The Silence

"As in all the congregations of the saints, women should remain silent in the churches.  They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says.  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"
1 Corinth. 14:34


My nightly bible reading brought me across these verses the other night.  A deep hurt began to well up in me as I read them.  Strong.  Intense.  That same hurt feeling I've felt somewhere before, standing on the playground my hands in fists, after some boy knocked me down and said girls are stupid.  Argh!

It brought my thoughts back to conversations I've had with other women, stories I've read.  There are men who believe that women should not be in front of the church.  That they don't belong in leadership, other than to play the piano.  Is this verse the reason?  It just doesn't make sense, it sent me reeling!

This is coming from Paul, but how can this be?  Could he be so old-fashioned?  Could he,... could even Christ himself, have felt that women have nothing to offer?  That it was a disgrace for them to speak in the church?  Though it has yet to be revealed to me I know I have a calling on my life, and know of so many other women that have been great teachers, evangelists, ministers, etc.  What gives?

And then the holy spirit began his nudging.  There is more to this story!  So this week I've been doing some research and am very pleased with what I have found:

The Corinthian Church

First things first, we have to understand the setting to the story.  Corinthians is a letter from Paul to the church in the city of Corinth.  Corinth could easily be any modern day city in America.  Actually it would have more in common with our cities today than we realize.  And it was full of every type of pagan worship.

Her Culture:  A woman in Corinth could not openly question a man.  Depending on her previous faith she very likely was not even allowed until this time to set foot in the church.  She had very little public rights.  But Christian women were newly liberated.  The Christian faith gave women more rights than before.  They could attend church services IN THE SAME ROOM WITH the men!  Unfortunately, the Corinthian Church was often interrupted by questions from the women- they had a lot of learning to do to catch up and it was affecting services.  What Paul is saying here is basically "please hold all questions until the end", their husbands very likely were the first converts, had a little more education on the matter and could easily have answered these questions at home instead of taking time out of service.  Paul is very gently resolving a delicate situation.  Also some readings suggest these women were using this new freedom to start confrontations with men during public worship times.

Jewish Women

People like to say that Christianity and Judaism hold women down.  Actually it is the opposite.  Jewish women and Christian women had and have more freedom than any other women in history.

It is true that traditionally men and women sit in separate areas of the synagogue.  This is because you are to keep your mind on prayer and also to make a distinction from the pagans- many pagan religions involved sex in their services.

In Judaism God is not masculine or feminine- they feel it is absurd to assume he has genitalia.

As shown by our beautiful Proverbs 31 Woman, Jewish women could buy and sell (without asking a husband permission), own property, and even run their own businesses.  Many religions (ex: Islam) still to this day do not allow these or any freedoms.

Finally, women were not obligated to attend religious services as the men were.  It was their option.

Also Interesting:

HELLO! Deborah was one of the Judges of Israel in the Bible.

Seven out of the 55 prophets were female.

So women have held very prominent positions in the church and also were able to do very great things to further the cause of Christ.  And we have many modern women that are continuing to this day.  I'm not sure why the idea that a woman cannot be a great leader persists.  Clearly it is not biblical.

If this has inspired you or you have any more information on this topic, please let me know I would be interested to find out more!