HEBREW WORD STUDY – DIPLOMACY (ARAMAIC) – SHU’ABDA – שׁועבדא

1Timothy 2:11,12: “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. (12) But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

I Corinthians 14:34-35: “Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but [they are commanded] to be under obedience, as also saith the law.  (35) And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.”

“Diplomacy is the art of  saying nice doggy until you find a big rock.”  Will Rogers

These verses are a hornet’s nest so let me say at the outset, there are many different interpretations particularly by those much smarter than I am. So I am only offering you my own take on this, I could be wrong, let the Spirit of God inside you decide as to whether my view has any merit. 

The KJV makes it very clear that women are to be silent in the church and not say anything, they are not to preach or teach and if they want to learn anything they are to go to their husbands and learn from them.  Many women have followed the literal interpretation from the KJV and many have suffered, sometimes even abuse because of it.  

Yet, I have been blessed with the teachings of many women and even my own study partner, who happens to be a woman, has blessed many with her teachings.  So my apologies to King James but I am going with what I read from the Aramaic version of the Bible which is Paul’s native language.  Time does not permit a full analysis of this question, I will only dwell on one aspect.  If you sign up for our full access I will in the next couple months of an audio teaching on this topic to our subscribers. 

First, it is indeed in Jewish law for a woman to be silent, yet in I Corinthians 11 you find Paul gives women full steam ahead to pray, preach, teach and prophesy in church.  In the mind of the first century, Christians prophesy includes preaching and teaching. 

Either Paul is contradicting himself or there is a matter of context here.  I chose the idea of a context. Jewish law called women to silence only within a Midrash. That is a rebuttal or discussion of a prophecy, teaching or sermon.  Unlike our churches today where we hear a sermon or teaching and we will automatically accept it without question. We may even get condemned for questioning the teacher or pastor.  It was expected that all revelations and teachings be called into question and debated.  Women were forbidden to participate in this for a very good reason.  These debates often got very heated with disagreements.  It is ok for the men to duke it out,  they can usually shake hands afterward because they are not married to each other. But if the wife was present in that debate and disagreed with her husband, you are talking an entirely different relationship. The two become one and that means one of heart and mind.  To air their dirty laundry before the congregation would not be healthy for the marriage relationship.  These disagreements should be resolved at home and the wife is to be in subjection to her husband while in church. That word subjection in Aramaic is key shu’abda.  The Shin is a prefix to the word ‘evad which means a servant or one who submits. In Judaic literature, I found that as a simple verb in the Aramaic it means to defer to another. 

Two things to remember here both concerning the context.  The women are before the congregation, they disagree with their husband about the sermon. Under Jewish law they are not to voice their opinion, they are to keep silent and shu’abda – defer to their husbands,  especially if their view is opposed to their husband’s opinion. They must wait until they get home to duke it out in private.  

A second thing to remember is that this is not Western culture.  Oriental cultural practices this shu’abda deferment all the time.  We call it diplomacy.  Recently, our President took on the leader of North Korean.  He broke all the rules and literally insulted the leader before the world.  Our president is not a politician but a businessman and he knows international business.  Diplomacy fits the oriental way.  You bow, say nice things to each other in public and then in private, the gloves come off.  The John Wayne form of negotiations is to duke it out first and after being bloodied you shake hands and say nice things.  I cannot say for sure but I suspect our President refused to play on and oriental field and brought the North Korean leader on his own Western (as in cowboy) field. My point is, it is easier to understand Paul’s demand for women to keep silent if we forget all those Western cowboy movies and seek to understand the Oriental way of deference – diplomacy.