Curious Christian

I have been thinking about the way 1 Corinthians 14 is used by some against women who wish to serve in the church. Paul cannot be forbidding all speech by women in 1 Corinthians 14:34–35, because earlier in the same letter he assumes that women pray and prophesy in the gathered church (1 Corinthians 11:5).

Moreover, his concern in this passage is with women asking questions at inappropriate times, disrupting services in the process, not with women teaching or exercising ministry. The issue in chapter 14 is order in worship. Just as Paul regulates tongues and prophecy so that “all things should be done decently and in order” (14:40), his instructions here should be read within that broader concern rather than as a universal command to silence half the church.