meaning of οὐδέ in 1 Timothy 2:12 Andrew Chapman / February 7, 2014 ‘I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise validity over a man, but to be in quietness,’ the scripture says (1 Timothy 2:12), but now many are pretending that Paul was prohibiting only a unrepealable type of teaching by women. Thus, in his Grove Booklet, ‘Women and Authority: The key biblical texts,’ Ian Paul has written that a paraphrase might be: ‘I am not permitting women to teach in such a way as to misuse validity in a domineering way [over men].’ Similarly, in her submission to the Reform-Awesome Consultation concerning the proposed ticket of women to the office of bishop in theDenominationof England, Emma Ineson personal that: ‘The sentence could be virtuously translated: “I do not permit a woman to teach so as to proceeds mastery or domination over a man”.’ No, it can not be ‘accurately translated’ that way. It doesn’t midpoint that at all. Let us have a squint at the original text: διδάσκειν δὲ γυναικὶ οὐκ ἐπιτρέπω, οὐδὲ αὐθεντεῖν ἀνδρός, ἀλλ’ εἶναι ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ. Let’s take this word by word, so that those who know only a little or no Greek can get the idea: διδάσκειν – present infinitive of διδάσκω ‘to teach’ – so, ‘to teach’ or ‘to be teaching’; δέ is a mildly adversative sentence connector, which can be variously translated ‘and’ or ‘but’ or ‘now’ or ‘then’ or left untranslated; γυναικὶ – dative of γυνή ‘a woman, or wife’ – so, ‘to a woman’ [as in English we requite permission to someone] οὐκ is οὐ, meaning ‘not’; ἐπιτρέπω 1st person present indicative of ἐπιτρέπω, ‘to permit, allow’ – so, I permit; οὐδέ is a negative conjunction: ‘and not, nor, neither’; αὐθεντεῖν present infinitive of αὐθεντέω ‘to exercise authority, to seem a stance of self-sustaining authority, to dictate to’; ἀνδρός – genitive of ἀνήρ ‘a man, or husband’; ἀλλά is an adversative particle: ‘but’; εἶναι – present infinitive of εἰμί ‘to be’ – so, ‘to be’; ἐν is a preposition: ‘in’; ἡσυχίᾳ – dative of ἡσυχία: ‘quietness, or silence’. Putting that together, we have: ‘Now, I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise validity over a man, but to be in quietness.’ Although it is not inside to my purpose here, it has to be said at this point that some modern translations read withal the lines of: ‘I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise validity over a man, but to be in quietness.’ leaving some uncertainty as to whether it is only teaching men that is not permitted, or even: ‘But I do not indulge a woman to teach or exercise validity over a man. She must remain quiet.’ [NET Bible] which makes it towards that Paul is prohibiting only the teaching of men, rather than teaching per se. I have checked many of the older commentaries on the Greek text (Chrysostom, Calvin, Ellicott (1856), Fairbairn (1874), Huther/Hunter (1881), Plummer (1884), Humphreys (1897), Bernard (1899), William Kelly (1913), Faulkner Brown (1917), Lock (1924), and J MN D Kelly (1963)) and none of them plane consider the possibility that ἀνδρός is the object of διδάσκειν in this sentence. William Kelly, for example, renders it as: ‘But to teach I permit not a woman nor to exercise validity over a man, but to be in quietness.’ saying explicitly (note, p.66) that he is imitating in English the emphatic place given to διδάσκειν at the throne of the sentence. Nevertheless, I am willing to concede for now that it may be at least a theoretical possibility that ἀνδρός is the object of διδάσκειν.Planeif that were the case, there would still be two prohibitions in view: the teaching of men, and the exercising of validity over men. My purpose here, rather, is to persuade the reader that οὐδέ can not midpoint ‘so as to’ or ‘in such a way as to’, and thus serve to limit the first prohibition rather than to add a second one. A good place to start in determining the meaning of a word is to squint it up in a dictionary. So let us uncork with a lexicon, and then move on to the grammars. It is an extremely worldwide word, so it is unthinkable that scholars have been unable to determine its meaning until the recent past. Here is the primary classical lexicon, Liddell and Scott: Several points should be noted from this definition. First, οὐδέ is worked from οὐ and δέ, both of which we have met already. Just as δέ can midpoint either ‘and’ or ‘but’, so οὐδέ, can midpoint either ‘but not’ (A.I above,) or “much oftener,” connecting two whole clauses, (as it does in 1 Timothy 2:12) it can midpoint ‘and not, nor’ (A.II.) Notice however that plane in the second case, ‘the δέ in οὐδέ gives it rather a distinctive force,’ that is, that the second clause is made unshared from the first to some degree. Second (A.II.3,) ‘with a simple negative proceeding’ (as is the specimen in 1 Timothy 2:12,) ‘οὐδέ must be translated nor.’ This is very simple. The first example given is from Homer’s Odyssey, 10.379, which reads: ‘τίφθ᾽ οὕτως, Ὀδυσεῦ, κατ᾽ ἄρ᾽ ἕζεαι ἶσος ἀναύδῳ, θυμὸν ἔδων, βρώμης δ᾽ οὐχ ἅπτεαι οὐδὲ ποτῆτος; “‘Why, Odysseus, dost thou sit thus like one that is dumb, eating thy heart, and dost not touch supplies or drink?..” [Trans. A. T. Murray] Since this seems slightly at odds with Lidell and Scott’s injunction that ‘οὐδέ must be translated nor,’ we may note that in a negative sentence, ‘or’ has much the same sense as ‘nor.’ ‘He does not touch supplies or drink’ has virtually the same meaning as ‘he touches neither supplies nor drink’. We may note moreover that, perhaps for the sake of brevity in a dictionary, οὐδέ is here connecting words rather than clauses, as then in their second example from The Odyssey 22.226: ‘οὐκέτι σοί γ᾽, Ὀδυσεῦ, μένος ἔμπεδον οὐδέ τις ἀλκή οἵη “Odysseus, no longer hast thou steadfast might nor any valor,..” [A. T. Murray] Third, οὐδέ is moreover used adverbially (Section B above, which I have omitted) when it ways ‘not even,’ but there has been no suggestion that it is so used in 1 Timothy 2:12. Now let us squint at the leading grammar of classical Greek, Herbert Smyth’s ‘Greek Grammar for Colleges’: (μηδέ is similar to οὐδέ.Whereas οὐδέ is normally used with a verb in the indicative mood, μήδε is employed with other moods. οὔτε and μήτε are usually doubled, as in οὔτε.. οὔτε, μήτε.. μήτε, and midpoint ‘neither.. nor.’ These words need not snooping us directly here, but will be met then in the grammars below.) I omit Section 2931 which concerns οὐδέ as an adverb. Then, at Section 2932, regarding οὐδέ as a conjunction we have:   According to Smyth, οὐδέ ways ‘and not, nor’. There are other sections which touch on the use of οὐδέ, but I don’t believe any are of relevance to 1 Timothy 2:12, where it ‘connects two or increasingly whole clauses,’ as in Section 2932. Had οὐδέ reverted its meaning in any way by the time Paul wrote his first letter to Timothy? Here is the most supervisory grammar of New Testament Greek, known as BDF (Blass, Debrunner, Funk): It is stated unmistakably that its use is the same as in classical Greek. Although the heading might suggest otherwise, οὐδέ is stuff classed here as a connective, not as a correlative. For a sit-in of this, here is Blass-Debrunner (2nd ed, 1905, p.265), from which BDF was derived: οὐδέ connects two negative clauses. It’s as simple as that. George Winer (translated by Moulton,) gives a fuller discussion in his ‘Grammar of New Testament Greek’: τε, referred to in the pursuit extract, is a particle that adds an element to a previous one, and is therefore often termed ‘adjunctive.’ Frequently it may be translated as ‘and.’ Thus, οὐδέ (and μηδέ) ‘add negation to negation.’ Consider the example cited, from Matthew 7:6 Μὴ δῶτε τὸ ἅγιον τοῖς κυσίν, μηδὲ βάλητε τοὺς μαργαρίτας ὑμῶν ἔμπροσθεν τῶν χοίρων, .. Do not requite what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls surpassing swine, ..[NASB] and Winer’s scuttlebutt that ‘two variegated deportment [are] equally negatived, i.e. forbidden.’ Although this particular example concerns μηδέ, it is well-spoken that the principle that he is illustrating applies to οὐδέ too. I rest my case. οὐδέ adds one negative statement to another. Thus, in 1 Timothy 2:12, to Paul’s first prohibition ‘I do not permit a woman to teach,’ it adds a second ‘nor to exercise validity over a man.’ The meaning is clear, and we must obey it. Andrew February 7, 2014 in Research. Tags: 1 Timothy 2:12, Women in the church, Women's ministry, αὐθεντεῖν, οὐδέ Related posts Planet charade (ἐκ πλάνῃ in 1 Thessalonians 2 v 3) Philip Payne, οὐδέ, and Galatians 1 vv 16-17 Post navigation ← Being told ‘No’ The unpalatable truth → Search Recent Posts “For I am not ashamed…..” August 14, 2015 Origen on 1 Corinthians 14.33-35 (part 1: the Montanists) March 16, 2015 Dear friends, seek truth July 27, 2014 Planet charade (ἐκ πλάνῃ in 1 Thessalonians 2 v 3) March 27, 2014 Recent CommentsPeter on Contactmargaret Beaird on Restoring orderAndrew Chapman on Dear friends, seek truthDavid Harrison on Dear friends, seek truthArchives August 2015 March 2015 July 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 Categories Research Uncategorized Women's ministry Meta Log in Entries RSS Comments RSS WordPress.org Enabled by WordPress | Theme: Expound by Konstantin Kovshenin