TEACHING NOTES Introduction In this session we are continuing Paul’s discussion about the church gathering. Beginning in chapter eleven, Paul gives instructions and corrections for how church gatherings should and should not be conducted. While this passage mainly addresses prophesy and speaking in tongues, one paragraph addresses women speaking in church. As usual, we must study the context of Corinth to fully understand what Paul means. ‌ Most Christians in Corinth were former pagans. ‌ Pagan worship was often disordered, loud, ecstatic, and chaotic. So, the Corinthians need to learn how Christian gatherings should be conducted. ‌ 1 Corinthians 14:26–28 26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 27 If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. 28 But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. ‌ When you come together = Remember, since chapter eleven Paul is speaking about the church gathering. The church gathering is the context of 1 Cor. 11-14. ‌ Each one has = If each person in a church gathering shows up with a hymn, a lesson, revelation, a tongue, and an interpretation, the gathering would be chaotic. Imagine coming to church and everyone starts saying, “I want to preach, I want to sing a song, I have a revelation from God to share, etc.” Paul wants people to be involved in the church, but not an extreme. Everyone can’t do everything in the church gathering. ‌ Let all be done for building up = When everyone wants to spotlight at church, that indicates selfish desires. The church gathering is not for building up individuals, but for building up the whole church. ‌ If any speak in a tongue = If anyone speaking in another language, Paul says there must be only two or three. They cannot speak at the same time, but “each in turn,” and someone must interpret. Therefore, if people are speaking in tongues all at the same time, they are disobeying the Word of God. ‌ If there is no interpreter = Paul is clear that if there is no interpreter “let each of them keep silent in church.” Tongues without interpretation have no function or use to the whole church. So Paul says, “let each of them speak to himself and to God.” Why? Because God understands all languages. In other words, there is no need to speak out loud in a language the church cannot understand. ‌ 1 Corinthians 14:29–33 29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. 30 If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, 32 and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. 33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. ‌ Let two or three prophets speak = Prophets spoke the Word of God by teaching and revealing the meaning. Just as the other gifts, Paul says only two or three prophets should speak during a church gathering. ‌ Let the others weigh what is said = Anyone, especially prophets, speaking in the church gathering are subject to evaluation and correction. Anyone who speaks to the church but is unwilling to be questioned or corrected should not be allowed to speak in the church gathering. ‌ You can all prophesy one by one = Like the gift of tongues, Paul wants things to be done one at a time in an orderly fashion. Everyone talking and teaching at the same time would be chaotic and useless. This may seem like common sense to us, but the Corinthian church were former pagans who were used to the chaotic and ecstatic worship in pagan temples. ‌ That all may learn and all be encouraged = Again, as in verses 1-25, Paul stresses that everything done in a church gathering must be done to build up the entire church, not to showcase an individual’s gifts. Also, Paul reveals here that one of the main purposes of the church gathering is learning. We see this at the beginning of the church in Acts 2:42 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” To be a Christian is to be a disciple (student) who is constantly learning. ‌ The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets = There are a couple of ways to understand this statement. First, Paul could be saying that the spiritual gift of the prophet is under the control of the prophet. Meaning, if God gives someone a word to share, they do not have to blurt it out immediately. Second, Paul could be saying that any prophesy is subject all the other prophets. Meaning, prophesy is not an individual gift but a collective gift that is evaluated and corrected by the other prophets. Given everything Paul has already said about prophesy, it seems that both are likely meant. ‌ God is not a God of confusion but of peace = Literally, “For God is not of disorder but of peace.” The Greek word translated “confusion” here is akatastasias, which means “disorder, rebellion, chaotic insurrection.” ‌ As in all the churches of the saints = Many English translations put this sentence as the beginning of the next paragraph about women. However, not a single Greek manuscript does this. In the Greek this sentence is always connected as the ending of “For God is not of disorder but of peace as in all the churches of the saints.” Even ancient scribes placed paragraph indicators in the manuscripts to show the reader how the paragraphs are organized in the original text. The manuscript evidence of this passage shows that “as in all the churches of the saints” is the end of a paragraph, not the beginning of a new paragraph. This matters because many people claim that Paul wanted all women to keep silent in all the churches, not just in Corinth. What Paul actually wrote means that God is not for disorder but for peace in all the churches. ‌ Before We Move On… The next two verses are highly controversial. At face value, it seems that Paul wants women to keep silent in the churches and if they have any questions they should ask their husbands at home. It’s easy to see why this would be a controversial passage in the modern church. However, the bigger controversy about this passage is whether Paul actually wrote it. So, we’re going to address this passage through four options. ‌ Four Options: 1. Paul wants all women in all churches to keep completely silent. ‌2. Paul is addressing an issue limited to Corinth. ‌3. Paul is quoting the Corinthians and correcting them. ‌4. Paul did not write this passage, and a scribe added it later. ‌ 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 [34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.] ‌ The women should keep silent in the churches = This statement is problematic for a few reasons. First, Paul has already given instructions in 1 Cor. 11 for how women should prophesy and pray in the church gathering. In other words, this statement contradicts many of Paul’s other statements about women in church. Second, in 1 Corinthians Paul is addressing one church, but suddenly shifts to “the churches.” Third, Paul appeals to “the Law” but does not quote which law he is referring to—this is highly unusual for Paul (see below). There is much to be said about this but in short, Paul cannot mean that all women must keep silent in all church gatherings everywhere. ‌ As the Law also says = Contrary to what we might think, this is not referring to the Torah law. There is nothing in the Old Testament about women keeping silent. Nor is there anything in the Old Testament about women being in submission. However, Greek laws did require women to keep silent in public meetings. In other words, the content of verses 34-35 reflect pagan law and culture. It’s interesting that the ESV capitalizes “the Law” here in this passage about women keeping silent, but does not capitalize it in most other places where Paul is clearly referring to the Torah (see Romans in the ESV). This reveals a well-known and admitted bias by the translators of the ESV. ‌ If there is anything they desire to learn = A better translation would be, “If they want to inquire about something.” In the ancient world it was normal to interrupt the teacher to ask questions, but it was considered rude to ask uneducated questions. If a person was not educated they were expected to wait until after the teaching to ask questions. It seems that this passage is referring to uneducated women interrupting the teaching or prophesy to ask questions. Remember, the context of this passage is orderly gatherings. ‌ What is often missed here is that women were present in church gathering and learning alongside men. This was unusual in the ancient world. In Jewish culture women were not expected to learn Scripture and were separated from men in the temple. Jewish rabbis refused to teach women. Jewish women were allowed to attend the Synagogue, but were not allowed to study Scripture in depth. In Greek culture, women were understood to be deformed men and were rarely educated beyond 14 years old. On average, a Greek husband was 12 years older than his wife and considered her to be immature. Plutarch writes that most men believed their wives could not be taught. By contrast, Christianity teaches that women are equal to men as the image of God and are a vital part of the church family. Christianity was the only group in the ancient world that placed high value on women and allowed them to be educated alongside men. ‌ Let them ask their husbands at home = This could simply mean that the women should not disrupt the gathering with uneducated questions. This could equally apply to men as well since Paul’s main point in this section is about order in the church gathering. What is also missed here is that the responsibility of guiding the home in the teaching of God’s Word is put on the husbands. ‌ It is shameful for a woman to speak in church = If this means that it is shameful for any woman to speak in any church, this statement would contradict everything else the Bible says about women in ministry. A brief survey of women in ministry in the Bible shows that 1 Cor. 14:34-35 cannot be referring to all women in all churches (see below). ‌ Women in Ministry in the Old Testament: In the Old Testament, the prophets were responsible for speaking God’s Word to the people. In Exod. 15 Miriam is a prophetess and led Israel in worship. In 2 Kings 22-23 Huldah is the most prominent prophetess. In Isa. 8 Isaiah’s wife is a prophetess. In Judges 4-5 Deborah is the prophetess and judge (leader) of Israel. Also, only Deborah and Samuel are said to be both judges and prophets, and they are the only two judges portrayed positively. ‌ Women in Ministry in the New Testament: In Luke 2 Anna is called a prophetess who was present when Jesus was dedicated to God in the temple and “spoke of him (Jesus) to all.” In Acts 2:14-17, Peter quotes from Joel 2 that the Spirit would lead sons and daughters, male and female servants to prophesy. Luke tells us that Philip’s daughters were prophets (Acts 21:8-9). Paul gives instructions about how women should be dressed when they pray and prophesy in church (1 Cor. 11). Even here in 1 Cor. 14 Paul says he wants everyone to prophesy and speak in tongues. In Rom. 16 Paul commends twice as many women ministers as men. In Rom. 16:1-2 Paul commends Phoebe (a woman) as a deacon and she is the one reading the letter and explaining it to the Roman church. In Rom. 16:3-4 Paul refers to Priscilla (Prisca) as a “fellow worker”—a term Paul also uses for apostles. Priscilla and Aquila also co-taught Apollos in Acts 18. Other women Paul refers to as fellow workers are: Mary (Rom. 16:6), Tryphena, Tryphosa, and Persis (Rom. 16:12). In Rom. 16:7 Paul refers to Junia (a woman) as a well-known apostle. In Phil. 4:2-3 Paul refers to Euodia and Syntyche as fellow workers. ‌ Did Paul write 1 Cor. 14:34-35? This may seem like a strange question, but it is actually a very good question. If you don’t already know, we have thousands of ancient copies of the New Testament writings which are called manuscripts. In this multitude of copies produced over centuries, there are differences in some places. Sometimes a scribe would make a note in the margin that a later scribe would include into the original text. This happens a number of times and we know where—and in many cases when—this occured. The scribes also knew this and even marked in the manuscripts where this occurs with certain symbols, notes, and usually they left a gap in the text to indicate an insertion. Textual scholars have noted that scribes made such indications at 1 Cor. 14:34-35. In a number of manuscripts, these two verses appear in a different place—after verse 40 instead of after verse 33. When a passage “moves around” in the manuscripts, it is usually an indication that the passage is missing in some manuscripts and may not be original to the author. A famous example is John 7:53-8:11 (the woman caught in adultery)—the earliest manuscripts of John do not have this story and other manuscripts include this story in the Gospel of Luke and not John. ‌ In Codex Vaticanus (a Bible from approx. 325 AD), the scribe used a two dot symbol (called a distigme), a horizontal line (called an obelos), and a gap in the text to indicate “spurious text” (text added by a scribe). These indicators appear 15 times in the New Testament of Codex Vaticanus. We know this because the scribe explains these symbols in the margin of the book of Isaiah. The scribe of Codex Vaticanus used all of these indicators at 1 Cor. 14:34-35 to show that these two verses were missing from other manuscripts of 1 Corinthians. There are many other manuscripts of 1 Corinthians where scribes gave similar indications that verses 34-35 may not be original to Paul. While this is strong evidence, it is not totally conclusive. The oldest manuscript of 1 Corinthians from AD 200 (manuscript P46) includes 1 Cor. 14:34-35 without any symbols or indicators, but two lines are missing (manuscript damaged). It reads, “The women/wives in the churches it is necessary…as the law says. But if there is something they want to learn they should ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman/wife to speak in church.” ‌ For more information on the manuscript data for 1 Cor. 14:34-35 see the work of Philip B. Payne, The Bible vs. Biblical Womanhood, chapter 6. ‌ 1 Corinthians 14:36–40 36 Or [What?!] was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. 39 So, my brothers and sisters, earnestly desire to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But all things should be done decently and in order. ‌ Or = Grk. e - Paul often uses this after a previous statement he deems ridiculous. Paul uses this Greek word in Rom. 3:29; 6:3; 7:1 after making a statement that he knows the audience is thinking to set up his own counter-argument. This may indicate that 1 Cor. 14:34-35 is actually Paul quoting the Corinthians and then arguing against it. In other words, the Corinthians may have thought that women are not allowed to speak in church. Paul responds by saying to the men, “Did the word of God originate with you? Has it come to you only?” ‌ Was it from you that the word of God came? = Literally, “Did the word of God originate with you? Has it come to you only?” In this context, Paul is saying that those who prophesy in church should not assume that they alone have the Word of God. In other words, just because person receives revelations or prophesies or insights from God that does not make them untouchable. Every human needs to be taught, evaluated, and corrected no matter what their gift may be. ‌ If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized = Literally, “If anyone ignores this, he is to be ignored.” Meaning, if someone claims to be a prophet but refuses to be questioned and corrected, we should ignore what that person is saying. ‌ Earnestly desire to prophesy = Prophesy is associated with wisdom, knowledge, and teaching. Every Christian should earnestly desire to have wisdom and understanding from God. ‌ Do not forbid speaking in tongues = Paul’s instructions to Corinth about tongues indicates that they were misusing this gift. Since the church in Corinth was so divided, there was likely a group who wanted to forbid all speaking in tongues because they it being misused. Paul is clear that tongues is useful when there is interpretation. In the church in Corinth, there was a diversity of languages and the gift of tongues was necessary in that context. But Paul limits that gift to be done according to certain guidelines. Speaking in different languages is not necessary in a context where everyone speaks the same language already. ‌ Decently = Grk. euschemonos - fitting, proper, appropriate. In order = Grk. kata taxin - in sequence, proper procedure, arrangement. ‌ Modern Application ‌ The church gathering should be done in such a way that everyone can learn and understand what is being said, prayed, and taught. ‌ Anyone teaching in church should be trained and educated in the Scripture and willing to be corrected.‌ ‌ The church gathering should be orderly and decent, not disordered and chaotic. ‌ Next Week: 1 Cor. 15:1-35.