A Layman's Analysis of 1 Corinthians 14:33-40

just thinking through scripture

This is the second analysis in a series of examining what scripture says about men and women. If you haven't read the first part, above are links to the intro and first analysis.

Next Verses Under Examination: 1 Corinthians 14:33-40 (ESV)
33 For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. 36 Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks that he is a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. 38 If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. 39 So, my brothers, earnestly desire to prophesy and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But all things should be done decently and in order.

Context & Problems
Paul is in the middle of talking about prophecy and church order. He has just emphasized how prophesy is more beneficial to others than speaking in tongues. He has also just explained how church meetings should be orderly and done for the benefit of others not just oneself. 

Verses 34-36 seem like an interruption to the flow of Paul's argument. Especially as the verses immediately after continue discussing prophesying and speaking in tongues. How do these seemingly out-of-place verses fit into Paul's argument or do they? How could Paul mean for women to be silent if he just mentioned women prophesying in church in chapter 11? Weird.

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Possible Meaning #1:
Paul is just talking about a specific group of women in Corinth who were asking unrelated or elementary or hampering questions during church, thus disrupting the service. These were questions about things that most husbands already knew. Thus verse 36 is a rebuke to the women "Women, do you think you're the only ones who have a right to speak? Stop dominating the worship meetings. If you think you're a prophet, you should acknowledge that my words are true." (Abby version)
       Support: This seems possible since, as far as I understand, men of that time were educated and informed while most women were not.
      Problems: If these verses are just about women not understanding basic biblical truths, these verses do not seem to relate to the verses before or after about speaking in tongues and prophesying.
      Possible Solution: Perhaps the women were dominating and disrupting the church service by speaking in tongues. This relates this section to the sections before or after.
      Problems: If the women were dominating the church by speaking in tongues, why did Paul suggest they ask their husbands at home? What did the wives have to ask their husbands about? "Honey, what did I sound like in church today?"
      Seems like the husbands would want to ask their wives, "So what was all that gibberish you were speaking about in church? You sounded like you were speaking English or some other barbarian language."
      Other Problems: If women were prophesying in the church as we learned in 1 Corinthians 11, then it seems like women had a basic understanding of biblical truths already. Were they really as uneducated as we think they were? Were they really disrupting the meetings by asking basic and simple questions?
       Problems Aplenty: I don't know much about the culture and period, but Acts tells us that there were Greeks and Jews together in other churches in this region. If Corinth's church  was filled with both Greeks and Jews, then the Greek men wouldn't necessarily have been informed about Torah and basic truths either. Wouldn't there be an entire group of people who didn't know basic truths, not just the women? Why would the women be singled out then?
      Problems Galore: Earlier in Paul's letter, in 1 Corinthians 3:2 Paul himself says that the Corinthians are still learning the basics, that they were spiritual infants because they were worldly with jealousy and quarrels. What basic questions about God and faith were the women asking that the men already knew? Paul seems to indicate that the men need basic teachings just as much as the women.

Conclusion: The women weren't speaking in tongues, nor asking basic questions.

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Possible Meaning #2:
The Corinthian women were disrespectfully questioning their husbands when their husbands were speaking in tongues. Maybe the drama unfolded something like this:

      Wife: "Plebeius, what is that gibberish you're saying? Tell us what you're talking about. I don't understand a bit of it and neither does anyone else. You sound like a turkey!"
      Husband: "Quiet woman! I am filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. You cannot know anything about this. It's just between me and God."
      Wife: "I know all about your gibberish. You do it in your sleep. And you do it when you're filled with wine too. Ha!"
      Husband: "For shame, wife! I'm done with that sort of life! I have God in me now and if you had God in you too, you wouldn't question me in front of everyone. Don't you know that that's disrespecting your head. You oughtta be silent!"
      Wife: "Says who? There's already one silent one in this marriage. We don't need two."
      Husband: "Says the Law, that's who! That's it! I'm writing to Paul to tell him about you! He'll tell you what's what!"
      Wife: Fine! See if I care. I follow Apollos!

      Dear Paul,
In our church, the men are often being filled with the Holy Spirit. We are speaking in tongues all together and every man is communing with the Lord. But then, Paul, get this, the wives are interrupting us. They're disrespecting us, asking us to interpret our language right there, and it's disruptive to the worship experience. Women ought to be silent in church. It's the Law, after all. If they really want to know what their husbands are saying, they should ask them privately at home. Don't you agree, Paul?

Sincerely,
      The Corinthians

Implications of this:  
If in verses 34-35, Paul is quoting the letter the Corinthians wrote to Paul, then verse 36 acts as a rebuke to the Corinthian men and not the Corinthian women — "This is what I have to say about that, Corinthians: are you, men, the only ones you think God speaks through privately? Are you alone the ones you think should have a worship experience in church?" (Abby version)
      Problems: It seems like a cop-out to say that this section is just another instance of Paul quoting the Corinthians. Are there other places Paul quotes the Corinthians? How can we tell when he's quoting someone or just writing down his own words?
      Research: Paul does indeed seem to quote other sources and the Corinthians throughout this entire letter. Paul begins quoting the Corinthians in chapter 1: "I follow Paul" "I follow Apollos". He also quotes a wisdom proverb in 1 Cor. 1:19, and he quotes Isaiah 64:4 in 1 Cor. 2:9, and Genesis in 1 Cor 6:16. 
      Even though quotes are not part of the original Greek, translators in 1 Cor. 6:12-13  use quotes to represent what the Corinthians were saying. "'I have the right to do anything,' you say—but not everything is beneficial. 'I have the right to do anything'—but I will not be mastered by anything. You say, 'Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.' The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body."
     This is the NIV, which  adds "you say" to these verses to show what the Corinthians were saying. "You say" is not in the original Greek.

      The ESV uses quotes in chapter 8: "all of us possess knowledge" (vs. 1), "as an idol has no real existence," and "there is no God but one" (vs. 4). 

    The ESV also puts 8:23 in quotes with the other half being Paul's response.  In 1 Cor 15:12 & 35, again Paul talks about what the Corinthians have said/will say. It seems like Paul is using quotes throughout the entire book. 

Contextual Evidence: 
These verses are surrounded by Paul's discourse about speaking in tongues and making sure others can understand you. In verse 9, Paul says, "Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air." (ESV)
      Also in verse 11, Paul says, "If then I do not grasp the meaning of what someone is saying, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and the speaker is a foreigner to me." (ESV)
      Then again in verse 16: "Otherwise when you are praising God in the Spirit, how can someone else, who is now put in the position of an inquirer, say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since they do not know what you are saying?" (ESV)
      These verses seem to indicate that the men were putting their wives/women into the position of inquirer.
      More Contextual Evidence: This interpretation brings even more context to 1 Corinthians 13, where Paul says love is a greater gift than speaking in tongues and prophesy. Perhaps Paul is saying that it is better for husbands to show love to their wives than to have an uninterrupted worship experience while they're speaking in tongues.
      More Evidence: Paul cites the spiritual immaturity of the Corinthians in chapter 3 verse 3 "You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?" Might it be that Paul's entire letter is addressing jealousies and quarreling among the Corinthian men and women? Who should talk? Who should be in submission to whom?

Holy Smokes Conclusion: So I'm learning all this as I write it, and I am seriously in tears realizing what a different approach this is to the way most people read these passages. Could this be true? Could the very verses men use to say that women need to let men alone lead, to be quietly in submission to men, to follow obediently...actually are an appeal to the men to love and be united together WITH women? Yikes!