Context...always look at the context. During Paul's time the women and men sat across from each other and not side-by-side. If she had a question for her husband, she would either have to had yelled across the room at him or get up and go over to him to ask him her question. Either way, it could hinder the worship service.
That's why Paul said for women to remain silent and ask her husband at home.
Maybe that was how the men and women were seated in the assembly even though I do not see this in the Bible, but that is not the reason Paul had given for women to be silent and not allowed to teach or be in a position of authority.
1 Timothy 2:[SUP]11 [/SUP]Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.[SUP] 12 [/SUP]But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.[SUP]
13 [/SUP]
For Adam was first formed, then Eve.[SUP] 14 [/SUP]And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
1 Corinthians 14:[SUP]34[/SUP]
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.[SUP]35 [/SUP]And if they will learn any thing, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.[SUP] 36 [/SUP]What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?[SUP]
37 [/SUP]
If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.[SUP] 38 [/SUP]But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.
So what law? The law given by the Lord at the fall of mankind.
Genesis 3:[SUP]16 [/SUP]Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and
he shall rule over thee.[SUP] 17 [/SUP]And unto Adam he said
, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;[SUP] 18 [/SUP]Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;[SUP]19 [/SUP]In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Men are not to hearken unto the voice of a woman in hearing the word of God because of what had happened at the fall of man. Paul cited the reason in 1 Timothy 2:13-14 and 1 Corinthians 14:36 as to where the word of God should come from in the assembly.
It is re-enforced even in the N.T. as touching on the topic of the man being the head of the woman.
1 Corinthians 11:3But I would have you know, that the
head of every man is
Christ; and the
head of the woman is the man; and the
head of
Christ is God.
Ephesians 5:23
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as
Christ is the
head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
To not submit to this.. is to not submit to Christ.
If husbands thinks they have free reign to be unfair in being a tyrant... think again....
1 Corinthians 7:[SUP]32 [/SUP]But I would have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:[SUP]
33 [/SUP]
But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife.
Ephesians 5:[SUP]21[/SUP]
Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.[SUP] 22 [/SUP]Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.[SUP] 23 [/SUP]For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.[SUP] 24 [/SUP]Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
[SUP] 25 [/SUP]Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;[SUP] 26 [/SUP]That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,[SUP] 27 [/SUP]That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.[SUP] 28 [/SUP]So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.[SUP] 29 [/SUP]For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:[SUP] 30 [/SUP]For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.[SUP] 31 [/SUP]For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.[SUP]
32 [/SUP]
This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.[SUP] 33 [/SUP]Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
It is hard to understand this as a commandment from the Lord when christian churches have not taught this as such for so long now that one would doubt what was written... but it is written.
Women should stop looking for ways to serve the Lord at their church building and
serve Him in outward ministry...
keeping socially active with members and using public forums to bring believers in to the church by spreading the gospel and encourage other believers that do not go to church and regular members to keep on coming. In light of dwindling church attendance as reported across America, how can any woman see that as something trivial? Fellowship is important, and just having a Sunday school class and a sermon to be run by the men hardly meets the needs of the body of Christ.
If any man or woman seeks to be submissive to Christ, then men are to teach in the church & women outside the church.
