Question:
Please explain 1 Corinthians 14:34, 35 and 1 Timothy 2:11, 12.
Answer:
This is one of the questions ever bobbing up for an answer, a needless question if it were not for timid sisters whom Satan or unbalanced men seek to silence by the misuse of this scripture. To say that we do not understand all that is implied in this might be a very proper thing. But this would not affect the main question at all. All sensible people will admit that the above scriptures forbid women lording over men in church matters, assuming authority they do not possess, making themselves unduly prominent, domineering, or arrogant. Such conduct, which has been at times manifest in professed Christian churches, brings good neither to the women nor to the church and is shocking to good taste and common sense.
But does the text forbid women to bear testimony for Christ or speak at all in public? — Emphatically, no. Let all who believe so read of Deborah the prophetess, who helped Barak (Judges 4 and 5); of Huldah, who instructed all Israel (2 Kings 22:12-20); of Anna, who gave public thanks in the temple (Luke 2:36-38); of Priscilla, who instructed more perfectly the mighty and eloquent Apollos (Acts 18:24-26); of Philip’s four daughters who prophesied (Acts 21:9); of Phebe, the deaconess (literally) of the church at Cenchrea, commended by Paul (Romans 16:1); and of the other women mentioned by the apostle in Romans 16. Read the instruction he gives to women who speak in public (1 Corinthians 11:5, 6).
In the light of those scriptural witnesses, let any and every woman, if she has a testimony to bear for God, not seek to usurp authority over a man, but on proper occasions bear her testimony in Christ’s name with all assurance, but with becoming modesty. “With the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:10. That includes women as well as men. See Romans 10:12, 13; Galatians 3:28.
