WOMEN 'BE SILENT' IN THE CHURCH (1)
A gracEmail subscriber asks, "What does Paul mean in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 when he says that women are to keep silent in the church?"
The passage you mention is only one of several specific "sit-down-and-shut-up" commands found in the same chapter. The chapter is part of an epistle addressed to a volatile group of Middle Easterners known for their unruly assemblies, whether "secular" (Acts 19:29-41) or "sacred" (1 Cor. 14).
Three times within a few verses, Paul issues a restraining order of "Silence!" First, to the disorderly tongue-speaker who lacks an interpreter (v. 28), second, to the disorderly prophet who declines to yield to another in turn (v. 30), and third, to some disorderly women who apparently are interrupting the proceedings with their questions (v. 34-35). It is indeed ironic that the only thing many churches today allow women to do in a public assembly is the one thing Paul here specifically forbids--asking questions!
The passage (1 Cor. 14:34-35) certainly is still authoritative, for making the same point it originally made--when the same circumstances reoccur. If women (or men) begin to call out in an interruptive and disruptive manner while someone else has the floor, this text authorizes the presider to pronounce them out of order and to ask them to be quiet.
Even if this text did not have a context (which it does), and if it were intended to say women cannot speak at all "in church" (which it was not), its most literalistic interpretation would still not prevent women as well as men from acting as ushers, serving the Lord's Supper or taking up the offering, to name just a few silent areas where women often are not permitted to serve. In fact, the larger context shows that both women and men exercised speaking ministries in the first-century Christian assemblies by both praying and prophesying (1 Cor. 11).(gracEmail) women be
silent in church - 2
Edward Fudge
Apr 22, 2008
It is unhealthy to allow our thinking to be shaped by culture rather than by Scripture -- especially if Scripture happens to go counter to that particular culture. On this subject, that can occur in either of two ways. It can occur if Scripture language, properly understood in context and in intent, prohibits women from exercising their gifts, and we then reject that Scripture teaching because our "secular" culture disapproves of any "inequality" between men and women. It can also occur if Scripture language, properly understood in context and in intent, permits women to fully exercise their gifts, and we then reject that Scripture teaching because we have inherited a "secular" culture (now abandoned everywhere except in church) that sees women as inherently inferior to men and therefore relegates them to inconspicuous, passive or private roles.
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Copyright 2008 by Edward Fudge. Permission hereby granted to remail,
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