Restoring Order: Let the Women Keep Silent [*Read before you balk] (1 Corinthians 14)

Scripture reading – 1 Corinthians 14 

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* Please note that words and phrases in brackets are the author’s amplification.

1 Corinthians 14

Charity and Spiritual Gifts (1 Corinthians 14:1)

After encouraging the church to be loving and to exemplify the character of love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8), Paul urged believers to exercise their spiritual gifts in love. The apostle wrote, “Follow after charity [i.e., self-sacrificing love], and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 14:1).

1 Corinthians 14 focuses primarily on two spiritual gifts to be exercised in love (i.e., charity): the gift of languages (“unknown tongues”) and the gift of prophecy (not to foretell but to forthtell, meaning to preach and teach the Scriptures).

The Gift of Tongues (1 Corinthians 14:2-28)

Notice that the word “unknown” appears in italics throughout the chapter, indicating that translators added it to clarify the gift of tongues. Unfortunately, the phrase “unknown tongues” in the twentieth century inspired the Pentecostal and charismatic movements, whose leaders implied it was an “unknown” or heavenly language, essentially gibberish—sounds with no meaning. (Please refer to Acts 2 and our earlier study, where the words “tongue” or “tongues” refer to actual foreign languages, as in Acts 2:6-11.)

Paul declared that speaking in “an unknown tongue” [i.e., another language] was inferior to prophecy (for “he that prophesieth edifieth the church,” 1 Corinthians 14:4). In other words, the purpose of spiritual gifts was to build and strengthen the church, and prophesying and declaring the Word of God was greater than speaking in “an unknown tongue” (1 Corinthians 14:5).

The gift of tongues was a Spirit-enabled ability that allowed a believer to speak a language he had not learned, so that those of another tongue might hear God’s Word in their own language. Yet only the hearer who knew that language profited, while the rest of the worshipers could not discern what was spoken (1 Corinthians 14:6-12). The answer to that challenge was the Spirit-enabled gift of interpretation. Thus, Paul instructed that the one who spoke “in an unknown tongue” was to “pray that he may interpret” (1 Corinthians 14:13). (One fallacy among those who claim today to speak in an “unknown tongue” is the absence of an interpreter, 1 Corinthians 14:27-28.)

It appears that the gift of speaking in “an unknown tongue” was misused in the Corinthian church, and guidelines for its use were provided. Paul reminded the Corinthian believers that “tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not” (1 Corinthians 14:22). The unbelieving Jews were looking for signs of God’s work (1 Corinthians 1:22), and hearing God’s Word in a foreign tongue that pointed men to Christ as the Messiah was a powerful testimony. Furthermore, no one was to speak in “an unknown tongue” without an interpreter (that command alone eliminates those who purport to speak in tongues in our day, 1 Corinthians 14:27-28).

The Gift of Prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:29-33)

Unlike the gift of tongues, given as a sign to those who did not believe, the gift of prophecy [i.e., teaching and preaching the Word] was for believers’ edification (1 Corinthians 14:3-4). It was the greater gift (1 Corinthians 14:5, 19), and the early church had guidelines for its use. Only two or three prophets were to speak, and the teachings were to be judged (1 Corinthians 14:29), meaning proved and tested (1 Thessalonians 5:21; Acts 17:11). In a day when music, not the message, defines worship services, it is good to be reminded that the teaching and preaching of God’s Word should be prominent.

“Let Your Women Keep Silence in the Churches” (1 Corinthians 14:34-35)

Apparently, some women in the Corinthian church were unfamiliar with orderly, peaceful worship. Although the Torah does not provide specific instructions for women in public worship, it outlines duties for men. Women were included in sacrificial offerings and prayer, but the Corinthian women required stricter measures. Some women disregarded the established order and interrupted the teaching.

The command for women to “keep silence in the churches” was preceded by the warning: “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints” (1 Corinthians 14:33). Our Creator is a God of order, “not the author of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33a). He is a God of peace, not of turmoil and chaos (1 Corinthians 14:33b).

Unfortunately, the Corinthian church was known for its excesses, including women usurping men’s authority in the church (1 Corinthians 14:34-35). Women were not to speak in “unknown tongues,” nor prophesy (i.e., teach or preach) in the churches. Instead, they must submit to God’s created order. Eve was commanded to submit to her husband’s rule (Genesis 3:16).

Paul made the same point in his letter to Timothy, writing, “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. ¹² But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence” (1 Timothy 2:11-12). Paul’s instruction rested on two points: “For Adam was first formed, then Eve. ¹⁴ And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression” (1 Timothy 2:13-14).

Closing thoughts –

The Scriptures remind us that “God is not the author of confusion” (1 Corinthians 14:33a). Through the law, our Creator assigned specific roles in worship and leadership to men (1 Corinthians 14:34). Although women were granted certain privileges, usurping a husband’s role was not among them (1 Corinthians 14:35; 1 Timothy 2:12).

Paul desired a godly order in the church. Anything contrary to that order is not of God, who would have “all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40).

Copyright © 2026 – Travis D. Smith 

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