162 FEMINIST VIEWS BASED ON UNTRUTHFUL CLAIMS
Paul does give for instruction on this matter. Paul does not give “noisy
women” as a reason for his instruction, but rather he cites the Old
Testament law. He says, “For they are not permitted to speak, but
should be in submission, as the Law also says” (1 Cor. 14:34). “Law”
here most likely refers to the teaching of the Old Testament in general
on men and women, because Paul does not quote any specific Old
Testament passage. He frequently uses “law” (Greek nomos) to refer to
the Old Testament, and especially with this formula, “as the Law...
says” (see the other two instances in Rom. 3:19 and 1 Cor. 9:8).^7 It is
unlikely that “law” refers to Roman law or to Jewish oral traditions, for
Paul does not elsewhere use nomos in those ways.^8
Paul therefore gives “the Law” as the reason for his statement, not
“noisy women.” It is precarious to remove from our explanation of
Paul’s instruction the reason that Paul does give and replace it with a rea-
son he does not give. Paul here is not saying,
Let the women be silent because they should not be asking disruptive
questions.or
Let the women be silent because God wants orderly worship services.but rather,
(^7) This was pointed out by D. A. Carson, “‘Silent in the Churches’: On the Role of Women in
1 Corinthians 14:33b-36,” in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, ed. John Piper
and Wayne Grudem (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway, 1991), 148.
(^8) Linda Belleville says “law” here refers to Roman law (“Women in Ministry,” 119). As evi-
dence, she says, “Official religion of the Roman variety was closely supervised,” but the only
proof she gives is a reference to her book, Women Leaders and the Church: Three Crucial
Questions (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 2000), 36-38. On those pages, we look in vain for
any reference to Roman law regulating anyone’s conduct within any religious service. She men-
tions the Emperor Tiberias’s attempt to abolish the cult of Isis, but that proves nothing about
attempts to regulate Christian conduct or any other religious activity within a worship service.
Belleville asks us to believe, without proof, the rather remarkable position that Roman laws
prohibited women from asking disruptive questions within a worship service such as found in
a Christian church. And she gives not one shred of proof.
Paul never uses “law” (Greek nomos) to refer to Roman law, but often uses it, as here, to
refer to the teachings of the Old Testament taken as a whole.
Walter Kaiser, Hard Sayings of the Old Testament (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press,
1988), 36, claims that “the law” here means Rabbinic teaching, but he provides no support-
ing evidence, and, again, Paul does not use the word “law” in that way.