Dora,
Here at last is my take on something you brought up (sorry it took me so long to get back to you). Namely the discrepancy (or seeming discrepancy) between women being allowed to pray and prophecy with a head covering and not being allowed to speak.
NOTE: any verses I quote are from the NASB (New American Standard Bible).
You said...in response to my saying that 1 Cor 14:34 was clear about women not being allowed to speak in a church assembly...that it was not as clear as I proposed.
The ambiguity comes that earlier in the very same letter, Paul tells us that when women are praying and prophesying, they are to have their head covered, as a symbol of their submission to their husbands.
Some have tried to say that Paul meant when women are praying or prophesing outside of the congregation, but as you correctly point out, the letter is dealing with issues and matters of when the Corinthian church were meeting and worshiping. Also, the very gift of prophesy was for the church...
The context of Paul's instructions is absolutely essential to keep in mind to correctly correlate both women being allowed to pray and prophesy (which both involve speaking if done publicly) and Paul's instructions for women to keep silent in a church assembly.
For example in 1 Cor 14:35 women are allowed to ask whatever they want of their husbands whereas in 1 Cor 14:34 women are not allowed to speak. Why are they allowed to speak in the one verse but not allowed to speak in the other?
Because the context changes.
Paul's instruction allowing women to ask whatever they want of their husbands are to be applied in the context of the home. They can ask whatever they want of their husbands at home.
Paul's instruction about women not being allowed to speak on the other hand is to be applied in the context of an assembly of the church.
1 Cor 14:19 - "...however, in the church..."
1 Cor 14:23 - "Therefore if the whole church assembles together..."
1 Cor 14:26 - "...When you assemble..."
Now let's look at 1 Cor 11:5 and whatever context might pertain to those instructions.
In many circles the instructions about head coverings is assumed to be an assembly of the church. I say assumed because there is nothing definitive to indicate a context for those immediate instructions in the text at all.
Please note that I said definitive as beyond question and immediate instructions as in right around the instructions themselves which go from 1 Cor 11:1 to about 1 Cor 11:16.
The context for the application of the instructions about head coverings is simply not stated in the text.
Bear with me and keep reading if you think the context is what starts up in 1 Cor 11:17.
The context before the 1 Cor 11 instructions about coverings is a private home.
1 Corinthians 10:27
If one of the unbelievers invites you and you want to go, eat anything that is set before you without asking questions for conscience’ sake.
From there Paul talks of pleasing all men in all things in order that they may be more easily saved (1 Cor 10:31-33).
Paul then praises the Corinthians for holding on to traditions that he previously taught them (1 Cor 11:2) and then immediately goes into teaching about head coverings.
The next context that is mentioned is down in 1 Cor 1:17 and 18 which says...
But in giving this instruction, I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist among you;
A church assembling together again but is that context tied to the instructions about head coverings?
What does "this instruction" refer to? The instructions about head coverings or what comes afterward?
The Amplified Bible puts it this way...
But in what I instruct [you] next I do not commend [you], because when you meet together, it is not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you assemble as a congregation, I hear that there are cliques (divisions and factions) among you; and I in part believe it...
According to the Amplified Bible the instructions that Paul attaches to the context of a church assembly are those instructions which he is about to talk about NOT those on head coverings that he just finished instructing them about!
Here is what I believe to be a correct interpretation of of how 1 Cor 11 and 1 Cor 14 fit together.
Head coverings are to be understood as general instructions to Christians in the church. Not as instructions for how they ought to be in an assembly of the church but in general as to how they ought to be overall.
Women in general are to wear a head covering when they pray or prophesy and men not.
In part because of the angels (1 Cor 11:10). Angels are never not present (which would tie into the general context).
Whereas the instructions about women being silent in an assembly of the church in 1 Cor 14:34 and not speaking are attached to the context of an assembly of the church.
This interpretation allows both sets of instructions to perfectly blend together while not discounting or negating what each set says individually about head coverings or women being silent in the church.
Let me illustrate how this can be by stating a modern day example...
A professor at a college might tell his students that they can all contact their friends through their cell phones by text messaging them any time they want but that in the context of his classroom that they must turn off their cell phones.
It is in that same sense that women are to wear a head covering any time they pray or prophecy anywhere except in an assembly of the church where they are not allowed to speak.
Both set of instructions are true and both apply but apply in different contexts.
To say that women can pray and prophesy on the one hand (and thereby speak) does not invalidate the instruction for them to keep silent because each set of instructions is to be applied in a different context.
Personally I believe that the not speaking is in reference to not speaking prophetically or in any other way which involves expressing a gift of the Spirit through public speaking to the whole church as well as a general speaking out that would draw attention to what is being said before the whole church (thus women are told to ask their husband about things at home).
But whatever the exact nature of the not speaking is I believe that what I have said here is a perfectly plausible way to reconcile both the idea that women can pray and prophecy (which both involve speaking if done publicly) and Paul's command to not speak in an assembly of the church.
How else can one possibly reconcile the two sets of instructions?
If women can speak while praying or prophecying in an assembly of the church as long as they wear a head covering and if Paul said that they cannot then we have an irreconcilable contradiction in our Bibles.
To definitively say that women can speak with a head covering means we must assume that Paul could not have possibly said for them to be silent (unless we admit to a real contradiction).
To definitively say that Paul instructed women to be silent in an assembly of the church means we must assume that Paul did not mean they could speak with a head covering (unless we admit to a real contradiction in our Bible's).
Unless we accept that his instructions about head coverings were general instructions to be applied overall whereas his instruction about women being silent were only to be applied in an assembly of the church.
If we accept that then no assumption is necessary about either or. We can accept what Paul said about both at face value as perfectly true and perfectly plausible.
The context of 1 Cor 14:34 is crystal clear. The context of 1 Cor 11:5 is not clear at all and indeed is entirely missing from the immediate instructions about head coverings.
We do not interpret the clear by the unclear but rather the unclear by the clear.
Meaning that if the context is clear regarding when women are to be silent then the context of 1 Cor 11 instructions about head coverings (assuming the inference there is valid about being allowed to speak with a head covering) must be some other context in view of the lack of context in those instructions.
Carlos
