Does 1 Corinthians 11:5 Permit Women Preachers?
Some people teach that the praying and prophesying the women were doing in 1 Corinthians 11:5 took place during the worship service. However the text doesn’t say that. Perhaps Paul is talking of prayer and prophecy in general. It’s not until verse 18 that Paul first speaks in this chapter of the formal gathering of the church: “First of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there are divisions among you. ” Prior to verse 18 he apparently hasn’t been talking about the worship service. In verse 5 Paul is perhaps speaking of women praying and sharing the Word of God in a home Bible study or family prayer time. His point is that whenever Christians get together, women are to maintain the decorum of submission, and men that of headship. If a woman is veiled when she prays or speaks the Word of God, she attests to her womanhood, and affirms her role of submission to her husband. She is acknowledging that man is the image and glory of God and she is the glory of man (v. 7). Ma
