The section in Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes on 1 Corinthians 14:33-40 (pages 409 – 418) is excellent. As it is illegal to copy it, I will try to give a summary of the most important parts.
Kenneth Bailey finds it strange that 1 Corinthians 14 should prevent all women from speaking when Paul has started this section on what women should wear when they are speaking in chapter 11. He also makes the point that in the early church there were prominent women like Priscilla, who, with her husband Aquilla, taught Apollos. Paul lived with them for a year. Would Paul turn round and stop her from speaking without a full explanation?
He also mentions Phoebe who he says held the office of deacon and most likely was a minister in the church in Cenchreae, the harbor of Corinth.
Luke was a companion of Paul on some of his journeys and he is the one who recorded in the Gospels the wealthy high-class women who funded Jesus and his travelling band. He also records the Song of Mary, Jesus’ mother. In Acts, Luke mentions Peter’s speech where he quoted Joel, “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy”. Kenneth Bailey recommends Thistelton’s book: First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC), as a very good guide on the whole of this topic.
Kenneth quotes Ben Witherington: “It should be recognized that what an individual says to correct an error cannot be taken as a full or definitive statement of his views on a particular subject.” Kenneth Bailey then goes on to say that the section on talking in chapter 14 must be correcting a specific error in the church in Corinth.
He believes the key to this is the perhaps found in the composition of the church in Corinth. It was a large cosmopolitan city with commerce flowing through it from different directions. Manufacturing was extensive and the workforce large. Greek was their only common language although many of them may have had only enough Greek to function in their work. Women may well have been at home with again only a little knowledge of Greek and the languages spoken at home would be numerous.
He says: “Added to this was the problem of accent. Often when a public speaker is functioning in a second language, even when the speaker is fluent, there can be great difficulty in communication due to accent”. When the speaker cannot be easily understood a buzz of chattering can break out when the audience ask each other what was said. He goes on to say: “The first verses of Luke’s Gospel are a single polished sentence of thirty-nine words. I am sure the wives of illiterate dock workers would not have been able to comprehend that sentence. A few Greek words , enough to buy food in the market, were likely the limit of their Greek vocabulary”.
Kenneth Bailey has had experience, in the Middle East, of teaching intelligent but uneducated women and found their attention span very short. He believes this may have been another problem causing the women to ask questions. In his experience, teaching in the Middle East, he has observed a university professor turning to write on the board and immediately there is a hubbub of speaking. Students are verbalizing what they have heard and this is quite normal.
Paul lists three groups of people who were disturbing worship. The male and female prophets are told not to all talk at once. The male and female speakers in tongues are told to be silent unless there is someone to interpret. The married women with Christian husbands are told not to ask questions during the worship and ask their husbands at home about what was said and be silent in church.
