Let [your] women be silent in the assemblies, for it is not permitted to them to speak; but to be in subjection, as the law also says.
Paul is telling a church how to behave when it meets: who may speak, in what order, and why. This verse puts one limit inside that freedom. Two questions follow. What does "in the churches" mean? And how does it fit with the same letter's earlier words about women praying and prophesying?
Commentators tie the restriction to a place, not to a woman's gift. Once the setting is fixed, the apparent clash with 1 Corinthians 11:5 disappears.
William KellyThere is no inconsistency between 1 Corinthians 11:5 and 1 Corinthians 14:34. The first applies to a woman's prophesying under any circumstances. The second is limited to the use of the gift in the Christian assembly, where it is firmly forbidden to the woman... If God gives spiritual power, He means it to be used. Yet He has been pleased to regulate its use. The Christians had made the mistake many have fallen into since: supposing that because someone has a spiritual gift, there is unlimited freedom at all times and in all places.
Some argue the word means idle chatter, so that only disruptive talking is banned. Kelly answers them from another passage that uses the same word.
William KellyThe word "speak," they say, means only casual talk or chatter. This is completely untrue. It is the regular word for speaking out in public, as 1 Peter 4:10-11 shows... "whoever speaks" is to do so "as one who speaks oracles of God"; "whoever serves" is to do so "by the strength that God supplies." This is the same word for "speaking" that is forbidden to the women in this verse. It is speaking in public, not chattering.
Paul appeals to the Law, not to local custom. One writer follows that appeal back through the Old Testament, and asks where the women who prophesied actually spoke.
A. PridhamIn a previous chapter the apostle has recognised the woman's liberty to pray and to prophesy. But in the churches or assemblies her voice must not be heard. The one exception is the shared praise that should always rise to God from such gatherings. Privacy is the woman's sphere, and subjection her appointed place in relation to the man. Both law and gospel teach this equally... Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. If Miriam prophesied, it was to the women of Israel. If Deborah was raised up, it was a mark of God's judgement and dishonour on the nation that had lost its true manhood by turning from the Lord... Scripture everywhere discourages a woman taking a prominent place, as out of keeping with the original law of creation.
Was this a one-off correction for one troubled city? Two things in the text answer that: the plural "churches," and Paul's own words in verse 37.
Raymond K. CampbellThe instructions in this letter are not just local. They speak to all professing Christians everywhere. In the very passage under discussion the apostle speaks of women keeping silence in the "churches." He does not say "in your church," but "in the churches." ... Woman's place in the assembly is one of subjection and retirement, not of leadership. Those who take part publicly — in prayer, praise, or ministry — take a place of leadership, and that place is not given to women.
Raymond K. CampbellNotice that this ban on women speaking in the assembly is not just the word of the apostle Paul — a bachelor, as some would describe him. These things are "the commands of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 14:37). So anyone who wants to be spiritual and please the Lord here must accept that these instructions are the statutes of God.
Set against the rest of the chapter, this limit is narrow. Grant describes a gathering with no fixed leader, led by the Spirit Himself.
Frederick W. GrantThe Holy Spirit is really present with us as the infallible Guide and Director in the church of God... the whole Church, in its coming together, could be trusted to His guidance, without prayer-book, priest, or president — each man left to his own conscience before God... In the public assembly, the women were to be silent (1 Corinthians 14). The one exception shows how large the liberty for all else.
Silence in the assembly is not a verdict on a woman's worth. Scripture speaks of women with high honour elsewhere.
J. N. DarbyI believe sisters have a very honourable place in Scripture. They stayed close to the Lord when the disciples deserted Him. At His death and resurrection it is they, not the apostles, who are found there. In His life they cared for His needs. At the end of Romans the apostle gives them the highest praise. But the Lord never sends them out to teach or preach... Everything is beautiful in its place.
- Place, not person. The limit belongs to the assembly when it gathers. The same letter allows a woman to pray and prophesy elsewhere.
- Speak, not chatter. The word is the ordinary one for public speaking, the same word used in 1 Peter 4:10-11.
- Law, not culture. Paul grounds it in what the Law says, a subjection that both law and gospel teach.
- Churches, not Corinth. The plural "churches" and Paul's words in verse 37 make it a command of the Lord for all, not a local fix.
- Liberty, not silencing. The gathering has no prayer-book, priest, or president. This one exception shows how wide that freedom is, and the place it leaves the woman is honourable.
But if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is a shame for a woman to speak in assembly.
This verse sets a rule for the Christian meeting. Two words decide what it means: "church" and "speak".
Knapp settles the sense of the word from how it runs through the chapter.
C Knapp"The Church" here is not a building or a structure of any kind. It is the assembly of God's saints, His people. The expression "in the Church," or "Churches," comes five times in this chapter (verses 19, 28, 33, 34 and 35). It always means the gathering of the Christians in assembly. The place makes no difference — a building, a hall, a private house, or even the open air. What matters is not the place but the persons and purpose of the gathering.
Some soften the verse by saying the word means idle chatter. Kelly tests that against how the same word works elsewhere.
William KellyThe ingenuity of the will, however, has found a supposed loophole. The word "speak," they say, means only to talk casually or to chatter. This is wholly untrue. It is the regular word for speaking out, as 1 Peter 4:10-11 shows… It is the same word that the earlier scripture forbids to the women. It is speaking in public, not idle talk. So the ban is complete. Woman's place is a quiet, private one; she is to learn quietly and in full submission.
The verse does not stop a woman from learning. It tells her where to ask.
Leslie M. GrantEven asking questions in the assembly is not permitted: they may learn at home by this means, from their husbands. Of course, if they do not have a husband, it is elementary that they are not forbidden to ask someone else in private circumstances.
Kelly notes that the assembly is the one place where reason would expect the rule to lift.
William KellyThose who love to reason might have supposed that there, if anywhere, women would be allowed to speak. It is a holy setting, where man is as nothing and God makes His presence and power known. It might have seemed a fitting place for holy women to speak. They might well have gifts, even the gift of prophesying, like the four daughters of Philip the evangelist.
Some treat the rule as Paul's personal bias. Knapp answers by pointing two verses further on.
C KnappBut we would ask those who hold that "all Scripture is breathed out by God" to read verse 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." That settles everything for the soul that is subject to Scripture. These are not the arbitrary orders of a mere man, biased in favour of his own sex or prejudiced against women. They are "the commandments of the Lord," so we submit to them and obey them without question.
Some women in the New Testament did prophesy, as Philip's four daughters did. Kelly resolves the tension by asking where, not whether.
William KellyThere is no inconsistency between this text and 1 Corinthians 14:34. The first applies to a woman's prophesying under any circumstances. The last covers only the use of the gift in the Christian assembly or church, and there it is firmly forbidden to the woman… If God gives spiritual power, He means it to be used. Yet He has been pleased to regulate how it is used. The Christians had made a mistake many have fallen into since. They supposed that because someone has a spiritual gift, he has unrestricted licence at all times and in all places.
Darby ranked the place of women in Scripture very high.
J. N. DarbyI believe Christian women have a very honourable place in Scripture. They stayed close to the Lord when the disciples deserted Him. At His death and resurrection they, not the apostles, are found there. In His life they cared for His needs. And at the end of Romans the apostle gives them the highest testimony… Everything is beautiful in its place.
Knapp answers those who scoff at the idea of a woman asking her husband at home.
C KnappSome have scoffed at the idea of an intelligent woman asking a question of her dull husband at home. That is worldly reasoning, not the reasoning of someone who honours the Lord and His Word. Another writer answered it well: "A Christian woman taking the place assigned to her by the great Head of the Church testifies of Him and for Him by a silence more effective than eloquent speech."
- Where. "In church" means the gathered assembly, not a building. The rule follows the meeting, wherever it meets.
- What. "Speak" is the ordinary word for speaking in public, not chatter. The ban even covers asking a question.
- Instead. Learning still goes on. The question moves home, to a husband, or to someone in private if there is none.
- Why. Verse 37 calls this a command of the Lord, not one man's preference.
- Worth. God does not deny the gift; He sets where it is used. The place He gives is honourable — a testimony more effective than eloquent speech.