First up, I do apologise for the shock heading here – I’m not advocating cannibalism or violence against grandmothers, I assure you. I just want to make a point about the importance of correct grammar, including punctuation. The heading would not have raised any eyebrows if it has read thus: “Let’s eat, Grandma!” I simply make the point about the importance of grammar, and properly appreciating it, especially when it comes to reading and appreciating what the Scriptures say. Sometimes, the grammar of the original Greek and Hebrew texts does not always clearly translate into English and they can be, quite inadvertently, misread. (Sometimes translators allow their own theological biases to influence their translations, too – but that’s another story).
It seems to me that, lately, I am hearing a resurgence of the argument that women should be silent in the church. And this translates into, women cannot teach or preach and so on. I heard it again last night as a Youtube preacher emphatically stated that the Bible is absolutely clear, “women must keep silent in the church – because the Bible says so.” This preacher, a godly man, along with other famous name preachers rely heavily on 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 for the foundation of their entire argument about women not being permitted to preach or teach as men do in the church.
“Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”
1 Corinthians 14:34-35 (NIV)
What few understand is that these words although written by the apostle Paul, did not originate with him. He is quoting Judaisers who were interfering with the teaching ministry of the Corinthian church and seeking to reimpose Judaistic law on the saints. There is a clue at the end of v.34 – “as the law says”. “As the law says” is never something Paul says in his promoting of the Gospel. Not once. In fact, the opposite is the case. He often rebukes those who seek to reimpose Judaic law on Christians, as the Galatians and the apostle Peter quickly found out (See Gal. 3:1-5, & Gal. 2:11). So is Paul contradicting himself? No – he is sarcastically quoting the Judaisers at Corinth seeking to reimpose the Jewish ban on women participating in worship in the same way men do. There is an important grammatical clue in v.36:
“Or did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?”
1 Corinthians 14:36 (NIV)
On the surface it appears that Paul is rebuking women for daring to want to preach or teach. But the Greek grammar says the opposite. At the beginning of verse 36 is the particle “é” in the text – that’s it. And “é” in the text here carries what is called “disjunctive force” (as opposed to conjunctive force). That is, “é” immediately severs the flow of thought from what precedes it, and begins a new flow of thought. This has major impact on the translation of the text. The Revised Standard Version clearly caught it:
“What? was it from you that the word of God went forth? or came it unto you alone?”
1 Corinthians 14:36 (RV)
Do you see that? It’s important! In countering the Judaisers about their anti-Christian attitude to women preaching and teaching in the church and who were invoking Judaic law to silence them – something appalling to the apostle on so many levels – he sarcastically quotes these imposed church rules derived straight from the Talmud by men, and then rebukes them for doing so. There is absolutely nothing in the text that rebukes women, or debars them from anything. The rebuke is solely for Judaising males – and most of us know exactly how Paul felt about Judaisers interfering in the church and subverting the Gospel with Jewish rules. And this most certainly is a crucial Gospel issue.
The use of “é” at the start of v.36 has attracted the attention of scholars in recent years. It functions, in the grammar, as an emphatic repudiation of what immediately precedes it. The passage could be colloquially translated thus – and I’ll take things a tad further in the grammar as I do so:
1 Corinthians 14:34-37 “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 35 If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. 36 Rubbish! Did the word of God originate with just you men? Or are just you men the only people it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I [Paul] am writing to you is the Lord's command.”
Note the sudden shift from the third-person pronoun (“they,” the women) in the prohibition statement to an emphatic second-person masculine in verse 36 (“just you men”) – that’s significant, too!
So, the pulpit-thumping Youtube preachers who use their “because the Bible says clearly” argument based mainly on 1 Cor. 14 to outlaw women as equals in the ministry of the church, are just as guilty of distorting the Gospel as were the New Testament Judaisers who were on the receiving end of the apostle’s hard rebuke.
Furthermore, every other argument based on “because the Bible says” references which are aimed at banning the involvement of women in various ministries in the Body of Christ, are similarly and easily dismantled when the grammar of the original texts is properly and honestly examined. Every single one of them.
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Galatians 3:26-28 (NIV)
“Let’s eat, Grandma!”
You are loved so deeply.
Ps Milton
Sources: Greek New Testament (United Bible Societies); 1Corinthians (Commentary) by Dr. Gordon Fee; Beyond Sex Roles, by Dr. Gil Bilezikian; Dr. Gerhard Kittel & Dr. Gerhard Friedrich, editors, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament