What does 1 Corinthians 14 say about women teaching men in church today?
A study of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35
This is the second article in a series walking through the three passages cited most by Christians who believe women should not teach men in church.
We started with 1 Timothy 2:11-15. If you haven’t yet, please read that first.
Now we turn our attention to 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. We'll include the verses around it too, because they turn out to matter a great deal.
“[26]What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up. [27]If anyone speaks in a tongue, two, or at the most three, should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. [28]If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God. [29]Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. [30]And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. [31]For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. [32]The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. [33]For God is not a God of disorder but of peace, as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. [34]Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. [35]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.””
A Plain Reading (14:34-35)
Some argue for a "plain reading" of this passage. We should take Paul's words at face value, they say. Paul is clearly saying that women should remain silent in church. They are not allowed to speak.
Let's put this plain reading to the test.
Almost no church in America today puts this plain reading into practice. Women are allowed to read Scripture, pray, make announcements. They sing, greet at the doors and say “amen” during the sermon.
So we aren't actually applying a plain reading of this text, are we? It seems we agree that “not allowed to speak” doesn't mean what it plainly says.
There's a second and bigger problem though. If we're going to read 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 plainly, we have to read the rest of Paul’s letter plainly too. And three chapters earlier Paul tells “every woman who prays or prophesies” in the gathering how she should do this(11:5). A plain reading of that verse requires us to acknowledge that women were speaking in the Corinthian church. And with Paul's blessing!
Read plainly, Paul is contradicting himself.
We must go beyond a plain reading if we're going to understand what's happening here. Let's begin with some background.
Why was Paul writing to the Corinthians?
Paul planted this church, stayed a year and a half, and then moved on. Then he began receiving troubling reports from Corinth.
There were factions forming in the church. People were forming cliques around their favorite leader (1:11-12). A man was sleeping with his stepmother (5:1). Christians were suing each other in court (6:1). At the Lord’s Supper, the wealthy ate and drank while poorer members went hungry (11:21). And some people were misusing their spiritual gifts (12-14) .
Paul's main concern throughout this letter is the unity of the church.
Back to the spiritual gifts problem. Paul spends three full chapters on this in a section of the letter focused on orderly church gatherings (12-14). He writes that gifts are given to individuals for the good of the whole church body (12:7). A hand cannot tell a foot it doesn't belong (12:21). Without love, the most spectacular gift is just noise (13:1). And there was a lot of noise in the Corinthian church.
Some were using their gifts to advantage themselves, and the church gatherings had become chaotic and contentious.
It’s helpful to remember that these gatherings were in homes. The church in Corinth was a collection of house churches throughout the city. So instead of a modern sanctuary with pews and stained glass windows, picture a single room with no more than thirty people in it. And all of them participating in some way. There was no lead pastor or music minister or other staff member doing all the work!
Paul describes what a house church meeting looked like. He writes in 1 Corinthians 14:26 that when they came together, “each of you has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.”
But instead, they tore down — there was disorder and division.
Who is Paul silencing?
In this chapter on orderly church gatherings, Paul silences three different groups of people — not just women. He uses the same Greek word each time.
• A person speaking in a tongue with no interpreter present (14:28)
• A prophet who is speaking when another prophet receives a revelation (14:30)
• Women, or wives (14:34)
Is Paul permanently banning speaking in tongues? Of course not. He has just encouraged them to speak in tongues, as long as someone can interpret (14:27).
Is he permanently banning prophecy? No. He tells this church to desire prophecy above every other gift (14:1).
The first two commands are clearly situational. Stop talking when your talking is getting in the way. The tongue-speaker is silent if there’s no intepreter. The prophet is silent if someone else has a revelation to share.
Then Paul uses the very same word a few verses later to silence women.
There's no reason to think Paul is telling women to never speak in a church gathering. The pattern in this passage is to stop speaking if speaking disrupts the gathering.
Does Paul allow women to speak in a church gathering?
Yes, and he says so in this same letter.
In 1 Corinthians 11:5 Paul addresses “every woman who prays or prophesies” in the gathering. He assumes women are speaking, and tells them how.
But, some have argued that prophesying is not teaching or preaching. They argue that it was less significant speech. So, how significant was it? How does it differ from a modern sermon?
Let’s see what Scripture says about prophets.
Kings were subject to prophets. In Israel, prophets spoke for God to kings, and kings answered to them. Nathan confronted David over Bathsheba and Uriah, and David repented (2 Samuel 12:1-13). Samuel told Saul the kingdom had been torn from him (1 Samuel 15:22-28). Elijah faced down Ahab, and called him the troubler of Israel (1 Kings 18:17-18). When God spoke to King Josiah through the prophetess Huldah, the king instituted nationwide reforms (2 Kings 22:14-20).
Paul ranks prophets ahead of teachers! In this same letter he writes that God has appointed in the church “first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers” (12:28). Paul tells this whole church to desire the gift of prophecy more than any other. “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy” (14:1).
Paul describes prophecy as substantial, instructive speech. It strengthens, encourages, and comforts (14:3). It convicts an unbeliever and lays bare what is hidden in the heart (14:24-25). Through it, “everyone may be instructed and encouraged” (14:31).
That is Spirit-enabled speech, delivered to a gathering of men and women, through which the church is encouraged, comforted, convicted, and taught. That is substantial speech.
Whatever 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 means, it cannot mean that women were forbidden to speak when the church gathered. According to 1 Corinthians 11, they were encouraged to speak.
Why are these women being silenced? (14:35)
The Greek word for “women” in this passage can also mean “wives,” and Paul tells them to ask “their own husbands” if “they want to learn something.” So Paul likely has married women in mind here who are asking questions during a church gathering.
Why would their questions be a problem? We can’t know for sure. But scholars have offered several possibilities.
Lack of education. Women in the Greco-Roman world usually had less access to formal education than men, and few had been trained in the Scriptures. Wives who could not follow what was being said may have interrupted with their questions.
Pagan practice. In Corinth, it was common to consult an oracle through a prophet and then ask follow-up questions for clarity. Women may have brought that practice into the church with them.
Cultural offense. It was culturally normative to test a prophecy by questioning it (14:29). A woman publicly questioning her own husband’s prophecy may have been culturally offensive. This may be why Paul calls it “disgraceful” in verse 35, using a word that describes social shame rather than sin. He uses the same word in this letter for a woman cutting her hair short (11:6).
Language. Corinth was an ethnically diverse city. The unifying language was Greek, but men were more likely to speak it because they encountered Greek daily in the marketplace. It was the language of commerce. Women were less likely to be fluent. Women who couldn’t follow what was being said in a church gathering may have asked their husbands to explain, and that buzz of questions across a living room was disruptive.
We don’t know which of these situations is at play here. Maybe a combination. But any of these would create the same problem — a disrupted and disorderly church gathering.
But notice that Paul is addressing women who are asking questions in order to learn. He doesn't stop them from learning. He tells them where to ask their questions, so that everything in the gathering is done in a fitting and orderly way.
There is an orderly way to speak in tongues, to prophesy, and to ask questions in the house churches.
What does "submission as the law says" mean? (14:34)
Paul says the women should be in submission “as the law says.”
But the Old Testament laws never commanded that women be silent in a worship gathering. That makes it difficult to argue that Paul has total silence in mind here.
So what does he mean? What law does Paul have in mind here?
The Greek word translated “submission” is hypotassō, and Paul tells us what he means by it just two verses earlier. “The spirits of prophets are subject (hypotassō) to the control of prophets” (14:32).
To be in submission here is to hold back, to exercise self-restraint, on purpose, when speaking would harm the gathering. It’s a choice the speaker makes. A prophet with a word to share stops speaking so someone else can speak. A person with a tongue and no interpreter stays quiet. A woman with a question saves it for later.
Nobody loses their gift. Everybody yields the use of it for the good of the church.
This kind of submission runs all through the law. The words of Israel’s prophets were to be tested and judged (Deuteronomy 13; 18:20-22; 1 Kings 22). Miriam and Aaron learned that having a spiritual gift did not permit them to use it however they pleased (Numbers 12). Paul is asking the Corinthians to submit their gifts and their speech to the community, for the good of the community, as God's people have always been instructed to do.
What this passage does and does not say
This passage says that the exercise of spiritual gifts is not more important than the order and unity of the church. It says that every Christian, man or woman, must use their gifts and their speech in ways that build up the church. It says that when our talking gets in the way of the gathering, we should stop talking.
Paul does not say that women may never speak in a church gathering. Nor does Paul say that women may never instruct men. Paul assumes three chapters earlier that they will. Prophecy is exactly that.
Paul silenced three groups in Corinth. None of them was silenced permanently.
Next, we’ll look at 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 together. In these passages, Paul lays out the requirements for men serving as church elders. Or does he?
