Evangelical Feminism: A New Path to Liberalism?

19: DISRUPTIVE WOMEN IN CORINTH? 163

As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in

the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in

submission, as the Law also says (1 Cor. 14:33b-34).

Paul does not speak here about disorder but about the principle of
submission—in this case, submission to male leadership among God’s
people.
A far better interpretation of this passage comes from the very con-
text of these verses themselves. Paul is speaking in this context about
people giving prophecies in the church meeting and about others judg-
ing those prophecies: “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the oth-
ers weigh what is said” (1 Cor. 14:29). In the context of judging
prophecies, Paul says, “the women should keep silent in the churches.”
He does not allow women to speak out and judge prophecies in front of
the whole congregation, but he leaves that governing task to men, which
is consistent with what he says in 1 Timothy 2:12 about women not hav-
ing authority over a man. The verse says nothing about noisy women,
but the context clearly talks about judging prophecies.^9
So where is the actual historical evidence that women were dis-
rupting the worship service at Corinth? None has been found. The idea
is mere speculation supported by frequent repetition but not by one
shred of hard historical data.
When egalitarians claim that 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 applies only
to a special situation of disruptive women in the church at Corinth, they
are changing the meaning of a verse by restricting it to a very narrow
situation. And they are basing this on mere speculation, not on any hard
facts. In doing this they are setting up a pattern of interpretation that
will be imitated by others who will speculate (without any hard facts)
about “special situations” that can be used to invalidate other New
Testament commands as well. And in that way they take another step
on the path to liberalism.

(^9) For further explanation of this view, see Grudem, Evangelical Feminism and Biblical Truth,
78-80.