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.
Parallel translations
- WEB Let the women be quiet in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted for them to be talking except in submission, as the law also says,
- BSB Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.
- NKJV 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.
- NASB the women are to keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but are to subject themselves, just as the Law also says.
- NLT Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul instructs that women be silent in the assemblies and remain in submission, as the law also says. This concerns proper order in the gathered church.
Overview
This instruction comes within Paul's broader call for orderly worship and is understood in various ways by faithful Christians. Many take it to address a specific disruptive practice, perhaps interrupting the weighing of prophecy, rather than a blanket prohibition, especially given that 1 Corinthians 11 envisions women praying and prophesying. Whatever its precise scope, Paul's concern is peaceable, edifying worship that honors God's order.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- 1 Tim 2:11–12Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
- Gen 3:16Unto 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.
- Num 30:3–13If a woman also vow a vow unto the LORD, and bind herself by a bond, being in her father’s house in her youth;
- 1 Cor 14:35And 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.
- Col 3:18Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
- Titus 2:5To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
- 1 Cor 11:5But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven.
- 1 Pet 3:1–6Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
- Eph 5:22–24Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
- 1 Cor 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.
- Eph 5:33Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
- 1 Cor 11:7–10For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.
- Esth 1:17–20For this deed of the queen shall come abroad unto all women, so that they shall despise their husbands in their eyes, when it shall be reported, The king Ahasuerus commanded Vashti the queen to be brought in before him, but she came not.
- 1 Cor 14:21In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the LORD.
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Christ at the center
Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.
How 1 Corinthians 14:34 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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