Can someone explain 1 Corinthians 14:34?

Question

Was this scripture meant to just apply for the Corinthians or should it apply to us today? Personally I think it just applies to them ,but wouldn't that also mean that the other stuff Paul wrote just applies to the people he wrote letters to? I am just wondering because people often use Paul's letters to condemn behaviors such as homosexuality.

Answer 1

As far as homosexuality is concerned I don't think of too much a sin as an abomination to nature. As a Christian I think there are more important things to focus on morally, such as adultry.

Answer 2

Great question, a lot of info to unpack, some basics-

1) Paul's letters address different communities (community is a loose term). In the beginning, there were house churches, not church buildings persay

2) His letters are instructive for 'mostly' new gentile converts from Corinthe, Thessalonica, Rome, Galatia, and so on

3) Yes, Paul's letters pertain to issues that are community specific. However, if you ever have the opportunity to glean through all of them, they are the same "people problems" we have today. They apply across the board.

4) As far as someone using Paul's letters to condemn another...my thoughts would be 'they' should study the content of Paul's letters. He is explicit about those who think they are wise enough to condemn another.

5) As a general backdrop, Corinthe was a Greco-Roman mecca of several cultures, a stopping port for trade. Also, it wasn't a big leap for a former pagan to worship a new God, the wealthy crowd believed they held Divine authority. Some were running around saying "I've been baptised by the blood of Paul..."

6) Since you mentioned I Cor 14:34 with "people using Paul's letters to condemn others behaviors such as homosexuality," I Cor 14.34 doesn't talk about homosexuality....

Hope that helps.

Answer 3

The whole passage does apply to everyone. However, it's important to read the whole thing. What Paul was talking about was an orderly way to run a service. Obviously, if the women were interrupting the service to ask their husband what something meant (especially since at that time men and women sat on opposite sides of the sanctuary or room they were meeting in), it was not a good thing.

So yes, it's still true.

However, it does NOT say that a woman can't teach. Only that if she's learning, she should learn in silence.

Answer 4

It should not be applied today because it is not a timeless truth. Paul was speaking from a cultural rather than a theological perspective. There were some women in the Corinthian community who were meddlers and Paul wanted to remind them of their place in the church.

Answer 5

Always look at context. Both linguistic and historical.

I do not believe that this scripture demands that a woman be absolutely silent at church. Rather, in harmony with what the apostle taught elsewhere (1 Tim. 2:12), the woman is not to speak or teach in any way that violates her gender role.

She is not to occupy the position of a public teacher, in such a capacity as to stand before the church and function as the teacher (or co-teacher) of a group containing adult men. In assuming this official capacity, she has stepped beyond her authorized sphere, and she violates scripture.

Comparing this to St. Paul's admonishments against homosexual practice are like apples and oranges. No connection whatsoever.

Answer 6

In his letters to the various churches, Paul's instructions were instructional for them and have value for us today in our Christian walk. As he said in Timothy, 3:16-17 "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: (vs 17) that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works."

Jesus came to fulfill the law and redeem us. He did, and not Paul.

Pauls letters were instructive, but don't just look at his letters, look also at his life! Specifically looking at his service to Christ. WOMEN were among his chief assistants. See the scriptures on Pricilla and Acquilla and how he explained that Pricilla explained the scriptures more perfectly to him (is that not teaching and preaching?)

That instruction on keeping silent in the church was strickly for the Corithian church because of the confusion many of the women were causing in trying to elevate thier husbands, brothers, and sons in the church, and the contentions it caused.

The same Paul also wrote a letter to the church of the Galatians. See Chapter 3:27-29. Specifically, in verse 28, Paul said: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
God has always used women in his service!
Deborah was a female judge of Isreal, a woman was the first to declare Jesus the messiah while he was in the womb (Elizabeth, Mary's cousin and mother of John the Baptist) and a woman was the first to declare him messiah in the holy temple of God, women were the first missionaries of the risen Christ when they left the empty tomb of Christ and told the male disciples!

Let us stop these petty debates. There is room at the cross for all and there is room for all in his service. The prophet Joel (2:28)also declared that in the last days your sons and daughters will prophesy. Women have to speak to do that!

God bless you. Get wisdom and knowledge, but in all your getting, get understanding. Search all the scriptures with an open heart to the wisdom of him who inspired them!

Answer 7

For the benefit of those who don't have a Bible handy: "Let your women keep silence in the churches; for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law."

Why should this particular passage only apply to the Corinthians when the rest of the Bible is supposed to apply to all Christians right down to the present day? The fundamentalists, at least, would have to keep their women silent in church in order to be compliant with a strictly literal interpretation of the Bible.

But then Christianity is famous for its hypocrites.

Answer 8

2 Thess 2

8And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

9Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

10And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness

Answer 9

Basically what it means is that men are to be the pastors and teachers and the women are to mentor younger women. Well, I may not be explaining this properly, but many non denominational churches believe that women should not be pastors or church leaders based on this passage.

Answer 10

Today's Christian church is bound under New Testament teachings - all of them.

1Cr 14:34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but [they are commanded] to be under obedience, as also saith the law.