Searching the Scriptures - Samuel Pipim

Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak;but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they willlearn any thing, let them ask their husbands a home: for it is a shame for women to speakin the church. [9]As noted earlier, Paul's command that women "keep silence" in the church does not meanthat women cannot pray, prophesy, preach, evangelize or teach in the church. For in thesame letter to the Corinthians in which Paul tells women to keep silence, he also indicatesthat women may pray and prophesy, provided they are dressed appropriately (1 Cor 11:2-16). Also, the instruction that women should "keep silence in the churches," just like thecommand in the same chapter that tongue speakers with no interpreter present should"keep silence in the church" (1 Cor 14:28), suggests that Paul wanted women to exercisetheir gift to "speak," but within certain appropriate guidelines.Our concern in this passage is, therefore, whether 1 Corinthians 14:34 has permanentvalidity for the leadership of the Christian church. Just as they do 1 Timothy 2:11-14,"moderate" or "progressive" proponents of women's ordination want to consign 1Corinthians 14:34 to the culture and times of Paul. They interpret "the law" in thispassage as a reference to "a Jewish custom."Two brief responses will be given. First, if "the law" refers to "a Jewish custom," howcould such a custom apply to the Corinthian church, which no doubt had Gentileconverts? How could such a "Jewish" command be binding "in the churches," includingthe non-Jewish churches? Similar questions will still be raised if one argues that "thelaw" is a "Corinthian civil law," for how could a civil law in Corinth be binding on non-Corinthian Christians "in all the churches"? [10] Would it not be more consistentbiblically to understand "the law" as a reference to the divine arrangement of roledifferentiation established at creation (see 1 Cor 11:3, 8-9; 1 Tim 2:13)? In fact, in anearlier verse (1 Cor 14:21) Paul uses "the law" to mean the Old Testament Scriptures,suggesting that when he ses "the law" in verse 34, he has in mind the pre-fall headshipprinciple recorded in the Old Testament (Gen 2:20b-24). This principle or "law" theapostle now applies to women (including married women [v. 35]) "in the churches."Page 61Second, in Paul's prohibiting women to speak, the key phrase "but they are commandedto be under obedience" indicates that the kind of speaking Paul ruled out is one whichinvolved not being "under obedience," that is, one which constituted an exercise ofauthority inappropriate to them as women or wives. Thus, 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, like 1Timothy 2:11-14, prohibits women from exercising the authoritative teaching functionentrusted to leaders of the worshiping community. This explains why Paul restricts theteaching and leadership role of elder or pastor to males (aner, 1 Tim 3:2; Titus 1:6).Significantly, Paul supports his restriction on women on the basis of Scripture ("the law,"1 Cor 14:34; cf. 14:21) and not on socio-cultural barriers; this is in harmony with theview that the Bible must always remain the ultimate authority on issues of faith and