Question: Over the years my attention has often been directed to 1 Corinthians 14 and to what the Lord is saying in this portion. The following is what I have gleaned from these Scriptures over the years of detailed study of them. I’m not saying that this is the last word on this subject. I still try to be open to the Lord about these verses. Here is what I find in 1 Corinthians 14. I will confine my remarks mostly to verses 23-35. What kind of meeting is described for us in these verses? We need to prayerfully consider what it says. 1. The whole assembly must be gathered together. “If therefore the whole assembly be come together into one place” etc. (v. 23). 2. It is a meeting where the whole assembly waits upon the Lord to see what He may say to us through two or three prophets (vs. 24, 25, 26, 29). 3. Waiting upon the Lord in this way is a recognition of His presence in our midst. We look to Him to lead and guide by the Holy Spirit and give us just the word that is needed. When this is the case the effect produced upon any who are unlearned or who do not believe will be “that God is in you of a truth” (v. 25). 4. The limit of those who prophesy is two or three. Prophesying, as you know, is being God’s mouthpiece — speaking what He would say for that particular time. Prophesying is not asking questions or giving comments on certain verses from a prearranged portion of study. 5. This meeting is one in which the sisters are not to speak (vs. 34, 35). The word “speak” would even preclude them from reading a verse of Scripture. The above kind of meetings have been called “open meetings.” I believe that is a good name for them. They are meetings that are “open” for the Lord by His Spirit to use whomsoever He would as His mouthpiece to speak to us or for us. These meetings would include the breaking of bread meeting, the open ministry meeting, and the prayer meeting. Some would include the business meeting and that surely could be so depending upon the character of the business. When we come to these meetings we do not know in advance who the Lord will use nor what Scriptures may be used in the meeting. It is true that there are some verses in this section that apply to all meetings. There are three of them as follows: “Let all things be done unto edifying”; God is not the author of confusion”; and “Let all things be done decently and in order” (vs. 26, 33, and 40). Although these should be true in every meeting, it is especially true for “open ministry meeting.” Why is that? I believe the answer is because in that type of meeting, (the open meeting); there is a greater danger for a brother to be controlled by the flesh rather than by the Holy Spirit. The portion under our consideration shows that this is what had been happening. Some were speaking in tongues without interpretation and some were speaking at the same time as others. What was the result? The lack of edification and confusion in their open meetings. Things were not done decently and in order. Though order and edification should surely be true of all the gatherings of the Lord’s people, it needs to be especially remembered in a meeting where two or three brothers are to bring something from the Word. What a responsibility there is then for those two or three to make sure that they each speak for edification and that there is order. Now let’s look at the Bible study meeting: Although we really have no Scripture that I know of as a guide for Bible studies, there are general rules that would apply to all meetings. The Bible study meeting is a meeting where the gift of the teacher is needed. We study a particular subject which has usually been previously agreed upon. As you probably know, Bible studies in the early part of the 19th century were conducted by two or more teachers discussing the Scriptures in question. The best Bible studies today are those led by able teachers of God’s Word. Teachers are a gift from our ascended Lord. God is able, however, to bless any Bible study even where there may not be one brother with a gift of teaching. Often the study of God’s Word together has been the opportunity for one to develop a God-given gift of teaching. Let’s sum up the Bible studies as contrasted with “open meetings.” 1. It is a meeting for the whole assembly but not one where we wait upon the Lord to see what He would say to us through two or three brothers. (Note: The Sunday school Bible study is unique in that it is usually a designated group and not the whole assembly together.) 2. A specific portion has usually been agreed upon. 3. One or two persons usually lead the study. This person generally gives a review of the last study. (I feel that there needs to be one or two brothers who are responsible to see that the Bible study stays on the subject and that the truth from that particular subject is clearly presented.) 4. Any questions raised should be answered, if possible. 5. Each brother who participates should have studied the portion and should seek the Lord’s leading and guiding in what he may bring out from the portion under consideration. 6. No limit to two or three speaking. I think that all will agree that in a Bible study led by a brother or brothers it is much easier to keep order and edification than in an open meeting. In our Bible studies in Minneapolis and elsewhere (the Bible conferences) we probably have heard a brother say to another brother, “We need to get back to our subject” or, “I do not agree with you.” Sometimes there may need to be immediate correction in a Bible study by the ones who are leading it. In an open meeting all are to judge what is said. Each one is responsible before the Lord to judge whether this message came from the Lord. In a Bible study we should see the gift of a teacher in presenting the Word and in answering and asking questions. In a Bible study each one who participates should individually seek the direction and guidance of the Holy Spirit in what he says regarding the portion of scripture being studied. This is different than prophesying. As to the women speaking in a Bible study, do verses 34 and 35 also apply to a Bible study or a Sunday school class? Does it apply to all gatherings of the Lord’s people? Or is it to only the type of meetings described in that chapter? Regarding this meeting, Mr. JND’s translation of verse 35 is very helpful here. It reads, “Let your women be silent in the assemblies, for it is not permitted to them to speak; but to be in subjection, as the law also says. But if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is a shame for a woman to speak in assembly.” I believe that the King James translation of “in the church” is misleading. “In assembly” takes us back to the type of meeting that is given us in that chapter. What kind of meeting is that? It is what we often call “an open meeting.” There the whole assembly is gathered together with the Lord in the midst to hear what He might say to us through two or three brothers. “Let the prophets speak two or three” (v. 29). Before the apostle Paul closes this subject he reminds them in verse 39 and 40, “Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order.” These verses, coming at the end of the chapter, show that the subject of all the verses in this portion we have been considering is the open meeting. If you want to apply verses 34 and 35 to a Bible study or every gathering of the Lord’s people, then you must also, I believe, apply verse 29 to a Bible study or other gathering of the Lord’s people. I believe that insisting that these verses apply to every gathering of the Lord’s people is not rightly dividing the Word of Truth. Can sisters then take part in a Bible reading meeting? I believe 1 Timothy 2:11, 12 give us general directions for sisters everywhere, including a Bible reading meeting. I cannot say it better than the comments given below by Mr. Darby and Mr. Kelly. (Let us remember that they are not our authority for what we believe but we do need to acknowledge the gift of teaching that the Lord gave them (Ephesians 4:11, 12). We, therefore, need to weigh carefully what they say and search the Scriptures to see if they are calling our attention to what the Word says.) “When Christians come together (i.e. as an assembly), there is an entire openness for such action as the Spirit may direct in prayer and singing, blessing and thanksgiving, reading, speaking (subject of course to the regulations of the Lord in 1 Corinthians 14). This is not at all the character of a Scripture-reading, whether stated or occasional, at a public meeting-room or in a private house. One point of value in it is to afford an opportunity for questions and explanations which would be out of place in the assembly. The nature of a meeting depends not on the fact of who are present, but on its aim and character. Thus, a lecture or a preaching of the gospel, like a reading-meeting, might have all the saints of a place present; but its own character is quite unaffected by such a circumstance. Nevertheless, a social character is, I think, desirable for a Scripture-reading, so as to make it expedient, as well as lawful for a woman to ask a question, if she wished. There are cases as when many men are present, where nature itself would teach her to prefer silence. 1 Timothy forbids not this, but teaching and the exercise of authority. Prophesying (according to 1 Corinthians 11, compared with 1 Corinthians 14) was lawful for women, not in the assemblies but at home; where, as I suppose, Philip’s four daughters exercised their gift unobtrusively and with decorum. So too, Priscilla, who with her husband helped Apollos in private.” —Bible Treasury – W. Kelly 1868 “Two things are forbidden to women, speaking in the assembly and teaching anywhere. This makes the matter to me very simple: silence in the assembly and never teaching. If a reading meeting be in a private house, and practically a private meeting, sisters are free. I believe that comeliness will restrain them where brethren are, but as in a private house they have the freedom of speech. The moment brethren assemble as such in the Lord’s Name, then their place is silence; also asking a question, may be, as you say, covert teaching. A meeting in the meeting room of the assembly takes more or less necessarily the character of a meeting of the assembly, if it is open for all to come. There are, if there be liberty, many things connected with comeliness which must guide us. `Doth not even nature itself teach you,’ says the apostle, and everything is beautiful in its place: the women had a lovely one in the gospels, and even in the epistles. They are found clinging around Jesus when the disciples were not, but it is their own place — devoted attachment to Him, not any public teaching. God’s order brings more progress than any superiority of intelligence. As to having faith to keep silent, I believe that trusting the Lord could make them to be silent when they fancied they must speak, but it is really a matter of decorum, not of faith. ‘I suffer not a woman to teach,’ etc. I believe I have answered all your inquiry as far as I am aware, and I trust the Lord may guide you in spirit and in heart.”—JND 1874 The emphasis on the statements from JND and W. Kelly are mine. I agree with the remarks above and trust that this may be helpful to others. A Sunday school class is limited to a smaller group, usually, and, I believe, would give more freedom to a sister to ask questions than in an assembly Bible study. Teaching anywhere is forbidden to sisters. I do not believe that this means that a sister cannot share with someone privately what the Lord has taught her through the Word. These remarks, I trust, give what I believe is the true application of 1 Corinthians 14. The statements above leave somewhat open the question of when and where a sister may ask a question. Certainly not in an open meeting. But how about some of our smaller Bible studies that do not include the whole assembly? I believe that the comments above about comeliness would make a sister to be prayerfully before the Lord before asking a question in a Bible reading. She should ask herself the question: “Can I ask my husband or a brother the question after the meeting?” Sometimes praying for the ones who are speaking may lead them to answer that very question in the meeting. May God graciously give us to “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love” (Ephesians 4:1, 2).—John D. McNeil [As you indicate in your question, the Bible study is not one of the four “assembly meetings” which are designated by the Lord with His use of the Greek word translated: “are gathered together” in Matthew 18:20. “Assembly meetings” are special gatherings of the Lord’s people as a local assembly. In these meetings the women are to be “silent,” that is, not to address publicly (1 Corinthians 14:23, 34). But the reason women do not participate in the Bible studies at the Iowa Conference is because the Bible study is one of many other public gatherings of the Lord’s people which the first epistle of Timothy instructs us about (1 Timothy 3:14,15). Of these public gatherings of the whole assembly, the “men [are to] pray everywhere.” Man is to be the mouthpiece for prayer in “the house of God,” and “the women” are to “learn in silence.” She is not “to teach” in these gatherings of the whole assembly. Literally she is not “to be a teacher.” Nor is she “to usurp authority over the man” (1 Timothy 2:8, 11, 12). It is not that women are not “let,” or allowed, to take part, as you say in your question, but that they desire to please the Lord by not doing so. They are fulfilling their place that God has given them in creation as “the glory of the man.” The woman also covers her head to hide her glory when “prayer or prophecy” is made in the assembly of God’s people. Thus she owns that man is “the image [or representative] and glory of God” when prayer and prophecy is made publicly (1 Corinthians 11:7). Man is God’s mouthpiece when prophecy is given, and man is the people’s mouthpiece when prayer is made to God publicly. For further information regarding “assembly meetings” or women speaking please contact In Touch.—Ed.]
If women are only to be silent during prayer, open meetings, remembrance, and assembly meetings for discipline, why don’t we let women participate in Bible studies at this Conference (Iowa)?
Answer: