The Noisy Silent Education of Women: A Commentary on the Gothic Translation of 1 Tim 2:11-12

Abstract

The subject of this essay is the discussion of the Gothic translation of two terms for “silence” taken from two consecutive verses of the First Letter of Saint Paul to Timothy (I Tim 2:11–12). In these verses the Greek text and the Latin version offer the same form twice (respectively ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ and in silentio), whereas in Gothic two different words occur: in the second case, at verse 12, editors agree on the reading in þahainai; the first occurrence, at verse 11, is much more debated, not least because of the lacunose manuscript transmission. The essay reviews all editorial proposals and then proceeds to examine the passages in which ἡσυχίᾳ is rendered in Gothic. Two terms are involved: *hliuþs and *þahains; *hliuþs is a hapax legomenon, attested only in the first occurrence in the Timothy passage under consideration. A close scrutiny of the meaning of *hliuþs—also in light of occurrences of the cognate in Old Icelandic—leads to the conclusion that, in the Timothy context, rendering ἡσυχίᾳ with hliuþa is acceptable both on etymological-linguistic grounds (despite an apparently contrasting sense “noise”) and for specifically cultural and theological reasons, thus testifying to Ulfila’s competence in rendering into Gothic complex passages of the Pauline epistles. Methodologically, the essay shows that readings which are lacunose in their textual transmission must be weighed and interpreted with due regard to the cultural context—both that of the Pauline age and that of the time of the Gothic translation.