Women’s Role in the Church (2): “Are Women Forbidden to Speak in the Church Forever?”
1 Corinthians 14:34-35 (NIV)
“Women should remain silent [sigaō] in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”
1 Timothy 2:11a (ESV)
“I do not permit a woman to teach . . . over a man.”
The only time I ever apologized to my instructor occurred at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1990. That day, I waited until everyone left the classroom to apologize to the teaching assistant, a middle-aged Caucasian woman who had served in Korea as a missionary. During the class discussion, I showed “attitude” towards her when she was lecturing about a country (Korea) that I thought I knew better—and perhaps the fact that a woman taught the Bible added to my irritation. In truth, my inacceptable behavior had more to do with my immaturity than how I understood 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, in which Paul tells women not to speak in the church.
So why not just leave it at that? It’s because “all of the relevant material on a given subject [must] be collected together so that that the pattern of divine revelation concerning that subject would be apparent” (Ramm 1970:56). This means that while 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 certainly needs to be heeded, other relevant Scriptures that address the same matter must be considered as well. We shouldn’t, therefore, ignore the fact that women indeed spoke in the church of Corinth. Paul, while addressing the need for women to wear head coverings in the church, begins 1 Corinthians 11:5 (NIV) with, “But every woman who prays or prophesies . . ..” Evidently, the sharing of prophetic words was part of the worship service at Corinth, for Paul says, “When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation . . . Two or three prophets should speak . . . (1 Cor. 14:26a, 29a). This means that the prohibition stipulated in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 should be interpreted in the context of women being allowed to speak in one situation but disallowed in another in the Corinthian church.
How do, then, complementarians handle 1 Corinthians 11:5 that says women prayed and prophesized? John MacArthur, an ardent complementarian, does concede that this refers to women “speaking to people about God.” But he immediately qualifies it by saying, “In the course of life, as believers, there will be times when women pray and speak to people about God. Obviously, they are not doing it in the order of church, in the service of a church—this is crystal clear everywhere in Scripture—but in the fellowship of saints in homes and social gatherings” (extracted from MacArthur’s sermon on November 3rd, 2019).
But MacArthur’s assertion that 1 Corinthians 11:5 alludes to women praying and prophesying in their homes is simply wrong considering 1 Corinthians 11:16. There, Paul makes it clear that women were “speaking to people about God” (MacArthur’s words) in the church, not homes or social gatherings. It states, “If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God” (referring women having to wear coverings for their heads while praying or prophesying in the church). MacArthur is wrong here, no ifs and buts about it.
Now, let’s deal with 1 Corinthians 14:34. First, note that the Greek for “keep silent” in 1 Corinthians 14:34 is not phimoō (as in muzzling the mouth) but is sigaō, which, in Luke 20:26, is translated “hold peace” (KJ). Does that seem like women should never open their mouth in the church? No, it’s more like when a mom, needing some respite from her screaming kids, would say, “hush” or “keep quiet.” And since women did pray and prophesy in Corinth, Paul was likely addressing a particular situation in which the way many women were talking in the church benefitted no one; therefore, the apostle prohibited that type of talking.
Second, according to 1 Corinthians 14:5, Paul apparently had issues with the way some wives were “inquir[ing] about something” from their husbands in the church. At that time, women— most of whom were illiterate and uneducated—and men were likely seated in separate sections. So, whenever the wives had questions about the sermon, they would’ve raised their voices to ask their husbands sitting across from them—multiple occurrences of this then began to distract the service.
This disturbing practice likely raised another concern for Paul. The city of Corinth was the
center of Dionysian (the Greek god of wine) worship as late as the 2nd century BC. Having begun as a predominately woman’s movement, one feature of Dionysus worship was frequent shouting (“ecstasy of joy”) by women during their decadent services in which much wine was consumed as part of Dionysian rituals. What often occurred in the Corinthian church—including some people becoming intoxicated at the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:20-21)—therefore, began to resemble typical Dionysian services. To distinguish the Christians from the Dionysian followers for the public perception, Paul likely told the Corinthian women to stop disrupting worship services by asking their questions at home.
That’s how I would explain 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. (1 Timothy 2:11-12 will be discussed in the next blog). Suffice it to say, we should heed whatever words the Lord places on the lips of His people, whether men or women—a lesson I learned a long time ago. Let’s not reject the message from God just because we don’t like the messenger, for whatever reasons. Since Barak, a warrior, Josiah, a king, and Apollos, an erudite—men living in a patriarchal society—offered no resistance in accepting the words of the Lord from women, how much more should the men of 21st century be willing to learn from women who are equipped with God’s Word and filled with the Spirit.
Disclaimer: The view expressed here does not represent the views of all AMI pastors some of whom are complementarians.
“Women should remain silent [sigaō] in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”
1 Timothy 2:11a (ESV)
“I do not permit a woman to teach . . . over a man.”
The only time I ever apologized to my instructor occurred at Fuller Theological Seminary in 1990. That day, I waited until everyone left the classroom to apologize to the teaching assistant, a middle-aged Caucasian woman who had served in Korea as a missionary. During the class discussion, I showed “attitude” towards her when she was lecturing about a country (Korea) that I thought I knew better—and perhaps the fact that a woman taught the Bible added to my irritation. In truth, my inacceptable behavior had more to do with my immaturity than how I understood 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, in which Paul tells women not to speak in the church.
So why not just leave it at that? It’s because “all of the relevant material on a given subject [must] be collected together so that that the pattern of divine revelation concerning that subject would be apparent” (Ramm 1970:56). This means that while 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 certainly needs to be heeded, other relevant Scriptures that address the same matter must be considered as well. We shouldn’t, therefore, ignore the fact that women indeed spoke in the church of Corinth. Paul, while addressing the need for women to wear head coverings in the church, begins 1 Corinthians 11:5 (NIV) with, “But every woman who prays or prophesies . . ..” Evidently, the sharing of prophetic words was part of the worship service at Corinth, for Paul says, “When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation . . . Two or three prophets should speak . . . (1 Cor. 14:26a, 29a). This means that the prohibition stipulated in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 should be interpreted in the context of women being allowed to speak in one situation but disallowed in another in the Corinthian church.
How do, then, complementarians handle 1 Corinthians 11:5 that says women prayed and prophesized? John MacArthur, an ardent complementarian, does concede that this refers to women “speaking to people about God.” But he immediately qualifies it by saying, “In the course of life, as believers, there will be times when women pray and speak to people about God. Obviously, they are not doing it in the order of church, in the service of a church—this is crystal clear everywhere in Scripture—but in the fellowship of saints in homes and social gatherings” (extracted from MacArthur’s sermon on November 3rd, 2019).
But MacArthur’s assertion that 1 Corinthians 11:5 alludes to women praying and prophesying in their homes is simply wrong considering 1 Corinthians 11:16. There, Paul makes it clear that women were “speaking to people about God” (MacArthur’s words) in the church, not homes or social gatherings. It states, “If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God” (referring women having to wear coverings for their heads while praying or prophesying in the church). MacArthur is wrong here, no ifs and buts about it.
Now, let’s deal with 1 Corinthians 14:34. First, note that the Greek for “keep silent” in 1 Corinthians 14:34 is not phimoō (as in muzzling the mouth) but is sigaō, which, in Luke 20:26, is translated “hold peace” (KJ). Does that seem like women should never open their mouth in the church? No, it’s more like when a mom, needing some respite from her screaming kids, would say, “hush” or “keep quiet.” And since women did pray and prophesy in Corinth, Paul was likely addressing a particular situation in which the way many women were talking in the church benefitted no one; therefore, the apostle prohibited that type of talking.
Second, according to 1 Corinthians 14:5, Paul apparently had issues with the way some wives were “inquir[ing] about something” from their husbands in the church. At that time, women— most of whom were illiterate and uneducated—and men were likely seated in separate sections. So, whenever the wives had questions about the sermon, they would’ve raised their voices to ask their husbands sitting across from them—multiple occurrences of this then began to distract the service.
This disturbing practice likely raised another concern for Paul. The city of Corinth was the
center of Dionysian (the Greek god of wine) worship as late as the 2nd century BC. Having begun as a predominately woman’s movement, one feature of Dionysus worship was frequent shouting (“ecstasy of joy”) by women during their decadent services in which much wine was consumed as part of Dionysian rituals. What often occurred in the Corinthian church—including some people becoming intoxicated at the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:20-21)—therefore, began to resemble typical Dionysian services. To distinguish the Christians from the Dionysian followers for the public perception, Paul likely told the Corinthian women to stop disrupting worship services by asking their questions at home.
That’s how I would explain 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. (1 Timothy 2:11-12 will be discussed in the next blog). Suffice it to say, we should heed whatever words the Lord places on the lips of His people, whether men or women—a lesson I learned a long time ago. Let’s not reject the message from God just because we don’t like the messenger, for whatever reasons. Since Barak, a warrior, Josiah, a king, and Apollos, an erudite—men living in a patriarchal society—offered no resistance in accepting the words of the Lord from women, how much more should the men of 21st century be willing to learn from women who are equipped with God’s Word and filled with the Spirit.
Disclaimer: The view expressed here does not represent the views of all AMI pastors some of whom are complementarians.
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