Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says. If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings.
1 Corinthians 14:34-35
More controversial stuff; It seems 1 Corinthians is full of it. I wasn’t kidding when I told you we were heading into some controversial issues. I also wasn’t kidding when I said I was prepared to stick my neck out and say what I think the text means. But there is the crux of the issue. As a Bible translator I want to be biblical. I am not interested in perpetuating the established, set ways of interpreting the text. If I think something has to be said about a passage, as controversial as it might be, I will say it.
I actually think this controversy is a storm in a tea cup compared with some of the others we have dealt with. And I guess you realise you don’t come across very big storms in tea cups.
I am convinced (as are many others) that this issue is one of the aberrations (the chaos) of the Corinthian church. Paul has been telling them all things have to be done decently and in order. I listed yesterday the likely things that went on during a church service in Corinth. One I didn’t include was the women who gathered in the women’s part of the building kept up a constant murmur of talking and conversation while the service was in progress. This is added to the chaos that reigned when the Corinthians met to worship the LORD. Paul is addressing that issue along with the other issues of disorder he addressed. It naturally follows on.
Note also the space given to the issue. I am convinced it is an example of what he has been talking about and not the introduction of a new topic. If it were a new topic and one so important as to whether women should hold office and speak in church then it would be given more “air play”. It is a passing comment on the side from Paul in the midst of the other chaotic practices. It seems the women in the Corinthian church were talking among themselves about the sermon or message being given while it was happening. It seems from what Paul goes on to say that the women were asking questions in the service of one another as to what the speaker meant by the things they were saying. Hence Paul makes another comment about things being done decently and in order. Rather than asking one another in the service, wait until you go home and ask your husband in the confines of your own home. Discuss it there in the privacy of your own home and not in church while the sermon is being given. Do everything decently and in order. End of story, simple really. No big controversy. How we like to make up controversies, storm in tea cups and mountains out of molehills.
In The Economy Of Man There Is Nothing Cheaper Than Words.
Robb Thompson
On average women speak up to 20,000 words in a day, 13,000 more than the average man.
Anon
If every picture is worth a 1000 words; does that mean every map is worth 10,000?
Ian Vail
Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
Anon