The Clue Hidden in Verse 35
We’ve been circling. We know the kind of silence Paul wants. We know the kind of speech he’s regulating. What we still don’t know is the thing that actually matters: what were the women doing?
Today Paul tells us. He doesn’t hint. He doesn’t leave a gap for two thousand years of guessing. In verse 35 he names the problem outright.
“If they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home.”
The word for “ask” is ἐπερωτάω (eperōtaō). It arrives holding hands with a second word, μανθάνω (manthanō), “to learn.” Put those two together and the fog starts to lift. They point, like a finger on a map, straight at the behavior Paul was trying to correct.
This is incredibly helpful. I am a student of I Corinthians 14 because it shows us Eklesia in its most raw and intimate form at the start of the church. Carl Jung had room for prophecy embedded into his psychology and it explains how prophecy was meant to be embedded into our intellectual, not just charismatic, pursuits.
One thing that should be mentioned, though is that in those days, the women and the men would sat opposite sides of the room from each other so if a woman was to ask her husband a question she would have to holler across the room and that would also cause a disturbance.
This is incredibly helpful. I am a student of I Corinthians 14 because it shows us Eklesia in its most raw and intimate form at the start of the church. Carl Jung had room for prophecy embedded into his psychology and it explains how prophecy was meant to be embedded into our intellectual, not just charismatic, pursuits.
Very well explained and very informative!
One thing that should be mentioned, though is that in those days, the women and the men would sat opposite sides of the room from each other so if a woman was to ask her husband a question she would have to holler across the room and that would also cause a disturbance.
That's an excellent point, thank you!