How does the command for women to keep silence relate to the women out on the street?
Paul sets the command as a complete contrast to the brazen women of the street, identified in context as prostitutes. Because those women were bold in dress, behavior, and talkativeness, church women are told to be subdued, subservient to their husbands, and silent—nothing like them.
Les explains that Paul uses the prostitutes as an example because they were completely in a class of their own. They were brazen in their dress, behavior, and talkativeness. Paul says that if anything would make someone say believers are no different than those prostitutes, then they have to be careful. He illustrates with the Middle East: a veiled woman can go almost anywhere without fear, and no one dares touch her, but if she removes her veil she becomes an object of almost anything. In light of that, Paul tells the women of the Church not to be anything like the women of the street; instead, they are to be subdued and subservient to their husbands. Verse 34 then says, “Let your women keep silence,” as a complete opposite of those out on the street, not permitted to speak but commanded to be under obedience, as the law also says. Les notes that under the Law, even God’s Law to Israel, the woman had almost no rights; it was unfortunate, but God had His reason for doing it.
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.
More Questions
What does 1 Corinthians 14:34 command women to do in the church?
Reading 1 Corinthians 14:34, Paul commands women to keep silence as the complete opposite of the women out on the street, and says it is not permitted for them to speak but they are commanded to be under obedience, as the law also says.