Women's Silence: What Is Being Forbidden?
By Randy Blackaby

It is common today for denominational churches to have women who either preach or take leadership roles. Even the ever-more-liberal institutional churches of Christ are expanding the role of women in the church and casting aside previously understood Divine limitations. The feminist movement appears to have taken precedence over the Bible.

At the other end of the spectrum is a small group within the church which teaches that a woman can't say a word during the public assembly. Several years ago, in a Dayton-area debate, one brother even suggested that women be taken outside the building to have their confessions of faith heard. One wonders how such Christian sisters could obey the command to sing in worship.

To avoid extremes and find the truth, a study of the Apostle Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 is necessary. There, the inspired apostle to the Gentiles wrote: "Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. 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."

What did the apostle mean by "keep silent"? He had previously told those who had the tongue-speaking gift to keep silent if they didn't have an interpreter (1 Corinthians 14:28,30). In both cases, he meant the obvious--don't speak.

But it also is obvious that in both situations in this chapter, he is talking about addressing the public assembly of the church. Women, in the passage we are exploring, are not to be preaching or teaching in the public assembly. The silence command applies in the "church" and not in every situation of life. She certainly is allowed to teach her children God's word and to teach other women (Titus 2:3-5).

The contextual explanation of the command to "keep silent" makes this clear. Paul said they are "to be submissive" or "to be under obedience." Earlier in this same letter, Paul had written: "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 ... For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man." (1 Corinthians 11:3, 8-9). The same apostle had written in Ephesians 5:22 and Colossians 3:18 that women are to "submit yourselves unto your own husbands." Thus, we have biblical direction that, in the church's public assemblies, women are to be specifically subject to their own husbands and also generally submissive to the authority of men.

In 1 Timothy 2:11-14 Paul made the issue perfectly clear: "Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression."

Authority and leadership go hand in hand. Women are not to take leadership in the church's teaching and worship any more than they are to take over the home's leadership. God has willed that men exercise that authority and leadership.

Paul said the "law" teaches this. He pointed back to the instructions in the Old Testament. This law was first observed after Satan successfully misled Eve in the Garden of Eden and then led her husband into the same error. God said, "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." (Genesis 3:16) It is illustrated in the case of Sarah obeying and calling Abraham "lord" (1 Peter 3:6) and of the submission of all the godly women of Israel. The Apostle Paul pressed the point further by declaring, "It is a shame (shameful) for women to speak in the church." The shame is in violating God's established order of authority.

What about speaking during Bible classes?

If a woman is not permitted to teach in the public assembly or worship of the church, what about in class settings that involve some members of the congregation or their children? This has been controversial at times among some saints.

Classes, whether taught in homes or in specially created rooms in the church building, are not the church assembled for worship.

While women in a class setting certainly could try to seize a position of authority (and thus sin), asking and answering questions, while a brother in Christ leads and superintends the instruction, doesn't violate the principles set forth. The textual portion dealing with asking their questions of their husbands at home addresses disruption of public worship assemblies and causing disorder. Earlier in the chapter, this disorder also was apparent when tongue-speakers caused confusion by interrupting worship with their messages. And Paul had written, "For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints." (1 Corinthians 14:33)

A woman teaching a class of children class certainly doesn't violate the principle. Some feel that once a boy obeys the gospel, a woman can no longer instruct him. It should be noted that when a boy obeys the gospel he doesn't simultaneously and automatically become a man. A Christian woman or mother instructing a Christian boy isn't usurping authority over a man.

Conclusions

The silence commanded in this text is in the context of the church's worship and the necessity for women not to usurp authority over male members. Broadening it to absolute silence would necessitate women not participating in the singing portion of worship. And, as the debater mentioned earlier was nearly forced to conclude, a woman confessing her faith in Christ prior to being baptized, would have to be taken outside the worship assembly. That's ridiculous!

However, we live in a time when political correctness demands no differences in roles between men and women. The church is being influenced by these non-biblical social customs and needs to be on guard against allowing the Lord's will to be violated.

Godly women, in their submission to male authority, are a model for men, women, and children as regarding submission to Christ. Christ's body itself fills the female role in relation to Christ. The church is the bride, or wife, and Jesus is the bridegroom, or husband.

Changing times have not changed our need to obey the commands our Lord delivered through His holy apostles and prophets.


Brother Blackaby has done an outstanding job of taking what is to many in the church a very controversial passage and giving us a clear understanding of what the text teaches. In the past, I've dealt with this subject and have taught some classes that addressed it. I admit that a women may have a personal conscience about her ability to speak up in class it must remain that-a personal conviction!

Sadly, many in the Lord's church have brought division and strife into the church by binding this subject as a test of fellowship. Those doing so have failed to show that Bible study is a worship service. We must reconcile all passages concerning the woman's role in the Lord's church. Her role is different, and she cannot take the lead and usurp authority over the man, but she does have a role to fill, and that role includes teaching. (KMG)