Silence of Sisters

Tonight the first subject I'm picking up is not a very popular one either, the ministry of sisters. It need not be taken up from a negative standpoint because I could go through the scriptures with you and show you that the ministry of women forms a prominent place in both the Old and the New Testament. I often think that if you had seen Eve in her unfallen state, you would have seen a woman who displayed glory and majesty that would have dazzled your eyes.

I personally believe, and I'm not going to ask you to believe it, this is my own personal belief, I personally believe that Adam and Eve in their unfallen state were clothed with light, they were clothed with glory. I know Adam was crowned with majesty and glory, the Bible says he was. So very clearly they weren't as they were when they fell.

But there have been many women who have been saved by the grace of God in both Old and New Testament days who displayed some of the glory, some of the true worth that God intended to be seen in women. And you could go through the Bible, Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, Asenath, that wife of Joseph's who is such a beautiful picture to us, Miriam, Deborah, Jael, Huldah, Ruth, on and on. When you come to the New Testament you have some most remarkable women.

Mary, the handmaiden of the Lord, what a beautiful character. And of course Mary of Bethany and her sister Martha. Or rather it's the other way around, it's Martha and her sister Mary.

And Mary Magdalene. And those women from Galilee who ministered to the Lord Jesus and the disciples. One of the most humbling things in the life of Christ was that women supplied his needs.

Think of the women who labored with Paul in the gospel. Think of the great women of the book of the Acts, Dorcas and Lydia, Priscilla, what an outstanding character. The princely lady, that's what Prisca means, the noble lady.

And if we had read in Acts 17 tonight we would have read in Thessalonica that there were chief women. And we would have read in the same chapter that there were noble women of Berea. That should be enough to tell you that we believe that God has greatly used women and is still using them.

And they are instruments for God's glory. And testimony would be totally impoverished without them. And a woman is not inferior in any way at all to the man.

But the man has a sphere and the woman has a sphere. And they are God's chosen spheres. And you know this isn't a corrective for our women, our sisters.

This is not a corrective for you that I'm preaching tonight, you don't need it. For the most part, I would say that sisters I know throughout assemblies bow not just disgruntledly, is that a word? But they bow gladly and happily and joyously to their work for God and the sphere that God has given them. So I'm not here to try to correct women, but what I'm going to say tonight has other lessons for us, some very, very strong lessons for me, because I'm a learner.

And I hope when I get done being a learner that the Lord will take me home. And I hope we're all learners and willing to learn because there are some very great lessons to learn. Now, today we have a great deal of opposition to the silence of sisters in assembly gatherings.

They sing, of course, that's not silent, thank God they sing. But they are silent as far as taking audible part in prayer and preaching and teaching and testifying and asking questions even in a public assembly meeting. Now there's a great deal of opposition to that.

And many who oppose it tell us that when the New Testament was written, we have to understand the cultural environment in which it was written so that we can rightly interpret these passages. I can't tell you how many times when I read, I come across statements like this. The first question to ask in this passage is, how would the people to whom it was written understand it? Be careful of that kind of thing.

Now it's all right if that's where they leave it, but quite often they'll go on to point out to you that those particular passages were written for the particular culture that they were addressed to. And of course, if you go continue, you'll find that because our culture is different, that the interpretation is different. What is really being said is this, that we must interpret the scriptures in the light of our environment and redefine its teaching for ourselves.

How does that sound? A lot of people think that sounds wonderful. I'm going to tell you that that is absolute error. That plain enough? That's absolute error.

That is a strange denial of inspiration. That's a very peculiar denial of the all-sufficiency of scripture. Because, you see, the word of God was not written for the culture of the time in which it was written.

In fact, there are more contrasts between what the Bible teaches and the environment of the times than there are comparisons. In fact, whenever the New Testament taught self-denial and a commitment of life and love and devotion and activity to Christ as Lord and the submission of self and depth to the flesh and desires of self, it was flying right in the face of Greek philosophy. And when the word of God gave such a place to women, it was going entirely against the culture of the day.

So don't try to tell us that we're to understand the Bible culturally. It wasn't even written for the culture of the time. And unless I misunderstand 2 Timothy 3 and 16, it was all-sufficient for all time.

I have often said this, and I'll say it again, we do not interpret the Bible in the light of our environment. We interpret our environment in the light of the Bible. And you should never use your circumstances to interpret Scripture, but rather, this is saying exactly the same thing in language that you may be able to apply more simply, you should always interpret your circumstances by the Scriptures, always.

So now, here's a problem, we have read it tonight, and very quickly I want you to look at it. And I have good reasons for asking you to, because I think this is the heart of the matter. First Corinthians 11 says that the woman is to cover her head when she prays or prophesies.

First Corinthians 14 says she's to be silent. Is that a contradiction? How do we understand what seems to be a difference between chapter 11 and chapter 14? Is there a simple answer? Is there something we can just say real simply? Well, you know, when there's a difficulty in interpretation that has come down through the ages, and multitudes have had difficulty in its interpretation, please don't have the notion that we'll just be able to settle the whole problem with some few words. There definitely seems to be, in chapter 11, a prohibition regarding women praying or prophesying with uncovered heads.

And therefore, the natural conclusion would be that if they covered their heads, they could pray or prophesy. And I don't think you can say, well, they could pray silently, because the prophesying would be audibly. And therefore, you don't get any further ahead by saying, well, they pray silently.

So there is a problem there, and many, many have recognized that problem. Now what are the explanations of it? I'm going to give you a couple, and as I say, I have very good reason for pursuing this subject in this way. There are some who say that the word in 1 Corinthians 14 and 34 lets the women keep silence in the churches, that it is not permitted unto them to speak, that the verb to speak means to chatter.

And therefore, women are forbidden to be whispering to one another or talking to one another while the meeting is going on. Of course, you know that that's not right. I think you do.

And why is it not right? Because the normal word for speak is used 22 times in this very chapter. In chapter 14 of 1 Corinthians, this word speak, it is not permitted unto them to speak. That same word is used 22 times, and it always means to speak.

It always means to express thought in words, or to express sounds that are intended to convey something, because in the case of those who spoke with tongues, they were not succeeding in conveying anything. But it is the thought of attempting to, at least. So now, that doesn't mean that the women aren't to chatter.

If that's what it meant, what would the next sentence mean? Got to ask their husbands at home. You see, you can't interpret one verse that makes the next verse ridiculous. Then your interpretation must be dead wrong.

So of course, that's not the right interpretation. But some say Paul allowed women to pray and prophesy in chapter 11, but he changed his mind by the time he got to chapter 14. I don't know what you'd say about people who say that kind of thing, because what do they think about inspiration? I don't know.

But certainly that's not the answer. Now some who are very intelligent in the word of God, and I won't name them, I could, but some have said that the praying and prophesying in chapter 11 were not in the church. Now I can't reconcile that with verse 16 of chapter 11, which clearly tells us that this was teaching for when the church was gathered.

And I can't reconcile it with 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 8, where it is the males that are to pray publicly everywhere. So I cannot accept that, that it was praying and prophesying, but not when the church was gathered. And then of course, some say that an ecstatic utterance was not forbidden, but later on when the word of God was given in its fullness, they were forbidden to teach and preach and so forth.

I don't know about that either. That may have some logic to it, but I'm not sure it has much scripture. But there is a new and novel idea that has just been produced within the last two years.

And it is amazing. And I've learned a lot from this explanation, so the reason I'm laboring it you'll see in a moment. This new idea was first introduced in October of 1986 in an article in Christianity Today by Walter C. Kaiser.

He taught that in verse 34 of 1 Corinthians 14, that this isn't what Paul wrote to the Corinthians at all, but rather he is quoting them. He is parroting them. Like he is saying, you say, let your women keep silence in the church because the law tells them to be silent.

That's what you say. I wonder how you do that with the next verse. I don't know just how he handled that really.

I remember reading the article, but I must confess that he lost me after about the second paragraph. But now that has been taken up again in the Journal for the Study of the New Testament in 1988. Robert Ellison has taken that up, and he argues from Galatians 3 and 28 that Paul could not have written 1 Corinthians 14 and 34.

What does Galatians 3 and 28 say? That there is neither Jew nor Gentile, born nor free, male nor female in the church. How does that strike you? It's hard to believe that men who have given their life to the study of the New Testament could mix up the Bible like that. And I'm sure that many young believers here know without a question that Galatians 3 and 28 is referring to the church which is his body, and that it is spiritual blessing that is the subject, and that it has nothing to do with local church function.

But Ellison says you cannot believe that Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 14 and 34, and also wrote Galatians 3 and 28, but of course the two subjects are vastly different. Now this teaching that I'm telling you, that says that this is not really Paul at all, and it is not really authoritative scripture, that it is a mere parroting of what the Corinthians were saying, that has been embraced very strongly by many who want to change the teaching about the silence of women, and accept it, that women should take public audible part. I don't know what you think about that, but I'll tell you what it does to me.

It teaches me a solemn lesson, and the lesson I learn is this. I should never come to the Bible wanting it to say something that agrees with me. I should never study scripture, or read scripture, or compare scripture with scripture to try to prove some pet theory of mine.

I have been with many men in the work of the Lord. I preached for about 35 years with Brother Maxwell. One of the reasons I admire Mr. Sidney Maxwell so thoroughly is because I found in him a man who bowed to the Word of God, whatever it said.

No matter how long he had held some other opinion, the Word of God was everything to him. That's the lesson I learn here, because it tells me how our hearts can deceive us so badly. You know, the men who are accepting 1 Corinthians 14 and 34, according to that, that it was a parroting of what the Corinthians were saying, and was not a statement of Paul's, are giving evidence that they so much want to do away with these verses, that they'll accept an interpretation of them that they would not accept on any other grounds or in any other part of the Bible.

In fact, Aspyrus Zodiotes, who has put out an excellent Bible giving you the tenses, hardly has any footnotes at all in his Bible until he comes to 1 Corinthians 14 and 34, and here he has three pages. You know why he has three pages? Because he's trying to do away with the verse. He's trying to get rid of it.

It takes a lot of pages to get rid of a verse. I know a man who wrote a whole book to get rid of one verse in the Bible. He wrote a whole book to get rid of Romans 11 and 25.

But when F.F. Bruce had finished his book, Romans 11 and 25 said the same thing. He didn't get rid of it at all, it was still there. So that's the way it is with this verse.

Let me look at this verse just for a moment with you. Is it a quotation from what the people said? Well, whenever Paul was quoting what the Corinthians said, he used language like this, as he did in chapter 15. How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? How say some among you? Now, he doesn't do that here at all, but what does he do? Well, would you look at the Bible with me now? I'm at 1 Corinthians 14.

I'd like you to look at it, and I'm going to do a very quick run through the verses. And I want to show you something, and I don't think you'll need any explanation after I've showed this to you. Look at the last of verse 26, let all things be done unto edifying.

The middle of verse 27, let it be by two or three. The second line of verse 28, let him keep silence in the church. The first line of verse 29, let the prophets speak two or three.

The last of the verse, and let the other judge. The middle of verse 30, or at the end of verse 30, let the first hold his peace. The beginning of verse 34, let your women keep silence.

The middle of verse 35, let them ask their husbands. The middle of verse 37, let him acknowledge. The first of verse 40, let all things.

Ten times in these verses, Paul uses exactly the same form of speech. And yet we are to suppose that all of a sudden you can pull two verses out of the whole context and say it's something entirely different. No, you can't do that.

That's the very thing you can't do. But why do they want to do it? Because they want to get rid of the difficulty. So what is the explanation now? We said there seems to be a difference between chapter 11 and chapter 14.

Well, as far as I'm concerned, the explanation is really not that terribly difficult. Paul is dealing with headship in chapter 11. He hasn't yet dealt with the silence of the woman.

And in Corinth, likely there was an abuse of that, as well as everything else. So when he gets to chapter 14, he deals with the silence of the woman. And he does that, I could show you case after case where Paul treats truth that way.

He deals with the subject in order as he comes to it. So then in chapter 11, it is headship. In chapter 14, it's the silence of the woman.

And of course, you would have a great difficulty in trying to get 1 Timothy 2 out of the way, even if you did succeed in getting 1 Corinthians 14 out of the way. Then you would have to start in on chapter 2 of 1 Timothy, and I don't know what you do with that. I suppose you could come up with some... If anything can be ridiculous, well, then you can have something more ridiculous.

You know, I learned from this, dear Christian, I'll tell you what I learned. I learned that the Bible is able to speak and teach. And I learned that I should be subject to what I find in it.