Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin
Commentary on the Corinthians
1 Corinthians 14:34-40
1 Corinthians 14:34-40 34. Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.
34. Mulieres vestrae in Ecclesiis taceant; non enim permissum est ipsis loqui, sed subiectae sint, quemadmodum et Lex dicit.
35. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church.
35. Si quid autem velint discere, domi maritos suos interrogent: turpe enim est mulieribus in Ecclesia loqui.
36. What? came the word of God out from you? or came it unto you only?
36. An a vobis sermo Dei profectus est, aut ad vos solos pervenit? 37. If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.
37. Si quis videtur sibi propheta esse aut spiritualis, agnoscat, quae scribo vobis, Domini esse mandata.
38. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. 38. Si quis autem ignorat, ignoret. 39. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.
39. Itaque, fratres, aemulamini prophetiam, et linguis loqui ne prohibeatis.
40. Let all things be done decently and in order. 40. Porro onmia decenter et ordine fiant. It appears that the Church of the Corinthians was infected with this fault too, that the talkativeness of women was allowed a place in the sacred assembly, or rather that the fullest liberty was given to it. Hence he forbids them to speak in public, either for the purpose of teaching or of prophesying. This, however, we must understand as referring to ordinary service, or where there is a Church in a regularly constituted state; for a necessity may occur of such a nature as to require that a woman should speak in public; but Paul has merely in view what is becoming in a duly regulated assembly.
34. Let them be in subjection, as also saith the law. What connection has the object that he has in view with the subjection under which the law places women? "For what is there," some one will say, "to hinder their being in subjection, and yet at the same time teaching?" I answer, that the office of teaching 877 is a superiority in the Church, and is, consequently, inconsistent with subjection. For how unseemly a thing it were, that one any suspicion as to Churches thoroughly reformed."
877"D'enseigner ou de prescher;" — "Of teaching or of preaching."