In I Corinthians 14:34-35, Paul says that "in the assemblies" women "are not permitted to speak," but are, rather, to "keep silent," just "as the law says." Two essential questions arise from Paul’s instructions: (1) to which women does this apply and (2) what are they prohibited from doing.

First, to which women does this instruction apply? Paul gives no qualifiers. He just says "let the women keep silent in the assemblies." Since some, however, have suggested that this admonition does not apply to all women, let us look at their views.

Does Paul’s prohibition apply only to women who are speaking in tongues or prophesying? These are among the topics he discusses here, along with other points about worship. So does Paul intend to say, "let women who are exercising spiritual gifts of tongues and prophecy keep silent in the assemblies?"

That such is not Paul’s intent is clear for several reasons. First, the statement itself contains no qualifiers to limit the women being included. Second, in verse 35, Paul applies his prohibition specifically to a woman desiring to learn by asking a question. Since a woman prophesying or speaking in tongues would be speaking by divine revelation, she would not be asking questions to learn. Therefore the women he is prohibiting from speaking are not just those who are speaking in tongues or prophesying but include women asking questions. Third, Paul says that in the plan for public worship under the new covenant, women are to be silent in the assemblies "as also says the Law." In neither the Patriarchal nor Mosaic times, did women lead in the worship to God. This prohibition, Paul says, continues. Since the limitation on women during Old Testament times was not confined to those who spoke in tongues and prophesied, he would not refer to it if he were only prohibiting women in the exercise of spiritual gifts. Fourth, Paul’s statement in

I Timothy 2:11-12 says that women are not to teach or have authority over a man but should learn in "quietness and full submission." Since no mention is made in this passage about this limit applying only to women exercising spiritual gifts, it is clear that such a limitation was not Paul’s intent in either passage. Fifth, it is contrary to common sense for Paul to tell the church that women receiving their message directly from the Holy Spirit cannot speak while those delivering their own ideas can speak.

Paul’s prohibition, then, does not apply only to women speaking with a miraculous spiritual gift.

Others have said Paul was speaking here only of married women and not single ones. They point out that the Greek uses the same word to mean "woman" or "wife," and that is correct. Even today a man today might refer to his "wife" as his "woman." In some cases, then, the Greek word gune means "wife" while in other cases it means "women in general." Which is Paul’s intent here?

The position that gune here only means "wife" would make Paul teach that single women may speak in the assembly but married women cannot? Some have even said that a married woman may address the assembly if her husband is absent but not if he is present. In this view, then, a single woman may speak to the assembly and a married woman may also speak if her husband, to whom she is subject, leaves. Is this what Paul meant? While there would be no basis for Paul to make such a distinction, there is evidence on which to find the answer.

We have a clear indication from scripture as to whether Paul means "wife" or "woman" in this passage. Only three chapters earlier, in I Corinthians 11, Paul also discusses appropriate behavior for women. There he says women are to be subject to men as their "head" even as Christ submits to his "head," God. Does he mean to say here that only wives are subject to their husbands or that women in general in have different roles than men in general?

Fortunately, in this passage Paul describes the "women" to which he refers in ways that make it clear whether he uses gune to mean "women in general" or "wives" only. In verse 8, Paul says the women of whom he is speaking were "of man." But wives are not "of" their husbands. The first woman, however, was "of" the first man. Thus, women in general are "of man" but "wives" are not of "husbands." In verse twelve, likewise, Paul says that "man is also by the woman." We cannot say that husbands are "by" their "wives," but it is accurate to say that men in general come "by" women in general since all men are born of woman.

There is no doubt, then, that Paul here uses the terms "man" and "woman" in their general sense and does not mean "husband" and "wife." If this is true of his use of these terms in chapter 11 when speaking of male-female issues, he certainly would not use them differently in chapter 14 without so advising the reader.

This use also fits well in I Corinthians 14:35, which could then be translated "let them ask their own men." Even unmarried women have men of their acquaintance, friends, elders, evangelists, of whom they may ask questions in private.

Those told not to speak in the assemblies, then, are women in general--the common use of the term gune, and not some limited group of women such as only women speaking with a spiritual gift or only wives.

But, second, now that we know Paul’s admonition applies to all women, what are does he teach about their speaking in the assembly? Notice the words: "keep silent," "not to speak," "be in subjection," "ask at home." Throughout the fourteenth chapter of I Corinthians, Paul is giving instructions about the conduct of the public assembly of the church. He says that all must be done to edify, that only one should speak at a time, that there should be no tongues spoken without interpretation, that singing and praying should be done with the spirit and the understanding. He concludes this section with one more admonition about the public worship: the women are not to speak, but are to be silent. How silent must they be? Paul tells us specifically by a connecting clause starting with "for"-- "for they are not permitted to speak." Women are to be silent in the sense that they are not to speak.

The word "speak" here is typically used for one who addresses an audience. In Acts 19:41, for example, it is used of the town clerk who spoke to the rioters in Ephesus, in Acts 20:36 where Paul spoke to the elders of Ephesus at Miletus, and in Acts 21:37 where Paul addresses those who had sought to kill him. Since the context here is of a public assembly, it would be such speaking to address the assembly the word would signify. So Paul says women are not to address the audience as a speaker, not even to ask a question as though challenging or inquiring of the one who is speaking. To do so, Paul says, would not be keeping their place of submission.

This prohibition does not, of course, mean that a women cannot join in the singing as Paul commands all to do in Ephesians 5:19. Neither does it mean that a women cannot join in saying "amen," as suggested as a good practice in verse 16, or that she cannot utter the good confession as we are to do before many witnesses (I Timothy 6:12). It does mean that a woman is to keep silent so far as addressing the assembly is concerned. She is not address the assembly to teach or speak in a way that exercises authority over men, but, in that sense, to be in quietness (I Timothy 2:11-12).

So, who is meant by "women" in I Corinthians 14:34-35, and what are they not to do? Women in general are meant--not just those who had spiritual gifts and not just women who are married. What are they not allowed to do? They are not to speak publicly, not to take a position of leading in the assembly, not even to ask a question of the one who is speaking. The highly respected R. C. H. Lenski’s comments on I Corinthians 11 and 14 come to similar conclusions.

Some have said that Paul was only telling the Corinthians to adhere to the culture of their time and so, as culture changes, this teaching is to change. But the culture in Corinth was filled with women who took leading roles in the worship of pagan gods. They were priestesses, spoke as oracles of the gods, and led in public assemblies. Paul, counter to their culture, then, was telling Christian women to be silent in the assembly. They were not to be like the women leaders in the surrounding religions. This is not, then, a command based on culture.

Others have said that Paul teaches these things only because of the general lowly view of women in the first century and did not mean his prohibitions for women to be permanent in the church. Yet, he says here, "as also says the Law," thus continuing the teaching of male spiritual leadership which prevailed by God’s command in previous times. And in both I Corinthians 11 and in I Timothy 2, Paul gives as God’s reasons for making a distinction in the roles of men and women that man was made before women, that women sinned before man did, and that woman was made for man. These reasons are not cultural nor do they have time limits.

Immediately after his teaching about women in I Corinthians 14:34-35, Paul says in verse 37, "the things I write to you are the commands of the Lord." We are not at liberty to change these commands of God given through Paul any more than we are at liberty to change any other commands of God. Our practice for worship to God is to be set by God, not by our culture or even by our own desires. And on the point of the silence of women in the assembly, God has spoken.