EVERY WOMAN THAT PRAYETH OR PROPHESIETH

Some scholars teach that verse 5 of our chapter implies that women are free to pray or prophesy audibly in church gatherings provided that their heads are covered. But that ignores Paul’s insistence on the silence of women in such gatherings, in chapter 14 verse 34 and 1 Timothy chapter 2 verses 11 and 12. Women are required both to cover their heads and to remain silent in the church. This interpretation is not confined to our assemblies; thus, HODGE writes, ‘It was Paul’s manner to attend to one thing at a time. He is here dealing with the propriety of women speaking in public unveiled, and therefore he says nothing about the propriety of their speaking in public in itself. When that subject comes up, he expresses his judgement in the clearest terms’.¹ LEON MORRIS seems wide of the mark when he writes that ‘in the first century women were uneducated . . . The Corinthian women should keep quiet in church if for no other reason than because they could have had little or nothing worthwhile to say (TDNT, i. p. 190)’.² Where then did Mary and Martha, Priscilla and Phoebe and the devoted women mentioned in Romans 16 acquire their spiritual wisdom?

Many of our assemblies depend crucially for their survival on the fervent prayers of devoted women who, as it happens, form the majority of those in fellowship, at least in the UK. The fact that their public prayers are silent does not diminish their value. We would be impoverished without our sisters. They exercise a sanctifying, and at times a restraining, influence on the conduct of less spiritual men.

Moreover we owe a great deal to the writings of godly women such as AMY CARMICHAEL, ISOBEL KUHN, CORRIE TEN BOOM, and MRS. HOWARD TAYLOR. A glance at the indices of our hymn books will tell us that women wrote many of our favourite hymns. And those who use the Daily Prayer Guide and who read Echoes monthly and Look on the Fields will know that it is sisters rather than brethren who are responding to the call of Christ today for service overseas. Brethren ought not to be reluctant to acknowledge their indebtedness to sisters for the great contribution they make to assembly life. They deserve our sincere appreciation.

¹

C. HODGE, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Banner of Truth.

²

L. Morris, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, W. B. Eerdmans, 1985, pgg. 197, 198.