Women In The Church Service
Posted: June 11th, 2008, 2:11 am
HEALING SHELTER MINISTRIES #124l Written 11JUN08 http://groups.msn.com/AHealingShelter/welcome.msnw
Chapter 14: Part Twelve—Women In The Church Service
by dave c
First Corinthians 14:34 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. 35 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 (NASV).
Oh, me. Surely these two verses are in the running for “Most Controversial Passages in the New Testament” (maybe for the entire Bible). While I mutter to myself when I read anti-charismatic commentaries that simply skip passages that overtly disagree with the writer’s theological positioning, I have to confess that I long to drop 14:34&35 from this series. Firstly, they don’t seem to fit comfortably within Paul’s train of thought throughout the rest of Chapter 14 of First Corinthians regarding speaking in tongues and prophesying during church services—and yet, there they are. Secondly, these two verses appear to contradict Paul’s praise for specific women of the New Testament who were Christian teachers and prophetesses, and his encouragement for women generally to exercise spiritual gifts (1Co 11:5).
Having read a half dozen commentaries and another half dozen study Bible notes regarding these passages, the Life Application Study Bible [New American Standard Bible—Updated Version; Zondervan; Grand Rapids, MI; Copyright 2000; p 2026] provides a concise, yet effective teaching on these verses from First Corinthians: “14:34-35 Does this mean that women should not speak in church services today? It is clear from 11:5 that women prayed and prophesied in public worship. It is also clear in chapters 12-14 that women are given spiritual gifts and are encouraged to exercise them in the body of Christ. Women have much to contribute and can participate in worship services. (IP) In the Corinthian culture, women were not allowed to confront men in public. Apparently some of the women who had become Christians thought that their Christian freedom gave them the right to question the men in public worship. This was causing division in the church. In addition, women of that day did not receive formal religious education as did the men. Women may have been raising questions in the worship services that could have been answered at home without disrupting the services. Paul was asking the women not to flaunt their Christian freedom during worship. The purpose of Paul’s words was to promote unity, not to teach about women’s role in the church.”
It has become the popular practice of the last 40 years or so to make decisions based upon self-interest and unfounded opinion, rather than upon the foundations of truth and common sense. We see this in the rampant, self-indulgent sexuality that is destroying the moral fiber of our nation; that is leaving millions of our citizens with diseases of the mind, body, and spirit; and that has resulted in over 45,000,000 babies slaughtered in the name of ‘the right to choose’. We see this in the victim mentality permeating our society that denies any and all responsibility for personal speech and actions. We see this in the growing seduction of our population into various and sundry welfare programs that finance drug abuse, alcoholism, and government sanctioned vagrancy. And we see this manifest in the hateful speech of rabid feminism as its proponents decry Christianity generally, and Paul specifically, as “sexist, misogynistic, and gynophobic”.
A prime example of second generation anti-Christian feminism is found in the words of Katherine M Rogers: "The foundations of early Christian misogyny — its guilt about sex, its insistence on female subjection, its dread of female seduction — are all in St. Paul's epistles. They provided a convenient supply of divinely inspired misogynistic texts for any Christian writer who chose to use them; his statements on female subjection were still being quoted in the twentieth century opponents of equality for women." (The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature, 1966).
While not a big fan of the historical-critical method as the ‘be all to end all’ approach to Bible interpretation, in the case of First Corinthians 14:34&35, it is essential. While Greek art and philosophy are held in such high regard by the intelligentsia of contemporary Western Culture, it is conveniently forgotten that ancient Greece and Rome were male dominated societies that held women in low regard—and females were considered even lower by the Hebrew culture of 2,000 years ago. It was Christianity, as based upon the writings of Paul and others, that worked to raise the status of women in the Mid-East and throughout Europe to a level greater than that of chattel. At the time of Christ’s first advent, divorce was rampant in Israel and it was granted freely upon the whim of the husband and to the devastation of the estranged wife. It was Jesus who declared, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery" (Mt 19:8&9; NIV). And it was Paul who wrote, There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise (Ga 3:28&29; NIV).
Chapter 14: Part Twelve—Women In The Church Service
by dave c
First Corinthians 14:34 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. 35 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 (NASV).
Oh, me. Surely these two verses are in the running for “Most Controversial Passages in the New Testament” (maybe for the entire Bible). While I mutter to myself when I read anti-charismatic commentaries that simply skip passages that overtly disagree with the writer’s theological positioning, I have to confess that I long to drop 14:34&35 from this series. Firstly, they don’t seem to fit comfortably within Paul’s train of thought throughout the rest of Chapter 14 of First Corinthians regarding speaking in tongues and prophesying during church services—and yet, there they are. Secondly, these two verses appear to contradict Paul’s praise for specific women of the New Testament who were Christian teachers and prophetesses, and his encouragement for women generally to exercise spiritual gifts (1Co 11:5).
Having read a half dozen commentaries and another half dozen study Bible notes regarding these passages, the Life Application Study Bible [New American Standard Bible—Updated Version; Zondervan; Grand Rapids, MI; Copyright 2000; p 2026] provides a concise, yet effective teaching on these verses from First Corinthians: “14:34-35 Does this mean that women should not speak in church services today? It is clear from 11:5 that women prayed and prophesied in public worship. It is also clear in chapters 12-14 that women are given spiritual gifts and are encouraged to exercise them in the body of Christ. Women have much to contribute and can participate in worship services. (IP) In the Corinthian culture, women were not allowed to confront men in public. Apparently some of the women who had become Christians thought that their Christian freedom gave them the right to question the men in public worship. This was causing division in the church. In addition, women of that day did not receive formal religious education as did the men. Women may have been raising questions in the worship services that could have been answered at home without disrupting the services. Paul was asking the women not to flaunt their Christian freedom during worship. The purpose of Paul’s words was to promote unity, not to teach about women’s role in the church.”
It has become the popular practice of the last 40 years or so to make decisions based upon self-interest and unfounded opinion, rather than upon the foundations of truth and common sense. We see this in the rampant, self-indulgent sexuality that is destroying the moral fiber of our nation; that is leaving millions of our citizens with diseases of the mind, body, and spirit; and that has resulted in over 45,000,000 babies slaughtered in the name of ‘the right to choose’. We see this in the victim mentality permeating our society that denies any and all responsibility for personal speech and actions. We see this in the growing seduction of our population into various and sundry welfare programs that finance drug abuse, alcoholism, and government sanctioned vagrancy. And we see this manifest in the hateful speech of rabid feminism as its proponents decry Christianity generally, and Paul specifically, as “sexist, misogynistic, and gynophobic”.
A prime example of second generation anti-Christian feminism is found in the words of Katherine M Rogers: "The foundations of early Christian misogyny — its guilt about sex, its insistence on female subjection, its dread of female seduction — are all in St. Paul's epistles. They provided a convenient supply of divinely inspired misogynistic texts for any Christian writer who chose to use them; his statements on female subjection were still being quoted in the twentieth century opponents of equality for women." (The Troublesome Helpmate: A History of Misogyny in Literature, 1966).
While not a big fan of the historical-critical method as the ‘be all to end all’ approach to Bible interpretation, in the case of First Corinthians 14:34&35, it is essential. While Greek art and philosophy are held in such high regard by the intelligentsia of contemporary Western Culture, it is conveniently forgotten that ancient Greece and Rome were male dominated societies that held women in low regard—and females were considered even lower by the Hebrew culture of 2,000 years ago. It was Christianity, as based upon the writings of Paul and others, that worked to raise the status of women in the Mid-East and throughout Europe to a level greater than that of chattel. At the time of Christ’s first advent, divorce was rampant in Israel and it was granted freely upon the whim of the husband and to the devastation of the estranged wife. It was Jesus who declared, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery" (Mt 19:8&9; NIV). And it was Paul who wrote, There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise (Ga 3:28&29; NIV).
