1 Corinthians 14:35

Rather than calling out a question in the middle of some male or female prophet’s message, a woman was to wait and ask her husband about it at home after the service. Presumably unmarried women would ask their fathers or some other man in the church after the service. Men could raise questions or make comments, but too much of this could ruin the order of the service and the edifying value of the message. Consequently Paul asked the women, evidently in harmony with their position of subordination, to refrain. It is improper for a woman to speak in church meetings in the situation Paul addressed in the context. That situation is the questioning and perhaps challenging of what a prophet said who was sharing something he or she believed God had given him or her to pass on to the church. [Note: Bruce, 1 and 2 Corinthians, pp. 136-37; Morris, pp. 201-2; Robertson and Plummer, p. 325; James B. Hurley, Man and Woman In Biblical Perspective, pp. 188, 190; the NET Bible; et al.]

"To suggest that the women should learn by asking their husbands at home (1 Corinthians 14:35) would sound repressive to most of us today (at least where questions can be asked in public meetings), but probably seemed comparatively progressive in Paul’s environment (and in some traditional cultures today)." [Note: Keener, 1-2 Corinthians, p. 119.]

There have been many other explanations of this apparent contradiction. The view that women should not speak at all in the church, under any circumstances, has a long history. [Note: One fairly recent advocate was James Greenbury, "1 Corinthians 14:34-35: Evaluation of Prophecy Revisited," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 51:4 (December 2008):721-31.] But it does not resolve the apparent contradiction. Richard Lenski assumed that all of what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:26-32 applies only to men and that he added 1 Corinthians 14:33-36 as an appendix to deal with women’s participation. [Note: Lenski, p. 614.] However this does not harmonize with 1 Corinthians 11:4-5. William Barclay believed at this point Paul was not able to rise above the spirit of his age that said women should not participate in intellectual activities on a par with men. [Note: Barclay, The Letters . . ., p. 151.] This view fails to appreciate the implications of Paul’s inspiration by the Spirit as he wrote as well as his high regard for women that he expressed elsewhere in his writings. G. Campbell Morgan seems to have regarded Paul’s prohibition as necessary in view of conditions unique in Corinth. [Note: Morgan, pp. 180-81.] C. K. Barrett believed Paul did not write 1 Corinthians 14:34-35. He presumed some other person added them to the text later when Christians thought good order was more important than the freedom of the Spirit. [Note: Barrett, pp. 332-33.] Gordon Fee also argued that these verses are inauthentic. [Note: Fee, The First . . ., pp. 699-702.] Harry Ironside believed the occasions at which women could speak were different from the official meetings of the church at which they were to be silent. [Note: Harry A. Ironside, Addresses on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, pp. 454-55. Cf. Wiersbe, 1:616.] David Lowery wrote that Paul wanted the married women whose husbands were present in the meeting to be silent, but that other women could speak if properly covered. [Note: Lowery, "1 Corinthians," p. 541.] S. Lewis Johnson Jr. seems to have felt women could never speak in the church meetings except when they prayed or prophesied. [Note: S. L. Johnson Jr., "The First . . .," p. 1255.] H. Wayne House concluded that women could not speak if others considered that what they said was authoritative. [Note: H. Wayne House, "Caught in the Middle," Kindred Spirit 13:2 (Summer 1989):14; idem, "The Speaking of Women and the Prohibition of the Law," Bibliotheca Sacra 145:579 (July-September 1988):301-18.] Anne Blampied said Paul told the women to keep silent because they were violating the principle of order in the church, not because they were women. [Note: Anne B. Blampied, "Paul and Silence for ’The Women’ in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35," Studia Biblica et Theologica 18:2 (October 1983):143-65.] Andrew Spurgeon interpreted the imperatives as permissive; he believed that they expressed Paul’s approval of what the Corinthian women were doing. [Note: Andrew B. Spurgeon, "Pauline Commands and Women in 1 Corinthians 14," Bibliotheca Sacra 168:671 (July-September 2011):317-33.]

The most common view is that Paul forbade some form of inappropriate speech, not all speech. [Note: E.g., Bruce, 1 and 2 Corinthians, p. 135.] The second most popular interpretation is that Paul forbade some form of "inspired" speech other than prophecy, perhaps contradicting the prophets or speaking in tongues.

"Paul’s long response to the Corinthians’ enthusiasm for tongues is now finished. The basic issue is over what it means to be pneumatikos (’spiritual’); and on this issue Paul and they are deeply divided. They think it has to do with speaking in tongues, the language(s) of the angels, the sure evidence that they are already living in the pneumatic existence of the future. For this reason they have great zeal for this gift (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:12), including an insistence on its practice in the gathered assembly. Apparently in their letter they have not only defended this practice, but by the same criterion have called Paul into question for his lack of ’spirituality.’ Hence the undercurrent of apologetic for his own speaking in tongues in 1 Corinthians 14:6; 1 Corinthians 14:15; 1 Corinthians 14:18.

"Paul’s response to all this has been twofold. First, they are to broaden their perspective to recognize that being Spirit people by its very nature means a great variety of gifts and ministries in the church (chap. 12). Second, the whole point of the gathered people of God is edification, the true expression of love for the saints. Whatever they do in the assembly must be both intelligible and orderly so that the whole community may be edified; thus it must reflect the character of God, which is how it is (or is to be) in all the churches of the saints (1 Corinthians 14:33)." [Note: Fee, The First . . ., p. 709.]