For they are not permitted to speak…

1 Corinthians 14:34

The worship assemblies within the church at Corinth were very disorganized and chaotic.  Some were miraculously speaking in other languages without an interpreter (14:6-28), while the prophets apparently were speaking over each other in their desire to tell others about what God had revealed to them (14:29-33)  As a result, no one was being theologically instructed or spiritually strengthened (14:12, 19, 26, 31).  It is in this context that we come to verses 34-35:  “The women should keep silent in the churches.  For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.  If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home.  For it is shame for a woman to speak in church.” 

“Women” (gyne) could in the original language mean either women in general (Matt. 14:21) or wives (Eph. 5:22).  Since these particular women were specifically said to have husbands, Paul is in fact speaking to wives rather than women in general in this passage…but whose wives were they?  Since the apostle is confident that their husbands would answer their questions at home, it is clear that their husbands were not novices in the faith who were unfamiliar with God’s teachings.  Therefore, they were probably the prophets to whom Paul had just given direction in the previous verses (14:29-33).  This would make the “women” in this passage the wives of the prophets within the church of Corinth. 

It seems that the wives of the prophets were adding to the disorderliness within the worship assemblies by speaking out in the assemblies while their husbands were prophesying, interrupting them (even while they were interrupting each other – 14:29-31) to ask them questions and perhaps to address the assembly themselves.  With the goal of bringing order to the worship services (14:40), Paul directs these wives to “keep silent” (sigao, quiet) in “the churches” (ekklesia, the assemblies or congregations).  Unlike their prophetic husbands, these wives “are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says.” 

“Speak” (laleo) in this context refers to addressing an individual or a group of people.  It is the same term Paul had just used to refer to the prophets addressing the church assembly (14:29), so it is reasonable to conclude that Paul is now telling their wives to not address the worship assembly alongside their husbands.  Since laleo also could refer to addressing a single individual and Paul infers they had questions for their husbands, it is also correct to conclude that his prohibiting them to “speak” is meant for them to save their questions for later at home (14:35). 

English translators capitalize “Law” because they conclude Paul is referring to the Law of Moses.  “Law” (nomos) is the word used in the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) for the Hebrew term torah which the Jews used to refer to Genesis-Deuteronomy, the Law of Moses.  Genesis does speak of Eve and Sarah’s submission to their husbands (Gen. 3:16; 18:12; cf. 1 Pet. 3:5-6), so Paul might have had Moses in mind in this passage.  However, the law to which he is referring could just as easily be the similar directives found in the New Testament in reference to Christian women in general being quietly submissive and not teaching or exercising authority over Christian men within the church (1 Tim. 2:11-12; cf. 3:14-15). (For a more detailed study of the 1 Timothy passage, see “Please Explain 1 Timothy 2:8-15.”)

Regardless, by interrupting their husbands’ prophetic sermons with questions, these wives were not showing submission to them or to God and were instead adding to the disorderliness and confusion of the Corinthian assemblies, thus keeping the church as a whole from being properly instructed and edified (14:12, 19, 26, 31, 40).  For these reasons the apostle says that their conduct is “shameful” and that they should save their questions for their husband for the privacy of their homes (14:35).                                                                                                        

— Jon