Women should learn quietly and submissively.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let a woman learn in quietness with full submission.
- KJV Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
- BSB A woman must learn in quietness and full submissiveness.
- NKJV Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
- NASB A woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A woman is to learn quietly and submissively. It affirms women as learners while setting an orderly manner for the gathered church.
Overview
Paul directs that a woman 'learn in quietness with full submission,' affirming her place as a learner of doctrine, which was countercultural in honoring women's instruction. The 'quietness' concerns respectful order in the assembly. This verse introduces the teaching that follows on roles within the church's public worship.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Cor 14:34–35Let the women be quiet in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted for them to be talking except in submission, as the law also says,
- Eph 5:22–24Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
- 1 Cor 11:3But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
- Col 3:18Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
- 1 Pet 3:5–6For this is how the holy women before, who hoped in God also adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands:
- 1 Pet 3:1In the same way, wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; so that, even if any don’t obey the Word, they may be won by the behavior of their wives without a word;
- Gen 3:16To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
- Titus 2:5to be sober minded, chaste, workers at home, kind, being in subjection to their own husbands, that God’s word may not be blasphemed.
- Esth 1:20When the king’s decree which he shall make is published throughout all his kingdom (for it is great), all the wives will give their husbands honor, both great and small.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Christ at the center
There is 'one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all' — the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh.
How 1 Timothy 2:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.