The Silence of Women Is Golden?: 1 Corinthians 14:34-35

The second passage I would like to address in my series on chauvinistic New Testament passages is 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. Here we read,

34Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35If 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.

There is a possibility that this verse is a later interpolation constructed by an author associated with the school that forged the Pastorals, especially since the manuscript evidence is not unanimous as to its placement in the passage.[1] In some very early manuscripts, these verses appear after v. 40. Moreover, as they presently stand in most English Bibles these verses come in the middle of a lengthy discourse about speaking in tongues and prophecy, and interrupt the flow of the passage. The appearance of tais ekklesiais in both 33b and 34a also seems a bit redundant, whereas if vv. 34-35 were omitted entirely then v. 33 would connect smoothly with v. 36: "Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?" V. 36 adds a sarcastic bite to the affirmation in 33b that all Christian churches have orderly services. The two ideas connect perfectly.

It should be emphasized, though, that no manuscript of 1 Corinthians omits these verses entirely, and they ultimately fit with the theme of the rest of the chapter. A more likely explanation for the uncertainty as to placement is that these verses are a marginal gloss added as an afterthought by Paul and only later incorporated into the body of the text.[2]

Another way moderate evangelicals try to get around this passage is by arguing that the Greek particle normally translated "or" at the beginning of v. 36 ("Or did the word of God originate with you?") is actually a disjunctive particle (roughly translating to "What?!").[3] That might mean that vv. 34-35 are a quotation from the Corinthian letter, and v. 36 is Paul's refutation. But this would be an odd place to go on a tangent criticizing the Corinthians' limitations of women's speech, and Paul does not qualify vv. 34-35 as he usually does quotations from the Corinthian letter.

Other scholars have analyzed the passage in its historical context and tried to find some other explanation for what is being said here. After all, since Paul mentions women praying and prophesying in ch. 11, why would he contradict himself here? Jervis thus places the verses in the context of the larger passage: "It limits 'the women' from asking questions of the prophets which disrupt prophetic utterance, therefore it does not censure other types of speech such as prophecy, the interpretation of prophecy, tongues, teaching, and so on."[4] Jervis may be right that not all speech is here condemned, but her interpretation is probably also too loose. Rather than understanding the passage as a condemnation only of disruptive female speech, we should perhaps regard it as a condemnation of all female speech except 'spiritual' speech (hymns, words of instruction, revelations, tongues, and interpretations)—which is to be exercised by "everyone" (see 14:26). Women are only allowed to speak under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and only in their proper turn; at any other time they must remain silent.

As in his instructions concerning head-coverings in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul's commandment here is predicated on Jewish Law ("They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says") and concern for the honor of males ("they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church"). I suggest that the apostle was wrong to feel so chained by Law and honor, and that his allowance that the Holy Spirit may speak through women is a redemptive thread that undermines his teaching in this passage. What man finds disgraceful, the Holy Spirit fills with grace.

NOTES:

[1] See G. W. Trompf, "On Attitudes toward Women in Paul and Paulinist Literature: 1 Corinthians 11:3-16 and Its Context," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 42, Ap (1980): 215.
[2] L. Ann Jervis, "1 Corinthians 14.34-35: A Reconsideration of Paul's Limitation of the Free Speech of Some Corinthian Women," Journal for the Study of the New Testament 58, Jun (1995): 52-53.
[3] Daniel C. Arichea, Jr., "The Silence of Women in the Church: Theology and Translation in 1 Corinthians 14.33b-36," The Bible Translator 46, no. 1 (1995): 109.
[4] Jervis, "1 Corinthians 14.34-35," 51-52.