Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · 7. Social Worlds of the Text
1 Corinthians 14:34-35 — the silencing of women
In short
- 1.Three chapters earlier Paul assumes women pray and prophesy aloud in the assembly (1 Cor 11:5).
- 2.Some Latin manuscripts place verses 34-35 after verse 40, not after verse 33.
- 3.Displacement across manuscripts is a classic sign of a marginal note absorbed into the text.
- 4.Removing the verses leaves a smoother argument about prophecy running through the chapter.
The claim being examined
Paul is read as commanding that women keep silent in the churches.
The Islamic position
The passage sits awkwardly in its context and moves position in the manuscripts — a marker of , and a caution against reading any ancient text's gender rules as timeless.
Analysis
Ehrman's chapter 7 argues that the arguments early Christians were having — about women, about Jews, about pagan critics — left marks on the wording of the New Testament. The Corinthians passage is his leading example: it contradicts 11:5, it moves around in the manuscripts, and the passage reads better without it. He notes that not every scholar accepts it as an (wording a later copyist added), and you should say that when you use it.
From the Qur'an
إِنَّ ٱلْمُسْلِمِينَ وَٱلْمُسْلِمَـٰتِ
inna l-mus'limīna wal-mus'limāti
Indeed, the Muslim men and Muslim women…
From the Bible
Sources
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