But every woman who has her head uncovered while praying or prophesying disgraces her head.
1 Corinthians 11:5
The women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says. If they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for a woman to speak in church.
1 Corinthians 14:34-35
We believe that the Bible is breathed out by God himself to the men that he chose, and as such it is consistent and coherent. This is an important principle to keep in mind when you read verses that may appear to contradict, such as 1 Corinthians 11:5 and 14:34. In the former passage Paul dealt with the question of women praying and prophesying in the church, and declared that this was good as long as they remained in submission to God-ordained authority, signified by a head-covering. The latter passage is part of a lengthy discussion in chapters 12-14 about the use and misuse of spiritual gifts in the church.
D. A. Carson describes the problem these passages present: “The nub of the difficulty is that in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, Paul is quite prepared for women to pray and prophesy, albeit with certain restrictions; but here, a first reading of the text makes the silence he enjoins absolute.” And some scholars have concluded that Paul does indeed contradict himself in the span of just four chapters! But this conclusion cannot be maintained by anyone who believes that the Scriptures are divinely inspired, or else the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit of truth.
Some have dealt with this difficulty by suggesting that Paul allowed women to pray and prophesy at home or a gathering other than the local church assembly in Ch. 11, while in Ch. 14 prohibiting women from speaking in the weekly meeting. John MacArthur takes this position, writing that Paul “makes no mention [in Ch. 11] of the church at worship or in the time of formal teaching. Perhaps he has in view praying or prophesying in public places, rather than in the worship of the congregation. This would certainly fit with the very clear directives in 1 Corinthians (14:34) and in his first letter to Timothy (2:12).” This would remove the difficulty between the two passages, but I think there is sufficient evidence that he has the public gathering in mind in Ch. 11 to make this view doubtful.1
Other solutions have been offered including that Paul was willing to allow women to pray and prophesy, but only reluctantly. In this view, 14:34 lays down the rule which Paul thought best, and 11:5 gives the concession to the hard-hearted Corinthians who were not willing to follow Paul’s instruction on this point. This explanation does not seem very unlikely.
Reading 1 Corinthians 14:34 in Context
A better solution is to look more closely at the context of Ch. 14 and Paul’s discussion of the priority of prophesy over tongues. He says in v.26 that one principle which ought to guide their public gatherings is edification, that is, “Let all things be done for building up.” This means that if someone is going to speak in tongues, there must be someone present who knows the language and can interpret for the rest (v.28). This process should be limited to two or three speakers, each one taking turns (v.27).
The same is true when it comes to prophecy. Two or three prophets should speak, and then the church is to weigh what is said (v.29), since it was always possible that someone claiming to speak by the Holy Spirit was mistaken or even duplicitous. Again, the speakers should take turns (v.30-31a), always maintaining control over themselves (v.32), with the goal that everyone present should be encouraged when God’s word was proclaimed (v.31b). The church’s worship ought to reflect God’s nature by being orderly and peaceful (v.33).
It is at this point that Paul speaks to the role of women in this process. What may the women do? Well, as we have already seen in 11:5, they may pray and prophesy, but when it comes to passing judgment on the words of the prophets, Paul says they should remain silent (v.34). Their submission in this exercise of church authority reflects God’s good design in creation (which is probably what Paul means by “as the law also says,” referring to Genesis 2:22-24).
This is supported by Paul’s language in v.35, where he says that if a woman does have a question, presumably about something which was prophesied, she should ask her husband at home. It would be inappropriate, he says, for a wife to challenge her husband’s prophecy in the public gathering of the church, but she may ask him about it in private, so that he continues to be respected. To do otherwise is to act shamefully in the church.
So where does this leave us in our desire to understand the roles of women in the ministry of the local church? I think we can maintain what we said before about women praying and reading Scripture2 in the public meeting of the church. This practice is not forbidden by Paul, when we understand 14:34-35 in the context of his overall discussion of the use of gifts in the local church.
At the same time, both passages agree that women are called to be in submission to the God-ordained authority of the church. While they may use their gifts, they must do so with self-control and for the purpose of edifying their brothers and sisters in Christ.
There is still much to be said about the role of women in the church, including another passage in which Paul applies a restriction similar to the one we found here in 1 Cor. 14. This will be the subject of our next post.
1 The gift of prophecy was meant to be exercised in the church gathering as 14:23-29 shows. Also, Paul speaks of the customs of the churches in 11:16, and discusses the practice of the Lord’s Supper in the assembly in 11:17-34.
2 Since we believe that the gift of prophecy is no longer operating in the church and no new revelation is being given, the practice of prophecy has graduated to reading from the completed canon of Scripture.