Women silent in church?
Should women be quiet in church, or are they allowed to speak? You might be thinking: “Women silent in church? What?” If that sounds like a crazy question to you, let me just explain quickly where it comes from.
Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says. If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings.
So what in the world does this mean? Let’s unpack this extremely controversial passage, and also examine some principles for how to interpret other verses like this.
This is what I call a “problem passage.” Problem passages create problems if you just take them literally, without context.
We need to apply the three C’s: Context, culture, and cross-References. At the end of this, I’ll answer the question of what this means for our churches today.
Context for the "women silent in church" verse
A verse of the Bible should never be used out of context in order to establish a blanket rule. 1 Corinthians 14 is a section of Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth. In it, Paul is addressing the misuse of spiritual gifts inside of the church. How do we know that? Go back a few chapters:
Now dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this.
In that verse, Paul states the purpose of that entire section. He’s answering a specific question they posed to him about spiritual gifts in the church.
Paul is telling the church in Corinth how to exercise the spiritual gift of tongues without causing chaos and confusion in the church. Take a look at verse 27:
No more than two or three should speak in tongues. They must speak one at a time, and someone must interpret what they say. But if no one is present who can interpret, they must be silent in your church meeting and speak in tongues to God privately.
Notice that same phrase here as in our main verse: “Be silent.” Let’s look at another reference here:
Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent.
These commands to be silent aren’t telling them they can’t speak in tongues, or that they can’t prophesy. It’s saying that if there are multiple people speaking in tongues, but there is no interpreter, they need to be quiet because that’s just chaotic.
If someone is prophesying, but then God gives revelation to someone else, then the first person needs to be quiet to make room for other people to bring forth a word from God. The issue here is the orderly nature of their church gatherings.
What these verses show us is that the command to “be silent” can apply to both men and women depending on the situation. It also shows us that the commands refer to specific situations, not general rules. The context of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 suggests there are times for everyone to be silent in church, not just women.
Culture
Now let’s look at the culture in which Paul is writing and in which the Corinthian church existed. There are a couple of things to consider here.
We know that this isn’t a blanket command for women to never speak in church, because it says that women should ask their husbands at home if they have questions. Well, what if they don’t have a husband? What if they’re widows? Then what do they do? This obviously doesn’t apply to all women.
(As a sidebar, note here that this verse assumes that men will be spiritually equipped to lead their wives and answer their questions!)
Second, many scholars believe that because women during this time were often uneducated, they were not able to evaluate what was being prophesied. What would happen in this church is that someone would prophesy, and others would evaluate whether what was said is true or accurate.
Some believer the women in Corinth didn’t have enough knowledge of scripture to evaluate. But, they were chiming in with opinions, causing division and disorder. That led to this particular command from Paul.
Paul was not saying that women can never speak in any church. For the purpose of order within the Corinthian church in that time, it was best for the women not to speak in certain situations.
Cross-References
Another good way to interpret difficult passages of scripture is to explore how an interpretation lines up with other passages. Another way to put this is to ask, “What does the Bible say about the Bible?” It will never contradict itself!
What you’ll find is there are other verses in the Bible that actually encourage women to speak in church. Here are a couple:
But a woman dishonors her head if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head, for this is the same as shaving her head.
“In the last days,” God says, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.”
Both of those verses clearly show and permit Christian women praying and prophesying—speaking—in church, so any interpretation of another passage of scripture that contradicts that cannot be the correct interpretation.
What does this mean today?
I believe the Bible is very clear that male leadership in the church is still God’s intent and His initial design for the local church, based on scriptures such as 1 Timothy 2:12, 1 Timothy 3, and 1 Corinthians 11:3.
However, I don’t believe that this prohibits women from speaking in church, because there are too many other scriptures that actually encourage women to speak, sing, pray, and prophesy in church.
For more helpful biblical Christian content from Allen Parr, visit his YouTube channel The BEAT or browse other topics on the Let’s Equip blog!