Matthew Poole and continuators on 1 Corinthians 14:34
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1 Corinthians14:34
34 Let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience: as also saith the Law .
This Rule must be restrained to ordinary Prophesyings: For certainly, if the Spirit of Prophecy came upon a Woman in the Church, she might speak. Anna, who was a Prophetess, in the Temple, gave thanks to the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for Redemption in Israel: and I cannot tell how Philips Daughters prophesied, if they did not speak in the presence of many, Acts 21.9. The reason that is given, why women should keep silence, is, because they are commanded to be in obedience. This Apostle speaketh much the same thing, 1 Tim. 2.11, 12. because it looked like an usurping authority over the man; which indeed is true, if it had been the ordinary practice of women to speak in the Assemblies of the Church; but not so, if some particular women sometimes spake upon an extraordinary impulse or impression. The Law to which the Apostle here refers, is thought to be that, Gen. 3.16. where the woman is commanded to be subject to her husband, and it is said, that he should rule over her: yet that Law did neither restrain Miriam from prophesying, Exod. 15.20. nor yet Huldah, to whom Iosiah himself sent, 2 Chron. 34.22. of whom it is also said, That she dwelt in the Colledge; but setting aside that extraordinary case of a special Afflatus, it was doubtless unlawful for a woman to speak in the Church.
Marginal references: Chap. 11.3. Eph. 5.23. Col. 3.18. 1 Pet. 3.1.
Matthew Poole and continuators, Annotations upon the Holy Bible, 1 Corinthians 14:34. Public domain.
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