Does the Greek allow for the following translation: ‘Let your wives keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak’ (1 Corinthians 14:34)?

This text is from an article written by David Gooding in 1986.

The Greek word gynē means 'woman' as opposed to 'man'. That is its basic meaning. It can be used along with other nouns or adjectives to indicate various kinds of women, e.g. gynē tamiē is a (female) house keeper. Used as a vocative in affectionate or respectful address, it means something like 'mistress' or 'lady'. It can also be used in the sense 'wife'.

Similarly, the Greek word anēr means 'man' (that is a male) as opposed to 'woman', or 'man' (that is a grown-up man) as opposed to 'youth'. It can also be used in the sense of 'husband', just as in some dialects of English a woman will refer to her husband as 'my man'.

Which meaning is intended in any one place must be determined by the context and by usage in similar passages.

In many passages, gynē obviously means 'wife', e.g. Matthew 1:20, 24; 5:31–32. In other passages, it just as clearly does not mean 'wife', but 'woman', e.g. John 2:4; 19:26; 20:13; Luke 13:12.

The answer to whether or not the Greek allows this translation (i.e. 'your wives') in 1 Corinthians 14:34 is:

1. There is no word for 'your' in the better manuscripts. If gynē refers to 'wives', it should read simply 'the wives'.
2. Certainly gynē can mean 'wife', but it does not necessarily carry that meaning. In 1 Corinthians 14:34, it can equally mean 'the women'. Your Bible ought to indicate that its translation 'your wives' is only one of two possible translations. If it does not, then it has gone beyond the task of translating and indulged in interpretation.
3. I suspect that it has decided to translate 'your wives' because it thinks that the phrase tous idious andras in 1 Corinthians 14:35 must mean 'their own husbands'. But it does not necessarily mean that: it could mean 'their own men-folk'. Indeed, there is no reason why it should not.
4. Let us consider two other passages:
   • 1 Timothy 2:8 surely does not mean, does it, that only married men are to pray? 'Men' (anēr) here means 'males', whether married or unmarried. So, in 1 Timothy 2:9, 'women' means 'females' whether married or unmarried. It would be very arbitrary to confine these two injunctions to the married by translating 'the husbands' and 'the wives' (see e.g. Acts 17:12).
   • Similarly in passages like Matthew 14:21, the true translation would be 'men . . . women and children' not 'husbands . . . wives, and children'.
5. It is therefore very arbitrary to translate 1 Corinthians 14:34 as 'Let your wives keep silent . . .' and so to exclude reference to unmarried women and girls.