Question: Are women not permitted to speak in the church?

    Answer: Our question is an obvious allusion to Paul's statement to the Corinthians: "Let your women keep silent in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak…" (I Cor. 14: 34).

    A closer look at I Corinthians 14: 34. It is apparent that the inspired apostle is focusing on a certain group at Corinth, "'your' women" (more later). These women are told to be silent, which literally means "to hold one's peace" or not make a sound (Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon, pg. 574, on sigao). "Churches" in the verse has particular reference to the assembly (cp. vs. 16, 19, 23, 26).

    A closer look at the context. Verse thirty-four is preceded and followed by warnings concerning disorder in the assembly (vs. 33, 40). Paul has instructed the Corinthians how they were to exercise the service in turn or "one by one" (vs. 26-31). He explained that the prophets were to have self-control (vs. 32). The women of verse thirty-four were not women in general, they were married women (vs. 35). Certain women with regulation were obviously speaking in the assembly (prophetesses, 11: 3-16). Hence, it was not a "shame for women to speak in the church" in general (vs. 35). The women appear to have been the prophets' wives who were asking questions of their husbands in the assembly in such a way as to cause confusion; hence, they were to ask their husbands "at home" (vs. 35).

    Women have certain restrictions placed on them regarding the "leadership" of the local church. For instance, women are not to be preachers or elders (I Tim. 2: 12-15; 3: 1-7). However, the women of I Corinthians 14: 34 appear to be a specific group of women in a specific set of circumstances. These women were not to emit a sound. To understand "these women" as being women in general creates problems with Paul's teaching in chapter 11 regarding the prophetesses and commands such as the command to sing in the assembly (Col. 3: 16).