After dealing with the physical appearance of women, the passage goes on to deal with the behavior of women. The primary concern still seems to be the conduct of women during the worship service and other church meetings, although as verse 12 indicates there may also be a reference to the relationship between men and women in general, and in particular the relationship between a woman and her husband.

The three ingredients of the behavior of women are: they should be learners, they should observe silence, and they should be submissive. So women should learn and not teach, since teaching in church was the exclusive function of men. This at least accents a feature of the early Christian community that makes it different from the Jewish synagogue, where instruction was reserved for men and boys. From the beginning of the Christian movement, women were included in instruction classes together with the men. But there was one condition: the women should learn in silence, which means that women were not allowed to speak at church meetings. Other ways to express learn in silence are “listen to the men’s teaching without asking questions” or “when the men are teaching them the Christian principles, the women should listen silently.” And finally, women should be submissive and should not have authority over men. Submissiveness includes the elements of recognition, subordination, and obedience; the addition of all indicates the intensity and extent of the submission; hence New Revised Standard Version “learn … with full submission.” Or one may translate “be completely submissive to the authority of the men as teachers.” This perhaps means that the women should submit to the authority of the men as teachers and should accept with humility and obedience what is taught to them. The logical offshoot of this is that women should not teach men or have authority over them. To have authority translates a Greek verb that means “to control,” “to dominate,” “to control in a domineering manner.” It is suggested that the Greek word for have authority can mean “interrupt,” in which case what verse 12 is saying is that the women should remain completely quiet during the meetings and should not interrupt the men teachers in any way. This suggestion is attractive in view of the context. However, so far as we know, no modern translation reflects this understanding.

An alternative translation model for verses 11 and 12 is the following:
• When the men are teaching them, the women should listen (or, learn) silently (or, without asking questions), recognizing the complete authority of the men. I do not allow women to teach men or to dominate (or, have authority over) them. Women should remain silent when you meet together in worship.

One other thing that needs to be noted is that, from verse 11 on, the singular form woman is used, in contrast to verse 9, which has the plural form. If, however, it is more natural in the receptor language to use the plural form when talking about women in general, then the plural form can be used in verses 11, 12, and 15.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to Timothy. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .