Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 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 Corinthians 14.34-35 (NIV)
Few New Testament texts are as difficult in interpret as this one. Numerous interpretations have been proposed, but none are so convincing that you walk away saying, “Ah, that’s definitely it!”
Rather than put forward all the ones that have been proposed, I’d like to simply show why one seems obviously incorrect, while two seem plausible.
First, the one that is, at least from my perspective, clearly unbiblical… and that is this: Paul was forbidding women to ever speak up in a public gathering of believers. The reason why I find this so obviously incorrect is that just three chapters prior (1 Corinthians 11.2-16) the same Apostle Paul was teaching about how women in Corinth should cover their heads when they are publicly praying or publicly prophesying (in the context of the gathered church). So this cannot be an across the board prohibition against women ever speaking up in “church” gathering.
Second, here are the two interpretations I find to be most likely:
(a) This is a general prohibition for women to participate in the discussion when a prophecy is being weighed or tested as described in 14.29… “and the others should weigh carefully what is said.” They could discuss the legitimacy of the prophecy later on at home, but not in the assembly.
(b) Similarly, but more specifically… perhaps the women in the church in Corinth were interrogating other women’s husbands after these men prophesied as part of the process of testing the prophecy. In the Greco-Roman world of that day, it was VERY bad for a woman to question another woman’s husband in public. But if their own husband or another woman were to prophesy, they could engage in the “weighing”/“testing” of that prophecy.
One thing is for sure, this is a difficult passage to interpret. We would all be wise to disagree with others on this passage in a charitable manner.
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