One thing that the internet has given us is instant connectivity to every person in the world. While this has the potential to be dangerous, it also has the potential for good. One thing the internet has done is exposed me to multiple perspectives that I was not taught growing up.
For instance, there's a group Christians who claim that women have no right to preach or teach in the Church, and that they need to be silent, they can't exercise authority over a man, etc.
I was blissfully ignorant of this theological belief prior to the internet. Now, that's not to say I had never heard this before, but I genuinely had no idea how widespread it was.
So, let's look at what the Bible has to say, and as always, we'll examine the context behind the scriptures to see what they have to say.
We'll start with one of the famous "clobber verses" and that's found in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. "Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church.
So, we're left with a few choices reading this:
A. Paul said what he meant and meant what he said and women aren't allowed to speak.
B. There was a specific issue culturally that Paul was addressing - commonly taught here is the idea that the Corinthian women were extremely loud and would shout questions across the room to their husbands in the middle of the service.
C. Paul was flat out wrong and we can just ignore him here.
I'm going to go with D. None of the above. While B is the closest, this still isn't entirely correct. I won't even touch the latent sexism in the idea that all women are loud and super talkative, but suffice it to say, that isn't true by a long shot. Women are individuals, just like men. Some are more talkative and louder, some are not. Like many things, it depends largely on the person.
Not only that, but many people stop reading at verse 35 and completely ignore verse 36, or they use a version that has a mistranslation here. Whether intentional or not, many Bible translators completely drop the first word in the sentence, and this completely changes what Paul is saying.
"Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached?"
This is how the New King James Version translates this passage. And while the New King James is a good translation, this is an instance where the venerable King James Version is better than the “improved” version. Paul starts off in the King James by asking a question here in response. "What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?"
So this then begs the question: Why is Paul questioning this? He told them initially that they are to be submissive as the law says, and then asks them, "What on earth are you talking about?"
This is a baffling question to many, and a big shout out to Dr. Paul Ellis for doing this legwork here. Take a look at that link to check out some of his research if you’re interested.
The fact of the matter is this: No such law exists in the entirety of scripture. This was a manmade tradition. Recall that Jesus told the Jewish people that it was their manmade traditions that deprived the word of God of it's power, and He ended this by telling them it wasn't only their financial traditions that robbed the word, but they had many such traditions that rob God's word of it's power. (Mark 7:13).
Remember how we said earlier that this isn't anywhere in the Law of Moses or the Old Testament - this idea that women need to stay silent in Church? How on earth did this church get an idea like this then?
That was because the Jewish leaders in Paul's day did not believe that a woman had a place in the synagogue. They had to stay silent. Out of sight, out of mind. Don't bother questioning things, the men are handling important business here.
This doctrine was passed along to the church of Corinth (if you recall, they had a lot of questions, and a large portion of this epistle is addressing questions they had) and they apparently had embraced this lie as one of them - not only that, but Paul, the apostle of Grace, definitely would NOT be bringing correction to the Church by preaching the law to them.
Let's make this passage a little more readable for ourselves as modern day audiences.
"Where on earth did you get the idea that women must remain silent in the Church and the only way for them to learn is to ask their husbands at home? Did you pick that tradition up from the law-mongers back in Jerusalem? Are you serious? Did God's word start with you or is it only for you? (verse 37) If anyone thinks they can operate in the gifts of the Spirit, stop playing around with this garbage and recognize that I'm telling you what God has to say on the matter, not this foolishness."
So, with that being said, this seems to pretty clearly put to bed the idea that women need to be silent in church.
We'll pick up here next week with what Paul has to say in 1 Timothy about women being silent and not exercising authority over a man. Spoiler alert: Context is king yet again, and understanding the culture that was being addressed and the issues endemic to the age will allow us to properly understand the text.
By Grace,
Dave