The Woman’s 'silence' in the assembly = submission

The King James Version (KJV) is mostly used in these lessons. Click here to access the KJV online.

If a woman is walking in submission to her husband at home, and he is leading with love according to Yahuwah’s direction, it will carry over into the assembly as well. If there is a lack of love and order in the home, then that can also affect the Ekklesia. This is especially true when everyone is gathered together. One example of this is found in the following verse:

1 Corinthians 14:34 (NKJV) Let your women keep silent in the assemblies, for they are not permitted to speak; but [they] [are] to be submissive, as the law also says. 35 – 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. 36 – Or did the word of Yahuwah 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 Yahuwah.

This is one of the more controversial passages in scripture. The reason for this controversy is because it is so contrary to our culture of “liberated” women and weak men. It isn’t controversial at all if we understand why Yahuwah created woman to begin with. The controversy ceases if we just look at what is said in this verse and accept it. Numerous explanations have been offered to try and fit this verse into our culture. One suggestion is that men and women were on opposite sides of the room, a woman would need to ask her husband from a distance and end up disrupting the meeting. But archaeological discoveries confirm that this was not the custom of that time. In the article entitled Sepphoris Synagogue Mosaic of the Sept/Oct 2000 Biblical Archaeology Review it states, “By now it is widely accepted among scholars that synagogues from the early centuries of the Common Era did not have a separate women’s section.” Others claim there was a “shrieking problem’ in the assembly so Paul decided that women should just keep quiet. Still others have said that Paul just didn’t like women so he wanted to keep them quiet. Of course, none of these things are mentioned in the verse itself. The truth is, we don’t have to look far to find the reason why Paul said what he said. He gave us the reason! Let’s look again:

1 Corinthians 14:34- 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.

The reason that women are to keep silent in the assembly is because they are “to be submissive”. So a woman speaking in the assembly is simply not being submissive to the man. For a woman to speak in the assembly is an act of independence, not submissiveness. The mindset of this generation does not understand how this could possibly be. But remember that from the beginning of creation Yahuwah appointed the man to be in a leadership position. The man has the role of guiding the spiritual direction of the family and the assembly. When a woman asks a question, she is taking it upon herself to guide the assembly with her question. The direction of the assembly from that point will center around her question rather than the assembly being directed by those whom Yahuwah appointed to lead, the men. A woman can actually control the entire group with her questions and take up the entire time of fellowship by asking one question after another. All things are to be done decently and in order. If a woman speaks in the assembly, she is either directing the conversation or she is teaching men with her words.