Q.-1 Cor. 11:5. Does it imply that in apostolic days women prayed and prophesied in public? Compare Acts 1:14; 2:17, 18; and 21:9. V. L.
A.-It is in ver. 18, that we hear of “in public” or in assembly. The early verses of the chapter treat of decorum in females. Wherever they might pray or prophesy, they were bound to walk in the subordination of God's order. But 1 Cor. 14:34, 35, enjoins imperatively silence on the women in the assemblies. It is not permitted to them to speak. They are to be in subjection, as the law also says. If they wish to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the assembly. Compare too 1 Tim. 2:11-14. It is likely that among other disorders Corinthian women spoke in the assembly: if so, the apostle put an end to it. Yet women might prophesy, as Philip's daughters in their father's house, and even then with careful decorum of subjection even outwardly marked. It is certain that they were charged to keep silence in the assemblies of the saints.