Paul’s two comments about silence are actually consistent, then, with the story and plot of the Bible. Women, who have always been gifted by God to speak for God and lead God’s people, were doing those things in Paul’s churches. But women who had not yet learned Bible or theology or had not yet learned to live a Christian life were not to become teachers until they had learned orthodox theology. What drives 1 Corinthians 14 and 1 Timothy 2 is a principle that much of church tradition has nearly smothered when to comes to women: “learning precedes teaching.”
