What Does 1 Corinthians 14:35 Mean?
And if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the assembly.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.THE KEY
The verse makes shame the stated reason for restricting women’s speech in the assembly.
THE MEANING
Women who want to learn are directed to ask their husbands at home, while their speech in the assembly is called shameful. The sentence routes their questions through husbands and places their public voices under a verdict of disgrace. That restriction remains part of what the verse says to the reader now.
THE ROOT
αἰσχρόν
aischron
GROWS FROM
αἰσχρ-
aischr-
Shameful, disgraceful; regarded as bringing disgrace.
“shameful” in this verse is aischron. The adjective names women’s speaking in the assembly as disgraceful, making shame the stated reason for the restriction. The question of where women may learn is linked directly to how their voices are judged.
ALSO GROWS
aischros: Shameful, disgraceful.
αἰσχρός
This cognate makes explicit the evaluative force placed on women’s speech.
aischynē: Shame, disgrace.
αἰσχύνη
It shows the same word family can name the disgrace itself, not only something judged disgraceful.
aischynomai: To feel shame, be ashamed.
αἰσχύνομαι
This branch shows the family also describes the experience of shame attached to the public judgment.
μαθεῖν
mathein
GROWS FROM
μαθ- (math-), a form of μανθάνω (manthanō)
To learn, become instructed.
This is the same learning verb-family used just above in 1 Corinthians 14:31, where all may prophesy so that all may learn. The shared root makes the contrast visible: learning is named in the assembly, while women’s questions here are directed to husbands at home.
ALSO GROWS
mathētēs: Learner, disciple.
μαθητής
A learner is one who takes up the process named by the verb in this verse.
mathēma: Lesson, subject of learning.
μάθημα
This cognate names what is learned, keeping the focus on instruction rather than mere presence.
THE PATTERN
Scripture holds women’s prophetic speech beside explicit restrictions on their speech and teaching.
But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered shames her head, for it is one and the same as if she were shaved.And it will come to pass in the last days, God says, I will pour out my breath upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.But I do not allow a woman to teach, nor to act of herself over the man, but to be in stillness.THE THREAD
For all of you can prophesy, one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted.The word translated “learn” shares the Greek verb-family μανθάνω (manthanō) with μαθεῖν (mathein) here. The repeated root brings the tension into view: this chapter speaks of all learning through prophecy in the assembly, then directs women’s questions to their husbands at home.
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