Should Women Teach in Church?

Let the women keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak. Paul was emphasizing the fact that the principle of women's not speaking in church services was not local, geographical, or cultural, but universal, in all the churches of the saints. Though it embraces tongues, the context here refers to prophecy. Women are not to exercise any such ministries.The women who joined in the chaotic self–expression which Paul has been condemning not only added to the confusion but should not have been speaking in the first place. In God's order for the church, women should subject themselves, just as the Law also says. The principle was first taught in the Old Testament and is reaffirmed in the New In reflection of that principle, no women were permitted to speak at the Jewish synagogues. . . .