Women being silent in the church?

Recently the question has come up about how to understand the passages in Scripture where it says women are to be silent in church. What does this mean, and how are these verses to be understood?

Reply:

There are three primary Scriptures that deal with women speaking in church: 1st Corinthians 11:5 says that "... every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head..." which very strongly implies that women do in fact pray or prophesy during the church meeting, as the context or setting for this passage is the church meeting.

The next is 1st Corinthians 14:34, which says "Let your women keep silent - another translation could be to "hold their peace" - in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says.
:35 And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church."

Then there is 1st Timothy 2:11, where Paul says "Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
:12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. - the Greek word for silence can also be interpreted as "quietness"
:13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression."

I think the verse to start with is 1st Corinthians 14:34, and to set the proper context for this verse, we need to go back to verse 29, "Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge." Throughout the Old Testament, what was one of the criteria for a prophet to speak truly? That his words needed to be consistent with the rest of the Bible. If a prophet said something that was contrary to what the rest of the Bible said, then he was not speaking the Word of God. So when anyone would stand up and say something that was apparently motivated or initiated by the Holy Spirit, the rest of the congregation would judge if in fact it was from God, their words were judged to see if they were true.

But not everybody who listened and judged what they said should comment on it, if it needed commenting on. This is the area in which the women are told to be silent. Why? This is where 1st Timothy 2:11 comes into play, "Let a woman learn in silence with all submission.
:12 And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence.
:13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve.
:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression."

Adam was formed first, and Eve was formed to be his helper, to be that which completed him. Consider this in light of 1st Corinthians 11:3, "But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God." In light of that verse, what does submission mean? It cannot mean inferiority, because Christ is not inferior to God. It cannot mean one person putting the other person into subjection, because the Father did not put the Son into subjection, the Lord Jesus Christ willingly chose to do what was necessary to save us.

Submission in these passages has nothing to do with inferiority or subjection, it has everything to do with headship. Man is created in the image and glory of God, Christ is the Head of man, and God says "You do not cover up anything that pertains to my glory." Therefore a man does not cover his head when the assembly comes together. If he did, then figuratively, he would be publicly covering over the glory and headship of Christ. Woman is created from man, and woman is the glory of man, so when the church comes together, the glory of man ought to be covered in the presence of God. That is the whole point of the woman's head covering, it really is as simple as that.

So if man is to show forth the glory of God in the assembly, then is it appropriate for a woman to teach men in the assembly? Or publicly exercise headship over men? No. Is it appropriate for a woman to be the pastor or the leader in the church, and exercise headship over the church? No.

Now go back to 1st Corinthians 14, verse 29, where two or three of the men are prophesying, and the others are judging, is it appropriate for the women to get involved in that situation and openly and verbally judge what the prophets are saying? No, it puts the church to shame. Both those that are prophesying, and also the men of the congregation who are judging the truth or error of what is being said, because that puts them into the same situation that Adam was in, a woman is doing what they are responsible to be doing. Adam abdicated judgment to his wife, he failed to step up to the plate, he failed to judge the devil to be lying, and tell him to be quiet. Within the church, we can do better. Christ is Head over His church, and it needs to be demonstrated, it needs to be manifested.

Perhaps the woman is sitting there and she hears what is said, and something comes to her mind, she recognizes an error, whatever - she is not to pipe up and take the prophet to task, she waits until she gets home and then tells her husband something to the effect; "When so-and-so said what they did this morning, did anything about that strike you as bogus?" And then they can hash it out. At that point it is his responsibility to deal with it, decide if that is right or wrong, whatever, it is not her responsibility. Adam was responsible to deal with what was true and what was false, Adam was formed first, Eve was deceived, Adam was not. The responsibility was his, it still is today, nothing has changed.

The men of the church are responsible to judge and deal with whether or not something is true or false. If they miss it, then the women can talk to them about it privately, not publicly. For them to do it openly is to deny the concept of headship within the congregation, and when they do that, it puts the congregation to shame.

That's why it is a shame for women to speak in church in a situation where headship is involved. I do not see that this is the same thing as women singing, or praying or reading the Scripture in church while covered. When the concept of headship within the church is maintained, all is well. When it is cast aside, then it is a shame to that congregation.