How (Not) to Read the Bible: Making Sense of the Anti-women, Anti-science, Pro-violence, Pro-slavery and Other Crazy-Sounding Parts of Scripture

by Dan Kimball

When we read these verses telling women to be “silent,” we should read them in the context of other things Paul has said. Paul cannot literally mean that women should be totally silent, because just a few chapters earlier in the same letter, he acknowledges (with no sense of disapproval) that women prophesied and prayed aloud in the church.† We also see Paul talking about both men and women (with no distinctions made) singing, praying, and sharing with each other in the church meetings. So unless Paul is contradicting himself in the same letter, he doesn’t intend for women to never speak a word. It must mean something else. In the same letter, Paul also writes about how God’s Spirit gives out spiritual gifts that are special skills the Holy Spirit provides, enabling people to serve the church and others. Yet we see no instruction that men and women should be using these gifts differently.* Many of the gifts he mentions would involve speaking in church worship meetings. Unless Paul is contradicting himself, the verse cannot mean for women to be totally silent. As mentioned in the last chapter, Paul worked alongside women who had leadership roles of influence in churches. He also refers to a woman who is very likely an apostle. This passage cannot be saying women must be “silent” in church, as these tasks involved some speaking. It must mean something else.