Interpreting the Pauline Directive That Women Should Be Silent in Church

By Mark W. Christy, PhD

In 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, Paul delivers some instructions to women that have caused many feminists to look for ways to mitigate his words if not outright reject the Christian faith altogether. In his teaching on proper Christian corporate worship, he states, “The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak,” and then adds, “for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.”[i] While on the surface, Paul’s comments are direct and in line with his other teachings on the biblically defined roles for the sexes (cf. 1 Cor 11:3-16; Eph 5:22-33; Col 3:18-19; 1 Pet 3:1-7), his message appears compromised by his earlier directive in 1 Corinthians 11:5 which permits women to pray and prophesy under the authority of men. To address this apparent contradiction, this article will seek to offer a biblically sound, synthetic interpretation of these Pauline directives.

To begin with, the extremity of Paul’s statements on the proper conduct of women in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 can hardly be overstated. If taken too far, his directions on the silence of women in the corporate service can lead to some very ridiculous ends. For example, one must wonder rather or not Paul is directing women to literally avoid any utterance at all. If this is so, women who attend Christian worship would be required to avoid all conversation with other adults including other women. At an even more preposterous level, they would be obligated to forego reprimanding their own children for any foolish behavior. At certain point, the order that Paul clearly desired for the church and its worship would completely break down by the strict adherence of women to the golden rule of silence.

In response, one may argue that the rule only becomes obligatory at the official start of the service. This, however, could only work if one is envisioning a more modern worship service which offers opportunities for children to remain outside of the corporate service. Even so, it fails to consider the role women play in singing during the service. Unsurprisingly, Paul never directed women to avoid singing when giving instructions to churches on singing. For example, in Ephesians 5:18b-19, he writes, “be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” Similarly, in Colossians 3:16, he mandates, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

In both of these texts from Ephesians and Colossians, Paul is addressing his letters directly to churches, and these churches are faithfully reading the contents in the corporate service. If Paul were mentioning activities that are only to take place outside of the service, one wonders why Paul would have not made that clear. Furthermore, it would seem harsh and cruel for him to call upon women to “[l]et the word of Christ richly dwell within” them so that the singing of hymns were the natural overflow, and then tell them to keep it all inward when they congregate to worship God.

Given this perceived conundrum, many interpretations have arisen to address the obvious dilemma created by Paul’s directive on the silence of women. Some, of course, arise from an external, extra-biblical, and culturally informed vantage point that seeks to wrongly assert the role of women beyond the boundaries placed upon them in Scripture. For the most part, none take the extreme view that women should avoid all forms of verbal communication during a worship service.

Among the more conservative positions, one of the more attractive interpretations asserts Paul’s demand for the silence of women during the worship service albeit with no apparent concern for the participation of women in the singing component or any proper parenting role if children are present. To arrive at this stance, they must first make a less than literal interpretation of Paul’s seemingly clear instructions in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 mentioned earlier in the first paragraph. Along with this, they must disassociate it from Paul’s apparent approval of women praying and prophesying in 1 Corinthians 11:5. To accomplish this, they may argue that Paul’s direction in 1 Corinthians 11:5 is intended for activities in the home and small groups. In his commentary on this verse, John MacArthur posits activities in the public as a third option.[ii]

In support of this view which precludes the worship service from being the context of 1 Corinthians 11:5, MacArthur contends, “The mention here of women’s praying or prophesying is sometimes used to prove that Paul acknowledged the right of their teaching, preaching, and leading in church worship. But he makes no mention here of the church at worship or in the time of formal teaching.”[iii] On the surface, he is correct, but then again one could say that Paul’s firm words in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 appears to limit women attending a corporate worship service to nothing more than maintaining a physical presence.

In response to MacArthur’s position, D. A. Carson offers seven criticisms.[iv] First, he claims that Paul’s understanding of prophecy was as a “revelation from God delivered through believers in the context of the church where the prophecy may be evaluated ([1 Cor] 14:23-29).” Second, he points out that the early church did not have the same distinctions between worship in a corporate gathering and worship in a small group as the modern church of today does. Third, Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:16 offers a contextual clue on his comments of women praying and prophesying which strongly suggests that Paul indeed had a corporate service in mind: “But if one is inclined to be contentious, we have no [o]other practice, nor have the churches of God.” Four, Paul adds overt discussion about the worship service in the verses immediately following the previously mentioned verse (cf. 1 Cor 11:17-34). Fifth, no where in the context of 1 Corinthians 11:5 does Paul restrict the praying and prophesying of women to a particular venue. Seventh, the prophet Joel indicated that both women and men would prophesy “as constituent members of the community of the New Testament.”

Upon reflection of these criticisms of D. A. Carson, it would seem that looking for another biblically valid interpretation that properly synthesizes 1 Corinthians 11:5 and 14:34-35 is warranted. Before beginning that discussion, MacArthur does add some helpful criteria that he used in forming the view which Carson has now discarded. According to him, there is no biblical admonition against “a woman’s witnessing in public to others,” “taking non-leadership roles of praying with believers or for unbelievers” or “teaching children and other women” (cf. Titus 2:3-4; 1 Tim. 5:16). To this list, one could add singing as previously discussed.

While MacArthur’s list and the additional comment affirming the female role in singing is helpful, the context of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 along with Paul’s apparent affirmation of women praying and prophesying in 1 Corinthians 11:5 allows for an additional role of women in the prophetic ministry, at least during the Apostolic era before the New Testament was formed. During this period of the Church, the lack of New Testament writings rendered the Church to be solely dependent upon the Spirit to provide prophetic revelation to members during the assembly. This role, it seems, was vastly different than the authoritative roles of pastor and elder in the New Testament Church; therefore, women could participate in this prophesying.

 In the context of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, Paul is addressing the assessment of prophesies which are being heralded to the church as opposed to the giving of the prophesies themselves (20-33). This conclusion has been rendered from scholars such as Wayne Grudem (along with D. A. Carson, W. J. Drunbrell, and James B. Hurley) who examined Paul’s view of prophesy in 1 Corinthians 12-14 by looking closely at four separate verses.[v] First, Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:29 demonstrates that the prophesying in churches was to be assessed for its faithfulness to the truth: “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgement.” Their assessment would have been based upon whether or not the prophetic discourse aligned with the rest of Scripture that had been revealed at the time (Gal 2:8; 1 Cor 14:37-38; 1 John 4:2-3, 6; Acts 17:11).

Second, Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:30 seems to have little concern should one of these prophetic utterances be abruptly ended when another church member was inclined to take the place of speaker and add an additional utterance: “But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent.” In his understanding of this verse, Grudem envisions a situation where one is speaking and another abruptly feels inclined to take over the prophetic ministry. In this case, Paul fails to admonish the newcomer and instead directs the current speaker to cease speaking with no apparent concern for any additional prophesies which would have been left unspoken.

Third, Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:36 explicitly denied the rights of any Christians who prophesied in the Corinthian Church from upholding their utterances to the same level as Scripture: “Was it from you that the word of God first went forth? Or has it come to you only?” Taken alone, this verse definitively states that none of the prophesies occurring from non-apostolic members of the Corinthian church could ever been viewed as unquestionably authoritative. That this is so makes Paul’s admonitions to the Corinthians to carefully judge the utterance which were rendered (cf. 14:20, 29).

Fourth and in keeping with the previous point, Paul in 1 Corinthians 14:37-38 asserts his direct authority over the Corinthians prophesiers and the entire church: “If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment. But if anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.” Unlike their utterances, Paul’s words were divinely authoritative.

Based upon Grudem’s assessment of the context of 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, it would seem that Paul’s directives to women were that they be silent during those times when the supposed truth was being assessed. By following this command, these women would have been exemplifying subjectivity to the men by not taking the dominant position of judge over and against any of their utterances or assessment of such.

As has already been mentioned, this prophesying role that existed during the formative years of the Church has now been abandoned due to the completion of the New Testament. Since the Bible now offers the full revelation of God, there no longer exists a need for additional revelation. As this is the case, women no longer prophesy in the worship service. Instead, the New Testament assigns the teaching ministry to male elders whose are tasked with the duty of faithfully proclaiming and applying revealed Scripture to the lives of their congregants.

In conclusion, Paul’s commands to women in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 were directed against women who failed to subject themselves properly to men and in accordance to their biblically defined role. Instead of taking upon the role of judge when prophesies were being given, the women were to remain silent and subordinate. Nevertheless, they could participate in the ministry of prophetic utterances by offering whatever the Spirit placed on their own hearts even while they allowed the male parishioners to assess the merits of their statements.

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[i]All Scripture references are taken from NASB.

[ii]John MacArthur, 1 Corinthians, in The MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1984).

[iii]Ibid.

[iv]D. A. Carson, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12-14 (Great Britain: Cox and Wyman, 1987), 130-31.

[v]Wayne Grudem, The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today (Westchester, IL: Crossway, 1988), 70-88.