^ ï v v v v v v v vvvvvvv Light on Puzzling Passages and Problems By R. A. TORREY
■*£ *î**J4*î**4*■*■* *î**♦* *♦* *♦* ** ** ** *♦*
*;* ,;**»;■* £>:« * *;. *z* »;«»**>*:*♦>*>*4*■>C**»♦* *•*1* 41C4 *»* *> *• C*■>*Z* **Ç**t4*■♦* 44C*»t*»I** * *♦*S4*t4*î4 •t4»î4^ &
better instructed in the things of the Lord than Apollos, who was a man, took him aside and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly (Acts 18:24-26). And Paul in another place speaks approvingly of two women, Euodias and Syntyche, who labored with him in the Gospel (Phil. 4:3). How do you explain 1 Corinthians 14 : 34 : “Let your women keep silence i n ' the churches?” What is said in answer to the first ques tion largely answers this question, but the context here is different. It has been sug gested that the word translated “women” here should be translated “wives.” This would be a .legitimate translation, but the Greek word here used does mean “women” more commonly than “wives.” However the next verse shows that Paul had primarily the married women in mind. The full mean ing of this verse is determined by the con text as in the previous instance. There was confusion in the church in Corinth (v. 33) arising from several people trying to talk at once, and oftentimes to talk in an un known tongue (vs. 26, 27). There also seems to have been a tendency for the wo men to just talk in meeting, asking questions of one another and talking to one another while others were prophesying or interpret ing. Paul sent word that this thing should end; that the women should keep silence during meeting and not be talking and in terrupting and asking questions; that there should be order in the churches, and that everything should be done decently and in order (v. 40), that if the women didn’t understand what was said, let them quietly and modestly wait until they got home and ask their husbands there (v. 35); that it was a disgraceful thing for a woman to talk in Church. •He also gives instructions, to the same end of maintaining order in the
How do you explain iTim. 2 : 12 : “But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, hut to he in si lencef" The Revised Version gives the meaning more plainly: “But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness.” The meaning of the passage is determined by the words used and by the context. Paul is giving instruc tions for the conduct of different classes of individuals in the Church. He first gives instructions as to what the men should do (v. 8), then what the women should do (vs. 9-15), and then what a bishop should do (v. 3:1), and so on. He has evidently in mind, from the context, married women (note vs. 13-15). Paul’s thought for wo men generally was that they should marry, though he sets forth elsewhere the excel lence of an unmarried life for some of them. And the general teaching is that a woman's position is that of subjection or subordina tion to the husband (see vs. 11, 13 and 14). He elsewhere teaches along the same line that the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church (Eph. 5:22, 23), and this verse also sets forth the thought that the man should be the one in authority in the home and not the woman; that the man should teach and not the woman, and that the man should have dominion over the woman, and not the woman over the man. However, the passage does at least imply that the woman should not have the place of authority in the Church, though it does not forbid her teach ing the truth, or giving her testimony for Christ. Paul, himself, elsewhere gives in structions just how the woman should prophesy, if she has the gift of prophecy (1 Cor. 11:4, 5), and the Holy Spirit records with approval that Priscilla, a wo man, as well as Aquila, her husband, being
Made with FlippingBook - Online catalogs