dolco
What's the meaning of "suffer not"? 1. "I suffer not a woman" 2. "I suffer not a woman to teach." What are those? Could it be "I don't make a woman suffer"?
Feb 21, 2020 7:25 AM
Answers · 5
This is an archaic use of "suffer" it can mean allow or tolerate. An example 1 Timothy 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
February 21, 2020
This looks like a use of the archaic meaning of suffer, which was 'tolerate' or 'allow'. If it's in a very old text, I'd understand the first to mean something like 'I won't tolerate a woman' and the second "I won't tolerate a woman teaching" or "I won't allow a woman to teach". NB Many people who aren't aware of this old usage know the biblical phrase "Suffer little children" and presume it's about children suffering. They don't realise that the full phrase is "Suffer little children to come unto me", which means 'Let them come'.
February 21, 2020
Don't tolerate, don't allow. But it sounds really archaic or biblical to me.
February 21, 2020
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