1 Corinthians 11:2-16 (Female Prophets), Part 2

Prophecy and prayer

Plainly, the wives in the Corinthian church were speaking in the assembly. They were praying and prophesying. While we can easily imagine a silent prayer, silent prophecy is quite impossible.

To avoid this result, some Church of Christ commentators argue that this was not the worship assembly but some other event. And yet this passage is immediately followed by a discussion of the Lord’s Supper, grammatically linked to the passage on women:

(1Co 11:2 ESV)  2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. … [Discussion of what wives should wear while praying and prophesying.]

(1Co 11:17 ESV) 17 But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. [Discussion of the Lord’s Supper].

Paul plainly links the two passages, and indeed continues to discuss the assembly until the end of chapter 14. In fact, we see in chapter 14 Paul drawing conclusions from chapters 12 and 13 about how to engage in prophecy and tongues in the assembly. He brings up his lessons on the church as a body and on love as the greatest gift in order to teach the Corinthians how to conduct themselves in the assembly.

There is no evidence in the scriptures or in early Christian writings that the early church engaged in separate meetings just for the display of spiritual gifts. There are Pentecostal congregations that do that today, but this was not First Century practice. And chapter 14 plainly shows that Paul is discussing the same assembly in that chapter as he is discussing in chapter 11.

The women were praying and prophesying in the Christian assembly and in the presence of men. After all, if men weren’t there, there’d be no need to wear veils!

Prophecy

The role of prophet in the early church was one of authority. After all, prophetic speech was inspired by God! Thus, we read —

(Eph 4:11-12 ESV) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,  12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ …

We would consider apostles, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers as all having some measure of “authority.” Indeed, many congregations deny to women all of these roles for that reason, and yet in 1 Corinthians 11, we have women prophets speaking in the assembly, in the presence of men — and Paul lists prophets second only to apostles.

Moreover, Paul ranks prophets as second only to apostles in 1 Corinthians —

(1Co 12:27-28 ESV)  27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.  28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.

— in the same multi-chapter discussion of the assembly. And many consider the reference to “administrating”  a reference to elders. The root word refers to a helmsman or pilot of a boat — someone who steers the vessel. And yet these pilots of the church are subordinate to prophets.

Hence, it’s really hard to argue with a straight face that women may not have authority in the church or that they must be silent. I mean, they spoke in the assembly to “build up the church” (1 Cor 14:4).

When we get to chapter 14 (Lord willing), we’ll consider how to reconcile this teaching with 1 Corinthians 14:34, “the women should keep silent in the churches.” It’s obviously not an easy question.

But we can’t just wish away chapter 11. It’s there, and Paul shows no signs of discomfort with the fact that the women prophesied in church. And then in the next chapter, he declares prophets second only to the apostles. And then in chapter 14 he encourages the use of prophecy in the assembly (vv. 1-5). It’s not until the end of chapter 14 that he expresses concerns about the place of women. But we’re not yet to chapter 14.

“Head”

As you can see, regardless of how we translate kephalē or “head,” women prophesied in the assembly with Paul’s approval, even encouragement. The translation of “head” that we choose will change none of the facts previously considered.

Rather, the translation of “head” will speak to the proper relationship of husbands and wives, not men and women. Veils and uncovered hair are about wives acting as wives in the culture in which that church was situated. It’s not addressed to women in general, and we know that because Roman women were only required to wear a veil once married.

Everything that Paul says about veils and hair fits squarely within the Roman marriage culture, and his logic — as we’ll discuss — only applies to wives, not to women generally.

Examples

The presence of women prophets in the scriptures is often overlooked. None made the Table of Contents. But several are mentioned. I’ll limit the discussion to two:

(Luk 2:36-38 ESV)  36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin,  37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day.  38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.

Anna was a prophetess who prophesied in the Temple — a place of worship. And she spoke to everyone she could about Jesus — in the Temple. A place of worship.

One could argue that this was before the church was founded, and the rules changed. But if that’s so, then we can no longer argue from Genesis 3:16 that God gave men dominion over women or that there is a principle of male-spiritual leadership going back to Genesis 2. Because Genesis 2 and 3, if they apply, always apply.

(Rom 16:7 NIV) Greet Andronicus and Junia, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was.

Junia is a feminine name. (The -a suffix gives it away.) There is no Greek or Roman name spelled that way. “Junius” is a real Roman name, but not “Junias.”

Translators argue over whether she was “outstanding among the apostles,” per the NIV and NASB, or “considered outstanding by the apostles.” Neither meaning makes her the equivalent of the Twelve. Paul routinely refers to fellow evangelists as “apostles.” It would make her an evangelist of the same order as the larger circle of “apostles,” such as Barnabas and James the brother of Jesus.

The full phrase almost certainly means “prominent among the apostles,” rather than “outstanding in the eyes of the apostles” (see, eg RSV NEB, NIV, NJB, Cranfield, Kösemann and those cited by him).

The straightforward description “the apostles” (contrast 2 Cor 8:23 and Phil 2:25), and the following clause, together strongly suggest that Andronicus and Junia belonged to the large group (larger than the twelve) of those appointed apostles by the risen Christ in 1 Cor 15:7 … . That is, they belonged most probably to the closed group of apostles appointed directly by the risen Christ in a limited period following his resurrection (Paul himself being aborted = born early, in order to enter this circle of uniquely appointed apostles before it closed—“last of all as to the abortion” [1 Cor 15:8]).

This would give Andronicus and Junia a higher status in the eyes of Paul and of others—higher than the “(false) apostles” of 2 Cor 11:13 or the later wandering apostles = missionaries of Didache 11.46 (… and would include Andronicus and Junia within the select group of “premier” apostles (Eph 2:20), along with Barnabas (Gal 2:9; 1 Cor 9:5–6) and probably Silvanus (1 Thess 2:6–7).

James D. G. Dunn, Romans 9–16 (Word BC 38B; Accordance/Thomas Nelson electronic ed. Dallas: Word Books, 1988), 894-895 (paragraphing added; brackets in the original).

It is fairly clear from the New Testament that there was a wider circle of apostles than the Twelve, and it would seem that this couple belonged to that wider circle. … This couple were very early on the Christian scene, for Paul says that they were Christians before he was and his conversion must have taken place within a year or two of the crucifixion. That puts them among the earliest of all believers and makes it probable that they originally were Jews from Palestine.

Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans (Pillar NTC; Accordance electronic ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 534.

The honorific expression ἐπίσημοι ἐν τοῖς ἀποστόλοις should be translated “outstanding among the apostles” rather than “remarkable in the judgment of the apostles,” because the adjective ἐπίσημος lifts up a person or thing as distinguished or marked in comparison with other representatives of the same class, in this instance with the other apostles. The Latin equivalent is honoratus, the acknowledgment of the distinction and honor earned by another. … A striking confirmation of this interpretation is provided by Chrysostom’s comment about Junia: “Even to be an apostle is great, but also to be prominent among them—consider how wonderful a song of honor that is!”

Robert K. Jewett and Roy D. Kotansky, Romans: A Commentary on the Book of Romans (Hermeneia 66; ed. Eldon J. Epp; Accordance electronic ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), 963.

Whatever conclusions we wish to draw have to take into account all the evidence, not just the convenient evidence. And we’ll address 1 Corinthians 14:36 when we get there.