Why Does The Holy Bible Say This?

[Orthodox Andrew]

1 Corinthians 14
34Let your[1 (http://bible.gospelcom.net/cgi-bin/bible?passage=1COR+14:34&language=english&version=NKJV&showfn=on&showxref=on#footnote_587762005_1)] women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they are to be submissive, as the law also says.


And how does this apply to the Church?

[Philip]

It is my understanding (and it may be residual Protestantism) that St Paul was speaking about a specific situation.

The Liturgy in Corinth was conducted in Hebrew(?), but most women were not taught Hebrew. Unable to understand, some would disrupt the Liturgy by asking what was going on. So, in a sense, it does apply to the Church, but perhaps not literally.

[MariaRegina]

Dear Philip:

I was taught that Christ celebrated the Last Supper in Aramaic. In fact, the Syrian Orthodox Church still celebrates the Divine Liturgy in Aramaic. The Maronites may still do so, but most of them use English now herein America and some even use the Novus Ordo as the Maronites are Eastern Catholics.

I have never heard that the ancient Divine Liturgy was celebrated in Hebrew, but the early Christians would attend the Sabbath services (the praying of the psalms) with the Jews (and did so until about 70 AD), then they would go to celebrate the Liturgy of the Eucharist (the Breaking of the Bread) privately with only the Christians present. From what I was taught, that is why the Divine Liturgy has two movements: The Liturgy of the Catechumens and the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Gotta go to the university.

See ya later.

Yours truly in Christ,
Elizabeth

P.S. Maybe the OCA site has some information about this.

[Orthodox Andrew]

Well let's hope we can get to the bottom of this verse, because it's very hard for some people to swallow, particularly when they don't know it's meaning.

[Alfred M]

Pretty close to what the others have said, the commentary in the Orthodox Study Bible about these verses states,

"An early tradition in the Church is that women shall keep silent and not talk during the Liturgy. While they are permitted to prophesy they are not allowed to simply converse (see also Tim 2:12) With spiritual gifts (12:12-27), all are equal in Christ, while the order of the original creation remains in the new creation."

This tends to go along with the asking of questions as mentioned above because the next verse deals with the desire to learn something they should ask their husband first "AT HOME"... not while in the Church.

In the love of our Saviour and thankful that my wife has kept me closer to God than any other person in the world,

Alfred, a sinner