![]() ![]() ![]() They were wrong to do that, but we would be doing worse than they did to rip them out of the text altogether. It’s evidence that some scribes sought to preserve the flow of Paul’s argument about prophecy by moving these two verses to the end. But that is not evidence that verses 34 and 35 aren’t original to Paul. There are a handful of manuscripts in which the verses appear after verse 40. The only problem with this view is that every single Greek manuscript of 1 Corinthians that we have includes these verses. They argue that some scribe must have come along after Paul and slipped these verses into Paul’s letter. The alleged contradiction has led some interpreters to suggest that verses 14:34–35 were not really written by Paul. And that cannot be, because God cannot contradict himself. So if you take verse 34 to be an absolute prohibition on women speaking at all in a worship service, then you have adopted an interpretation that makes chapter 14 to contradict chapter 11. Who’s going to prophesy? Sons and daughters. Women prophesying in the assembly was in keeping with what the apostle Peter said was characteristic of the New Covenant gift of the Spirit predicted in Joel 2, “‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…’” (Acts 2:17). On the contrary, he gives them instructions on how to do it in the right way-in a way that allows them to speak but that at the same time honors male headship. Paul doesn’t rebuke their praying and prophesying in church. Why? For starters, it would create a hopeless contradiction with what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:5, which indicates that women were “praying and prophesying” in the church. What is going on in these verses? Does Paul really mean to say that women must never say anything in a worship service? That is how some people have read these verses over the years, but I think that is a misreading of the text. 35 And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home for it is improper for a woman to speak in church. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. Paul writes,ģ3b As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silent in the churches. The reason for that is due in no small part to the clash that this text brings to modern egalitarian sensibilities. The interpretation of 1 Corinthians 14:34–35 has proven to be more than a little controversial over the years. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |