Can Women Speak in Church? - I Corinthians 14:34-35

"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." I Corinthians 14:34-35

This passage is very problematic to say the least. But if one holds to a high view of Scripture one cannot dismiss it out of hand as simply wrong or a product of Paul's rabbinical training, as many people do today. It also will not do to understand it as prohibiting women from prophesying as Paul has already allowed for this provided their heads are covered (see I Corinthians 11:5). It could be an absolute prohibition against women saying anything, at anytime, during the worship of the church, which is undeniably the context. But if this is the case, it would be the only place an absolute prohibition of this kind occurs in the New Testament, and it would be contrary to I Corinthians 11:5 which appears to allow women to speak in the service if their heads are covered. Is there another possibility that connects this with something also prohibited by Paul in another place in scripture? The answer I believe is yes! But this answer was not discovered by me, but by a woman (gasp!) named Susan Foh.

Susan Foh in her book entitled, Woman and the Word of God, correctly states, that in the first century Jews and Greeks used the Socratic method to teach in synagogues and churches. The Socratic method involved a person leading the teaching part of the service by fielding questions from those in the congregation. This was not the only method used in the early church services, but it may have been the main one, and in Corinth, it may have been the primary teaching method. In Acts 20:7 the word "dialogue" is used for Paul's teaching on that occasion. This term is used in other places in Acts in regard to teaching or speaking the truth as well.

The point is that Paul clearly prohibited women from teaching during the worship of the church (see I Timothy 2:12). If the Socratic method of dialogue was being used regularly in the Corinthian church services, then Paul is explaining in I Corinthians 14:34-35 that women were not to participate in this. Not only were they not to lead it, but if they had questions, they were to ask their husbands at home who could either answer the questions themselves or bring them up in the next teaching time at church.

As I see it, this explanation fits well with the other things that Paul says about women and worship, and it also fits well with what we know was historically true in the early church, and finally, it makes perfect sense of the actual words of I Corinthians 14:34-35.

Paul is not prohibiting women from giving a testimony, reading Scripture, prophesying (if properly covered) singing, praying aloud (if properly covered), speaking in tongues or quietly correcting her children, if necessary, during the worship of the church. But he is saying what he says elsewhere that women are not to teach when the local church is gathered for worship. Outside the worship service of the church women are not prohibited from teaching that I know of; and in this case, I believe that a woman taught me what the Scriptures are truly saying in I Corinthians 14:34,35.