THE SILENCE OF SISTERS

It is not only loyalty to the Word of God, or a consciousness of perils which history has shown to be far from imaginary, which compels us, at all costs, to enforce the Scriptures; but a sweeter motive wooes and wins – “that we may present every [believer] perfect in Christ” (Col. 1: 28), “giving honour unto the woman, as unto the weaker vessel” (1 Pet. 3: 7) - a sentence which holds in it the whole soul of chivalry; and no honour is so real or effectual as clearing her pathway, by eliciting her own glad obedience, into the heart of the coming glory. For an athlete “is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully” (2 Tim. 2: 5): the regulations for women, as also for men in their sphere, will decide the issue of their coronation: woman’s obedience is essential to her glory. It is lowliness, not publicity, which determines, for both sexes, degree of rank (Matt. 20: 26) in the coming Kingdom. And on the silence of sisters one regulation is outstanding and supreme. “LET THE WOMEN KEEP SILENCE IN THE CHURCHES: FOR IT IS NOT PERMITTED UNTO THEM TO SPEAK” (1 Cor. 14: 34); a Scripture so clear, so decisive, that no one doubts what it seems to mean: let us ponder, therefore, the explanations advanced to prove that it does not mean what it seems to mean - namely, the silence of sisters in the assemblies of God.

(1) It is said that the word here should be translated ‘wives’ not ‘women’ and that thus it is a rule for the married only. But the vast majority of women, as of men, are married: this objection, therefore, would give but little relief: the rule would still be binding on the vast majority of womankind. Moreover, if so, it compels the inference that while godly and mature matrons are enjoined to silence, girls in their teens (as well as mature unmarried women) may rise and teach the Church; a statement which has only to be made to be rejected.

(2) It is said that the word means ‘chatter’ and refers only to thoughtless or flippant interruption. But the word is used twenty-four times in this very chapter, and never once in the sense of ‘chatter’ or ‘interrupt’; it is used throughout of prophecies and inspired utterances; and once (ver. 21) of God’s own utterance. The Greek word exactly corresponds to our English word ‘speak’ covering all utterance, dignified or undignified. Moreover, the Holy Spirit has already said, - “Let the women keep silence”: the injunction is thus wholly unmistakable, for it is affirmed both positively and negatively.*

* “Some writers in England have even supposed that in chap. 14. Paul simply means to forbid women to indulge in the whisperings and private conversations which would break the stillness of worship. But it is impossible so to restrict the meaning of the word to ‘speak’, applied as it is in these chapters to all the forms of public speaking. Besides, the prohibition, if it had one of these meanings, should have been addressed to men as well as to women. What the passage forbids to women is not ill-speaking or ill-timed speaking, it is speaking; and what Paul contrasts with the term ‘speaking’ is ‘keeping silence’ or ‘asking at home’” (Godet).

(3) It is said that this is a restriction belonging to the Law of Moses, from which the Gospel has freed women. But Paul says, - “Let them be in subjection, as also saith the law”; that is, on this point, according to the Apostle, the Law and the Gospel are identical. Woman’s ministry in synagogue and temple was wholly unknown and forbidden; though as nothing to that effect is explicitly recorded in the Mosaic Law, the restriction has actually advanced in definiteness under the Gospel.

(4) It is said that the regulation was for Corinthian women, accustomed to loose habits, and educated in a lawless atmosphere. But the Epistle is addressed (1: 2) “to all who call upon the name of the Lord in every place”: “let the women keep silence”; and not, in the Church at Corinth, but “in the churches”. Timothy receives identical instructions (1 Tim. 2: 12) to rule church order wherever he might be located.

(5) It is said that these are rules confined to the miraculously gifted of the Apostolic Church, and are not applicable, therefore, in our uninspired era. But is it possible that women, through whom the Holy Ghost is directly speaking, miraculously gifted, are to be silent while uninspired women may speak freely? The fact, admitted by the objection, that the inspired are to be silent, overwhelmingly silences the uninspired; it is obviously women as women that are to be silent, whether inspired or not.

(6) It is said that Paul elsewhere (1 Cor. 11: 5) allows the woman to pray and prophesy, if covered. Obviously the gift of prophecy is for both sexes; but there is no New Testament example of a woman’s public prayer or prophecy: Elizabeth’s (Luke 1: 42) and Mary’s (Luke 1: 46) were private. Paul in the immediate context has been regulating the use of the prophetic gift and then says, - “Let the women keep silence in the churches” - that is, in public ministrations.* Even to Nature it is an act improper and unbecoming, and, in the eyes of God a disgrace – “for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church”; and that which is a shame in God’s sight now, cannot be other than a shame at the Judgment-Seat of Christ.

* Does the regulation cover public prayer also? It would seem so. This very chapter regulates prayer in the assemblies, - “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prayeth” (ver. 14): and then the Spirit says, - “Let the women keep silence.” Is not audible prayer a breach of silence? and is it not an assumption of some degree of authority in leading an assembly to the Throne? In 1 Tim. 2: 4, 5, the word for ‘men’ is man inclusive of woman: “God willeth that all men [all human beings] should be saved”; but in ver. 8 it is man as distinct from woman; “let the males pray everywhere.” So, moreover, Alford:- “The English Version (A. V.), by omitting the article has entirely obscured this passage for its English readers, not one in a hundred of whom ever dreams of a distinction of the sexes being here intended.” Even questions, which are no assumption of authority, are (ver. 35) forbidden. Collective singing (Col. 3: 16) is commanded.

(7) It is said that God has set His seal of approval on woman’s ministry, at least in evangelism, by granting conversions under her words. But nothing that can occur, not even conversions, can unsay what the Holy Spirit has said: only a rescinding order from the Spirit Himself, verbally expressed, can authorize disobedience. The kindred fact that conversions can occur under an unregenerate preacher is no Divine authorization of an unconverted ministry, but merely demonstrates that the life is in the Seed, not in the hand that sows it. The Word of God is liable to convert from any mouth. Moses may strike the rock, “rebelling against the word of the Lord”, yet the waters flow (Num. 20: 11 - 24) - for the Holy Spirit will flow forth to parched lips from the smitten Christ even when disobediently invoked.*

* One purpose of prophecy was the conviction of unbelievers (1 Cor. 14: 24, 25): nevertheless prophets, never prophetesses, are here named throughout; and women, whether prophetesses or not, are enjoined to silence. Whoever believes sane, catholic-hearted Paul to be guilty of sex-prejudice, a sex-prejudice which he has embedded deeply in Holy Scripture, not only tramples underfoot the doctrine of inspiration, but is spiritually incompetent to comprehend the Apostle.

(8) Finally - (and this exhausts the objections known to us; objections, we may add, never advanced, so far as we are aware, by front-rank commentators) - it is said that exceptional women have been raised by God above this rule. The answer is obvious. God is sovereign, and may make what exceptions to His own rules that He chooses; but we may not make them. And is it certain that there have been any such exceptions in this dispensation as will stand the searchlight of the Judgment-Seat of Christ? There is a Deborah in the Old Testament: there is no Deborah in the New. No female pastor, apostle, ruler, or evangelist – no head or teacher in any church except Jezebel (Rev. 2: 20) – is named throughout the New Testament.*

Very significantly, it is exactly at this juncture that Paul disappears, to make way for God. “What? was it from you that the word of God went forth? or came it unto you alone?” A universal rule, made by the Spirit for all churches is the only rule for a local church: a local assembly has no power to authorize its women to speak. For this decree is not an apostle’s judgment, or the collective wisdom of the Churches, or even the decision of all apostles and prophets: it is the personal command of the Head of the Church, and therefore is to be enforced on the consciences of all the saints with the full authority of God. It is an exceedingly impressive proof of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the universal Church that such an acknowledgment has always been made. “ This rule,” says Bishop Ellicott, “was carefully maintained, in the early Church: its infringement had a far graver import than might appear on the surface, and, as we well know, expanded afterwards into very grave evils”; and for eighteen hundred years the Church Catholic, with hardly a dissentient voice, enforced this commandment as of the Lord.

* As a woman may teach other women (Titus 2: 4), and also all under age (Col. 3: 20), but not men (1 Tim. 2: 12), except in private conversation (Acts 18: 26), she may instruct four-fifths of the human race, even - if it so happens - in the Albert Hall.

But the matter is graver still. The attitude of all inspired persons on this church regulation infallibly reveals the source of their inspiration. “If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet or inspired, LET HIM ACKNOWLEDGE” - as a test of the source of his inspiration – “that they are the commandment of the Lord.” It is most remarkable that the prophets and the inspired at Corinth, in spite of the deep church disorders, did acknowledge that this commandment was from Christ; for in his Second Epistle (1: 13) Paul says,- “We write none other things unto you, than what ye read or even acknowledge.” There are sisters true and devout, who now say – “The Spirit leads me to speak in public.” A spirit, perhaps, or more probably her own; the Spirit never: for the Spirit cannot contradict Himself, and what He means on this subject He has already said: the Spirit will always endorse the Spirit. No supernatural or woman movement since the Apostles has acknowledged these regulations as binding upon itself. Montanists, Camisards, and early Quaker Prophets; Theosophists, Spiritualists, Christian Scientists, and the Tongues Movement:- all have revealed their source (so far as they are supernatural, and so far as the supernatural in them is concerned) by maintaining that these Regulations of the Holy Ghost, for one reason or another, are not to be obeyed. It is one test whereby we can distinguish the Satan-gifted from the God-gifted: the status of woman is a fundamental barrier between Heaven and Hell.

Exquisitely does the Apostle sum up the entire relationship of the sexes. “Howbeit neither is the woman without the man, nor the man without the man, in the Lord”; the Christian Faith requires both, two halves of one whole, in which one is chief, joint-heirs of the grace of life (1 Pet. 3: 7): “for as the woman is of the man [in creation], so also is the man by the woman [in birth]: “the woman is the glory of the man” (1 Cor. 11: 7, 11). So the Holy Ghost is careful to insist with equal emphasis on two things - the husband’s love, the wife’s obedience (Eph. 5: 24, 25); for where these two are, there is the perfect home. As a woman herself has put it, tenderly and beautifully:-

Her seat is endless ministry: her crown

The need and worship of some man whose love

She o’er her pride and self-desire folds down

And sets in mastery her own heart above;

Her sceptre is a little child’s weak hand;

Her orb, humility; her mantle, prayer

Her right divine, to be, at Heaven’s command,

Man’s mother, mate, and help-meet past compare.