Oct 4, 2026 · 16 min · 6 segments
Does the Bible really tell women to be quiet and submissive? 1 Corinthians 14 — Breaking down this key and often controversial verse, “women should remain silent” in the light of Paul’s preceding…
Observation one, Corinthian audience, Corinthian issues, Corinthian instruction.
This instruction that women should be silent in the churches is given once by Paul in his letter to the church in the important Roman city of Corinth.
We've already been introduced to this city in Elaine Storkey's insightful contribution in Think Again piece nine.
One of the big issues Paul is addressing across the letter are divisions within the church, which he is trying hard to mend.
There's good reason to read chapters 11 to 14 together as Paul instructing unity in the spirit to correct immature, competitive, and oppressive practices among the Christian community.
He identifies a critical relationship between theology and life, between personal discipleship and communal behavior.
Your witness is worthless, Corinthians, actually dangerous if your ethics contradict the gospel of Jesus Christ.
How you live must be consistent with what you preach, and what you preach must be consistent with Christ himself.
You miss the point of the Lord's Supper when you ignore the least among you.
Your pinky toe is lesser than your eyes, for example, but it is still a vital part of your body.
One test of your gospel then is how you treat your pinky toe, how you treat the less attractive, less powerful, less able, less well-known, less significant people in your congregation.
Your gospel is rubbish if you are functioning in the church the way the world functions, giving preference to the people the world prefers according to the world's standards.
Uh, idolatry, literal and metaphorical, power plays, illicit sex, to name a few.
Paul is not taking the city to task, but rather the Christians in the city who are behaving as if they have nothing to do with the spirit who is called holy.
They have plenty of religious behavior, but they aren't governed by the kind of love that builds up, honors others in Christ, and witnesses to a greater power than wealth, reputation, and sensuality.
As one commentator puts it, "Although they were the Christian church in Corinth, an inordinate amount of Corinth was yet in them." Many of the issues Paul addresses are behavioral as opposed to doctrinal, even as he simultaneously articulates the theological foundation of the correction he offers.
But the two are not the same thing, and when we conflate them, we can get ourselves into trouble.
Is what Paul writes descriptive or prescriptive? Is he addressing a particular Corinthian issue in a culturally relevant way, specifically for their church, descriptive? Or is he articulating a universal doctrine for all churches of all times in all places, prescriptive? How we answer that question for this passage is critical.
Observation one, Corinthian audience, Corinthian issues, Corinthian instruction.
This instruction that women should be silent in the churches is given once by Paul in his letter to the church in the important Roman city of Corinth.
We've already been introduced to this city in Elaine Storkey's insightful contribution in Think Again piece nine.
One of the big issues Paul is addressing across the letter are divisions within the church, which he is trying hard to mend.
There's good reason to read chapters 11 to 14 together as Paul instructing unity in the spirit to correct immature, competitive, and oppressive practices among the Christian community.
He identifies a critical relationship between theology and life, between personal discipleship and communal behavior.
Your witness is worthless, Corinthians, actually dangerous if your ethics contradict the gospel of Jesus Christ.
How you live must be consistent with what you preach, and what you preach must be consistent with Christ himself.
You miss the point of the Lord's Supper when you ignore the least among you.
Your pinky toe is lesser than your eyes, for example, but it is still a vital part of your body.
One test of your gospel then is how you treat your pinky toe, how you treat the less attractive, less powerful, less able, less well-known, less significant people in your congregation.
Your gospel is rubbish if you are functioning in the church the way the world functions, giving preference to the people the world prefers according to the world's standards.
Uh, idolatry, literal and metaphorical, power plays, illicit sex, to name a few.
Paul is not taking the city to task, but rather the Christians in the city who are behaving as if they have nothing to do with the spirit who is called holy.
They have plenty of religious behavior, but they aren't governed by the kind of love that builds up, honors others in Christ, and witnesses to a greater power than wealth, reputation, and sensuality.
As one commentator puts it, "Although they were the Christian church in Corinth, an inordinate amount of Corinth was yet in them." Many of the issues Paul addresses are behavioral as opposed to doctrinal, even as he simultaneously articulates the theological foundation of the correction he offers.
But the two are not the same thing, and when we conflate them, we can get ourselves into trouble.
Is what Paul writes descriptive or prescriptive? Is he addressing a particular Corinthian issue in a culturally relevant way, specifically for their church, descriptive? Or is he articulating a universal doctrine for all churches of all times in all places, prescriptive? How we answer that question for this passage is critical.
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