Source: https://authentictheology.com/2018/05/22/part-3-most-church-of-christ-colleges-no-longer-exclude-women-from-leading-in-worship-services-does-it-contradict-1-cor-1434-35-women-should-remain-silent/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 12:13:22+00:00

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This article explains one reason why 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, which says “women should remain silent in the churches,” does not exclude women from reading scripture, leading singing or prayer, preaching, or otherwise participating fully in a worship assembly.
It is part of a series regarding the Churches of Christ’s general exclusion of women from serving in worship assemblies, viewed through the eyes of a young woman considering colleges.
Spoiler alert: She figures out what 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 means.
Mary, 17, a high-school senior who has attended a Church of Christ all her life, recently discovered that most Church-of-Christ colleges have chapel worship-services in which women actively serve. Women at three of the schools to which she was admitted serve in all roles along with men. She is worried about this, as her home church taught her that God does not want women serving in worship services.
Mary, along with her friend Julie and Julie’s mom Kim, is visiting a Church of Christ college to which she has been admitted. This article begins with the trio having lunch on campus while on their way to sit in on a college class.
Now, Mary turns to determining the meaning of 1 Cor 14:34-35.
Kim: “Context is key. Pull out your tablets and let’s look. I use the NIV. Pull up chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians. Ask yourself — what is that chapter about? I’ll pull it up on my phone.
Kim: “Paul recognized women are prophets earlier in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 11:4-5, 16). The New Testament cites women prophets elsewhere, too. (e.g., Acts 2:15-21; Acts 21:8-9; Luke 2:36-38).
Thus, Paul is telling “every one,” the “whole church,” “brothers and sisters,” “all”—women and men—to speak out “when you come together,” e.g., in the church.
Kim: “It can be, but it becomes easier. We know what it doesn’t mean (plain meaning), but we should try to figure out what it does mean. How do you think we figure that out?
Women should remain silent (sigatosan) 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.
“So, since sigato (‘be silent’) is used in that manner in the first two situations, sigato (‘be silent’) was almost certainly used in that same manner for the third situation. In other words, sigato (‘be silent’) almost certainly means be silent relative to the specific way referenced in the third situation, described in vv. 34-35, too, which is non-submissive questions, and not relative to all ways.
If you missed the beginning of this series, part 1 is here.
The next part, part 4, the conclusion, is here.
See generally the sources cited in the first and second articles in this series.
See generally Two Views on Women in Ministry (Counterpoints: Bible and Theology) (Zondervan). Also see generally sources cited in this recent blog post (in main text and in sources/notes section) and in the first article in this series and in the second.
I use “leading” and “serving” (by itself) occasionally to try to be succinct. “Serving” is a better description than leading.
“… conservative scholars …”: See, e.g., Everett Ferguson, Women in the Church, 2nd ed., Abilene, Texas: Desert Willow Publishing (2015), pages 21, 28-29, 118 (not all “speaking” is prohibited for women by 1 Cor 14:34-35, only certain “kinds of speaking” are prohibited; women can speak “Amen” along with the rest of the congregation, they can translate, they can speak by interpreting or translating for another, and they can speak their confession of faith at baptism); Ferguson, supra, page 46 (that the setting of 1 Timothy 2 is the assembly “is not so obvious”); Wayne Jackson, “1 Corinthians 14:34–‘Silence’ in the Church,” Christian Courier, Accessed May 15, 2018, https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/471-1-corinthians-14-34-silence-in-the-church (“The first two prohibitions demand silence only in the matters being discussed. They do not forbid these men to otherwise speak consistent with their divine obligations. … This does not demand that a woman be absolutely silent at church. Rather, in harmony with what the apostle taught elsewhere (1 Tim. 2:12), the woman is not to speak or teach in any way that violates her gender role. She is not to occupy the position of a public teacher, in such a capacity as to stand before the church and function as the teacher (or co-teacher) of a group containing adult men. In assuming this official capacity, she has stepped beyond her authorized sphere, and she violates scripture. … Thus, mark “silence” in verse 34. Draw arrows back to verses 28, 30, and note: Silence not absolute, but qualified by context.); Wayne Jackson, “May a Woman Ever Teach a Man?,” Christian Courier, Accessed May 15, 2018, https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1569-may-a-woman-ever-teach-a-man (“In 1 Timothy 2:12, the grammatical construction of Paul’s prohibition clearly indicates that the term “teach” (didasko) in this setting is the type associated with exercising “authority.” The woman is not to teach in a situation wherein she exerts “authority” as “the teacher.””); John Piper & Wayne Grudem, 50 Crucial Questions, Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway (2016), https://document.desiringgod.org/50-crucial-questions-about-manhood-and-womanhood-en.pdf?ts=1471551126, pages 38-39, 41 (“The reason we believe Paul does not mean for women to be totally silent in the church is that in 1 Corinthians 11:5 he permits women to pray and prophesy in church: “Every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head.” But someone may ask, “Why do you choose to let 1 Corinthians 11:5 limit the meaning of 1 Corinthians 14:34 rather than the other way around?””; “This dynamic is significantly different from the public, authoritative teaching of Scripture to a congregation that Paul prohibits for women in 1 Timothy 2:12.”; “When Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:12, “I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet,” we do not understand him to mean an absolute prohibition of all teaching by women.”; “It is arbitrary to think that Paul had every form of teaching in mind in 1 Timothy 2:12. Teaching and learning are such broad terms that it is impossible that women not teach men and that men not learn from women in some sense. “); D.A. Carson, “Silent in the Churches: On the Role of Women in 1 Corinthians 14:33b-36,” Chapter 6 in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, ed. by Wayne Grudem, John Piper, Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books (1991), pages 133, 142 (“The interpretation of 1 Corinthians 14:33b-36 is by no means easy. The nub of the difficulty is that in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, Paul is quite prepared for women to pray and prophesy, albeit with certain restrictions; but here, a first reading of the text seems to make the silence he enjoins absolute. The solutions that have been advanced are, like devils in certain instances of demon possession, legion. I can do no more than list a few and mention one or two of my hesitations about them before turning to the interpretation I find most contextually and exegetically secure. … Paul’s point here, however, is that they may not participate in the oral weighing of such prophecies.”).
Ferguson notes there are three situations addressed in a parallel structure in 14:27-36 with commonalities, but he uses “common properties,” a concept he borrows from Antoinette Clark Wire, and the common properties chosen by Ferguson are awkward and do not seem to fit. See Ferguson, supra, page 22-24. For example, he refers to them as three “groups”—“anyone who speaks in tongues,” “prophets,” and “women”—but ignores that people can be in more than one such “group” and in fact can be in all three and the “justify the rule” given by Ferguson for the first category (“speaks in tongues”)—“and speak to themselves and to God, and not to the church”—is not a justification. Ibid. There are multiple other problems with Ferguson’s formulation.
How do we know it is disruptive questions to which Paul is referring?
The tongue-speaking a few sentences before is disruptive tongue-speaking, not all tongue-speaking (vv. 27-28). The prophesying banned there is disruptive prophesying, not all prophesying (vv. 29-33).
Thus, it is likely that the questions addressed in v. 35 are disruptive ones, not all questions.
Second, Paul tells us the kind of speaking he refers to in vv. 34-35 is disruptive speaking.
We know the “speaking” referred to is not all kinds of speaking.
What kind of speaking is referred to as not allowed in vv. 34-35?
The text tells us that it is the kind that involves (a) not being in submission (v. 34) (hypotassesthōsan) and (b) questions (v. 35).
What is this hypotassesthōsan to which Paul is referring in v. 34? In submission to a husband? In submission to the congregation? In submission to one’s self?
Thus, the kind of speaking referred to as not allowed in vv. 34-35 is the kind that involves disruptive questions.
Third, it makes no sense to say that all questions from women are banned. What about when a woman wants to ask to be prayed for? What if a woman wants to ask for prayers for her children? What if she wants to ask about being baptized?
There are lots of others (e.g., Psalm 44:24, 74:10).
Fifth, praying involves asking non-disruptive questions (e.g., “give us this day our daily bread,” “forgive us our trespasses”), Paul approved of women praying in the assembly, and directed them to do so. The Apostle Paul said, to women and men, “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy … so that the church may be edified.” (1 Cor 14:5) See also 1 Cor 1:1-2; 11:5; 14:23, 26, 39-40) Speaking in tongues included prayer. (e.g., 1 Cor 14:14 (“For if I pray in a tongue ….”)) Women were commanded to pray out loud in a mixed assembly by Paul, asking them to pray with “understanding” (out loud, regular way, not in tongues): Paul, after telling women and men, “I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy,” describes “build[ing] up the church,” including telling them “if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding. Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying? You are giving thanks well enough, but no one else is edified.” (1 Cor 14:5, 12-17; see also 1:1-2; 14:6, 23, 26) Paul recognized women were praying in the assembly in 1 Cor 11:5, 16 as well. Thus, since women are directed to ask non-disruptive questions in the assembly via praying, it is unlikely that 1 Cor 14:34-35 bans speaking non-disruptive questions.
The “anything” referenced in v. 35 is just one of a bunch of ways to express a flexible Greek word — ti — (is translated there as something, anythiing, a thing, any …) … basically, whatever it is that she is wanting to ask about it in that question, ask it at home. The way some try to translate it would make it make no sense (if she wants to learn anything, let her ask her men at home …. of course she wants to learn something, that is why she is sitting there in church; what that anything/something is referring to is the QUESTION that Paul doesn’t want her disrupting the assembly with.
Some people argue that v. 35 refers to “their own men,” such as the women’s fathers and brothers, not just their own husbands.
First, the words tie to “submission” in v 34 strongly indicates it is wives / husbands because the term “submission” is strongly tied to the husband-wife relationship by Paul. The father-daughter relationship is typically referred to with reference to “obey” and not “submission.” The brother-sister relationship is not one of submission, and thus the reference to submission and asserting “own men” refers to the woman’s family does not correspond to either the language of the Bible or the reality of relationships in the Bible. The wife-husband relationship, however, strongly ties to “submission” in the Bible.
Second, the reference to own men “at home” strongly points to the husband-wife relationship. Brothers of a woman old enough to come to the assembly probably do not live at home, for example.
Third, “own men” was a euphimism for husbands. This is why even translations that interpret scripture leaning towards the form (as opposed to the function or meaning) translate the phrase as husbands.
The underlying story of Mary is, of course, fictionalized. The scripture and her struggle are real.
(a) Are women part of the church? So when Paul encourages “the whole church” to speak in 1 Cor 14:23, isn’t he encouraging women and men to speak in the church?
(c) How do you justify women singing in church since 1 Cor 14:34-35 says “Women should remain silent in the churches.”? Doesn’t that suggest only a specific type of silence/speaking (disruptive questions) is what Paul has in mind?
(d) Since 1 Cor 14:34-35 says if women “want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home,” why isn’t it a sin for a woman to ask a question in Sunday School?
(f) Is it disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church in today’s culture?
(g) Didn’t Paul note that women prayed and prophesied in the churches before this in his letter? (in 1 Cor 11:5, 16) If he wanted to say they couldn’t, why would he have just said, wear a veil / long hair?
(h) When Paul said in v. 28 for people who are speaking in tongues to be silent (sigato) when no interpreter is there, do you think he meant silence for all purposes for the whole time (for praying, for reading scripture, for singing …) or just to be silent as to speaking tongues?
(i) When Paul said in v. 30 for people who are prophesying to be silent (sigato) when someone else is ready to prophesy, do you think he meant silence for all purposes for the whole time (for praying, for reading scripture, for singing …) or jut to be silent as to prophesying right then?
(k) Where are are men the head of women (“…the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Cor 11:3))? In the worship service only or everywhere?
(l) Is 1 Tim 2:11-15 (regarding women not usurping authority over men, etc.) limited to the worship service or does it apply outside the worship service?
All scripture quoted is from the New International Version (NIV) or New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) unless otherwise indicated.

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