Does the Greek allow the translation of 1 Timothy 2:12 as, ‘I permit not a woman to teach taking dominion over a man’?

 

This text is from a letter written by David Gooding in 1986.

The answer to this question is no: the Greek does not allow the proposed translation.

First of all, in the Greek sentence, the verb 'to teach' stands as the first word in the sentence at quite a distance from the verb 'to exercise authority over'. The effect could be represented in English thus: 'To teach—this I do not permit to a woman, nor to exercise authority. . .'. This makes it difficult to suppose that Paul meant us to take the two verbs together as a hendiadys: 'to teach-in-an-authority-usurping manner'.

Secondly, what Paul says is, 'I do not permit a woman to teach nor [i.e. not 'and'] to exercise authority over a man'. As R. St. John Parry points out, Paul is forbidding two things: teaching, i.e. in the assembly; and exercising authority in any way over a man. The first prohibition is a general rule; the second is a particular case that comes under that general rule.

 
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