At night church, each week after the sermon we have question time, often referred to as ‘roast the preacher’. Since I started at St A’s I have been mulling over in my head Paul’s instructions to women in 1 Corinthians 14 and how or if this has implications for women during question time at church.
1 Corinthians 14:33 – 35 says
As in all the churches of the saints, the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, they should ask their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church meeting.
So many questions come out of this for me. Here are some of them –
- Does this mean women shouldn’t ask questions in question time?
- Does the prohibition of speaking refer back to the speaking in tongues and prophesying that is discussed in verses 26 – 33? If so how does this prohibition of women prophesying relate to Paul’s teaching in chapter 11 that should pray and prophesy with her head covered?
- If a women is to learn by asking her husband at home, how is a single woman to learn? What about a woman with a non-believing husband?
- If it is ok for a single woman to asks questions but not a married woman, does this need to be explained every week? Would that make the whole concept of question time more unhelpful than helpful?
- Is this instruction only related to learning, or does this have implications for woman reading the bible, or leading prayers in church??
I’m sure that this is just the beginning of a long process of learning for me from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. While this has been on my mind for a while, I am yet to really take a closer look at this passage and its implications.
Would love to hear your thoughts?
a girl who speaks 