Do Women Belong in the Kitchen or Ministry?
In my early years as a woman in ministry, I was occasionally the brunt of comments or attacks leveled against me for simply obeying God and stepping forward to speak His Word.
One might think that these comments would have come from overprotective men who were threatened by a woman who could minister under the anointing. Actually, it was other women, more often than not, who gave me problems. One particular woman would turn her head away from me every time I got up to preach. I’m not sure how she stayed in that position for an hour, but I’m sure her religious reaction to a woman preacher was responsible for her stiff neck!
But it wasn’t always women who challenged my position of ministry. On one early occasion in my ministry, my husband and I were operating as a team as visiting ministers in a church. My husband brought the message; then we both began to minister prophetically to the people. After the service, a man came up to me and stood in front of me with a look of anger on his face. I asked him if I could help him and he just continued to stare. So I asked him if he enjoyed the service. He said that he did, right up until the moment the Holy Spirit was grieved. I asked him at what point that may have been, and he said, “The minute you opened your mouth.”
Whether it is in a man or a woman, a religious spirit will always attempt to stop the flow of ministry, often trying to put situations or circumstances in neat little boxes that fit its paradigm. When anything occurs outside of that box, it loves to quote the Scripture, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40). It obviously is more focused on the part about decency and order rather than on the part that says “Let all things be done.”
Often the role of a prophetic minister is to root up, pull down, destroy, throw down, and then to build and plant (see Jer. 1:10). No wonder it is very difficult to truly become women who fulfill destiny if we are bound by dead religious patterns and mistranslated Scriptures. Consequently, it may be of benefit to take a look at some of the more difficult passages that have often been used to relegate women to a second-class citizen status in the Body of Christ.
Much of the fuel that fires up a religious spirit that wants to hold women back comes as a result of difficult-to-understand Scriptures regarding women. Of course, all that we do must have a basis in Scripture and be founded on the Word of God. However, many of these passages have been mistranslated or misunderstood. Therefore, it is time to seek clarity on these issues that we may move forward and not become entangled again with bondage.
Misconception: Are Women to Keep Silent?
Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says. And if they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is shameful for women to speak in church (1 Corinthians 14:34-35 NKJV).
1. Author’s intent.
Does the author intend for women not to speak in public worship services? If the author’s intent was for women not to speak or to “keep silent,” this would mean that there would be no place for a woman to teach Sunday school or to even sing in a choir. This “silence” cannot be the author’s intent because in other passages of Paul’s writings, women are clearly taught about their public praying and prophesying, which would obviously violate this silence (see 1 Cor. 11:3,5,10 NKJV). In the same Book of First Corinthians, Paul encourages the saints, “you can all prophesy one by one” (14:31 NKJV). When the apostle Paul says “all,” does he mean “all,” or is he referring to only the men? If women were to keep silent, they could not participate in “all can prophesy.” Therefore, he cannot mean a literal silence as so many have concluded.
2. Context within the chapter, the book, and the rest of the Bible.
In discussing the supposed “sentence of silence” upon women in the early church, it is important to look at the context in the New Testament as to whether women were in fact expected not to speak. In Acts 2, we are told that after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…and on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit…and they shall prophesy.” Philip’s daughters were recognized prophetesses, so presumably they prophesied in a public worship setting (see Acts 21:9).
3. The historical or cultural setting at the time of writing.
The word “speak” in the phrase “not permitted to speak” is from a word meaning continually speaking up. The same word is used earlier in the same chapter referring to those who speak in tongues without an interpreter. In First Corinthians 14, Paul is addressing order in public worship, not setting a “silencer” on saints, male or female. He is addressing disruptive speech and asking that women not interrupt the meetings with continual questions, but to learn quietly and ask their husbands questions when they get home so as not to disrupt the meeting for all.
Scholars also think that these two verses are Paul quoting from another letter (see 1 Cor. 7:1: “Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me…”) written from church leaders. In Corinth, the Judaizers—having strong anti-woman Jewish roots—were trying to press the church back into legalism by restricting participation of women. A specific Greek symbol is used at the beginning of verse 36 to indicate the previous statement was a quotation (the equivalent to our quotation marks).5 When he speaks of women keeping silent, and says that it is shameful for a woman to speak in church, he is actually quoting the words written to him in their letter, which emphasize, not biblical or Jewish law, but rather the Jewish tradition. “As says the Law” does not refer to anything found in the Old Testament law, but rather to the talmudic writings which out of Jewish tradition say it is “shameful for a woman to speak.” Paul is actually addressing and contradicting the introduction of anti-woman doctrine in the church.
The following verses, First Corinthians 14:36-37 (NKJV), says:
Or did the word of God come originally from you? Or was it you only that it reached? If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord.
Paul is saying, “Do you really believe the Gospel was written only for you Corinthian men? Are you going to silence women who were actually the first ones to preach the resurrection from the tomb? Paul’s entire chapter 14 is all about being activated and involved yet using order in the public worship services.
Interpret unclear passages in light of clear passages.
Are women entitled to less of an inheritance in Christ? Are we relegated to a second-class position? Are we somehow still under the bondage of the law or traditions? The author of First Corinthians 14:34, Paul, addresses this gender prejudice in Galatians 3:23-29:
Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (NIV).
This question isn’t the only scripture satan uses to silence prophetic women. I talk more about other misused scriptures in my book, The Deborah Company, and how to answer your prophetic calling.
