[Greek] σιωπάω (siōpaō), [Latin] tacere, [Latin] silere, [Latin] quiescere, [French] reposer: to be silent, silent, to be still; Mt.20:31, Mt.26:63, Mk.3:4, Mk.4:39, Mk.9:34, Mk.10:48, Mk.14:61, Lk.1:20, Lk.18:39, Lk.19:40, Acts 18:9
St. Peter Martyr of Verona asking for silence: fresco by Fra. Angelico (1441). Yet he could not be silenced for speaking out as he was martyred.
Background information:
Greek Hellenism: This term mean to keep quiet, to hold one’s peace, to find rest, to calm oneself, and to impose a silence.
Plato: “To be sure I must; and therefore I may assume that your silence gives consent.”
Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus 980: “For I will not be silent, when you have gone so far in impious speech.”
Euripides’ The Suppliants 298: “No. I will not hold my peace to blame myself afterwards for having kept silence to my shame.”
Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound 329: “No, keep quiet and keep yourself clear of harm.”
Old Testament: This term means to consider, to be silent, to wait, to hush, to hold the tongue, to stop, and to conceal.
New Testament: This term means to be silent, to become calm, and to become speechless.
Mt.20:31: “The crowd warned them to be silent, but they called out all the more.” (As the blind mean asked Jesus to be healed, the disciples warned the blind men to be silent. The disciples viewed saw the blind men as a nuisance. In response, Jesus heals a blind man. The disciples were actually spiritually blind in failing to see Jesus’ mission in serving and healing others.)
Mt.26:63: “But Jesus was silent. Then he high priest said to Him, ‘I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”