Women participate fully in all aspects of meetings, except that they do not teach scripture in mixed gatherings. The two passages about women in the church are 1 Corinthians 14:31-39 and 1 Timothy 2:11-14. Look first at 1 Corinthians 14:
31 You can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. 32 The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. 33 For God is not a God of disorder but of peace – as in all the congregations of the Lord’s people. 34 Women should remain silent in the congregations. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. 35 If they want to enquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in a gathering. 36 Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached? 37 If anyone thinks they are a prophet or otherwise gifted by the Spirit, let them acknowledge that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. 38 But if anyone ignores this, they will themselves be ignored. 39 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy…
If women must be totally silent in church assemblies, verse 34 contradicts an earlier one in the same letter (1 Corinthians 11:5) about women praying and prophesying in gatherings that are evidently mixed. Female prophets are mentioned in Acts 21:9, moreover. The apparent contradiction must be resolved. Verse 34 goes on to state that women must not speak but “must be in submission, as the law says”. That is not the Law of Moses written in the Pentateuch, which nowhere states that women may not speak in mixed gatherings. This prohibition appears to have existed in synagogues, for Jewish tradition or ‘oral law’, written down later in the Talmud, includes multiple statements against a woman’s voice. The key is that Paul becomes sarcastic in verse 36: Did the word of God originate with you? Or are you the only people it has reached?… What I am writing to YOU is the Lord’s command. This makes sense if verses 34 and 35 are words that the Corinthians have asserted – presumably from Jewish converts – which Paul is quoting back at them specifically to refute. Verses 34 and 35 should be written in quotation marks. (Ancient manuscripts of scripture contain no punctuation at all.) Paul is refuting them in order to explain that women do not have to be totally silent.
What of the second passage, 1 Timothy 2:11-14? It reads:
11 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner.
Verse 11, when read with verse 12, means that a woman should not challenge the authority of the teacher. The Greek word for ‘quiet’ in these verses does not mean totally silent. A woman who disagrees with a teaching is free to say so provided that she maintains an attitude of respect to the (male) teacher. Next, verse 12 states that Paul, who was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, does not permit a woman to teach, in mixed gatherings at least. In the apostolic church, ‘teach’ meant ‘teach scripture’. The reason Paul gives shows that this is a general prohibition, for Paul cites the situation between the first couple. In Genesis 3, Satan singled out Eve to deceive, for Adam could have retorted “God himself told me not to eat from that tree” whereas Eve would have been wondering who the serpent was and whether she had remembered correctly what Adam had passed on from God. Instead of consulting Adam, she distorts the divine command and leads Adam – who should have known better – to break it. Independence from God began with these events. God’s resulting curse on Eve and womanhood includes this (Genesis 3:16): “You will desire-your-way [tshuqah in Hebrew] with your husband, but he will master [mashal] you.” The same construction appears shortly after in Genesis 4:7 when God says to Cain, “Sin desires-its-way [tshuqah] with you, but you must master [mashal] it.” So this much mistranslated phrase means that the woman will desire to dominate the man, but will not succeed. The Fall is the start of the unhappy ‘battle of the sexes’ in which woman undermines man and man bullies woman.
Men from a New Age/pagan background tend to convert wholeheartedly or not at all, whereas women are more likely to seek accommodation and pollute the church with syncretism. That is why they are not to teach in the church. In the Mind of Anglicans 2002 survey, 2/3 of female Church of England ordained priests who replied to a questionnaire did not believe without question in Christ’s virgin birth, 25% more than for men.
The apostle Peter recognises the same point as Paul when he says that a woman who comes to faith is not to win her husband to Christ by instruction but by showing him greater love, of which she becomes capable (1 Peter 3:1). Women are free, of course, to take part in the discussions of scripture that follow a teaching.
The question of women speaking has nothing to do with whether a service is taking place. The idea of a service stems from liturgy, which is not in the Bible but was introduced into meetings partly for pedagogical reasons. In a meeting in somebody’s home with no liturgy, there is not a clear boundary between social talk and talk for Christian purposes. It would make no sense that women must fall silent as soon as they enter someone else’s home, or even a room in their own home. Holy Communion was taken in home meetings according to Acts 2:46; imagine a meal at which half the people around the table may not give their testimonies, or say a word even with their husbands present! The boundary is clear, in contrast, between Bible teaching and other Christian speaking, such as prophecy.
The passage in 1 Corinthians 11 about head coverings is sometimes taken to mean that women should wear some kind of cloth over their hair in church assemblies (verse 5), and that men should not (verse 4). There is more to this passage than meets the eye, for Israel’s High Priest was expected to wear a turban in the Tabernacle (Exodus 28:39). Consider Paul’s words in the context of home meetings. In Mediterranean countries 2000 years ago, married women wore cloth coverings over their hair in public as a cultural norm denoting modesty, but in their homes their hair was uncovered. 1 Corinthians 11:15 states that a woman’s long hair is given to her as a covering over her head. So, provided that her hair is not as short as a typical man’s (11:14-15), it acts as the covering demanded in verse 11:5, and she need not wear any cloth over her head.