14:34-35 Is Paul only forbidding the women in Corinth speaking publicly in the church here or does this apply to all women in the church in all ages?

Paul is dealing with the disruption of worship by women in the church in Corinth here. He is not forbidding them exercising spiritual gifts, otherwise he would be contradicting what is taught elsewhere in scripture (CP Ac 2:17-18 (Joel 2:28-29); 21:8-9; 1Cor 11:5, 13).

Paul is forbidding wives in particular disrupting the service in 1Cor 14:34-35, by talking over the top of their husbands and asking questions which could more appropriately be asked of their husbands at home.

The women were obviously out of control, having no regard for their husband's headship over them, because Paul had to rebuke them for not being submitted to their husbands as God had commanded after the fall (CP 1Cor 14:35 with Gen 3:13-16; 1Cor 11:2-10; Eph 5:22-24; Col 3:18; Tit 2:5; 1Pe 3:1).

The Corinthians - both men and women - behaved as though God's word started and finished with them, and they were not accountable even to God for their behaviour. Paul rebuked them and told them that if they really were spiritual they would know that what he said was a Divine command that had to be obeyed, whether they liked it or not (CP 1Cor 14:36-38).

Although Paul was dealing with wives in particular in a specific situation in 1Cor 14:34-35, he was nonetheless laying down a principle of submission that is binding on all women, in all churches, in all ages (CP 1Ti 2:8-14).

Paul is dealing with the general conduct of all women in the church here. It has to do with church order and the position of men and women in church and work. In V8 Paul wants men, as opposed to women, to conduct public worship in the church.

Men here is from the Greek word aner, which refers specifically to a male person. In V12 he strictly forbids women holding any position of authority over men in the church. Women cannot be teachers to instil doctrine and instruct men.

They can teach other women, girls, and children (boys and girls), and they can assist their husbands in their ministerial duties (CP V11 with Ac 18:24-26; Php 4:3; Tit 2:3-5), but women cannot hold any position of leadership in the New Testament church over men.

This has nothing to do with the culture surrounding women in Paul's time either as many in the contemporary church teach to justify the ordination of women today.

There is no allowance in scripture whatever that allows God's word to be altered to suit the cultural changes in women that would justify their ordination to public ministry in the New Testament Church (CP Psa 89:34; 119:89; Mt 24:35 (also Lu 21:33); 1Pe 1:23-25).

God's word never changes - it is exalted even above His name (CP Psa 89:34; 138:2).

What Paul forbade in 1Timothy is still forbidden. Any claim that Paul's prohibition of women holding public office in the church had to do with the culture of the time is clearly refuted in the very next two verses in 1Ti 2 when Paul explained that his opposition to women in public ministry in the church is found in the original order of creation, and in the circumstances of the fall of man (CP 1Ti 2:13-14).

Women's subordinate role to men was not decided by Paul due to the culture of the time. It was established by God as part of His Divine order of creation.

Man (Adam), was formed first, then woman (Eve). Man was not deceived but woman was, and it is as a result of woman's vulnerability to deception and her subordinate role to man in the Divine order that prohibits women from exercising authority over men in the New Testament Church (CP Gen 2:18; 3:1-6, 13-16).

See also comments on Ro 16:1-2; Ga 3:28; 1Ti 2:8-15, 1Ti 3: 1-7 and 1Ti 3:8-13, and author's study Women and God's Order for the New Testament Church in his book Advanced Studies in the Christian Faith (Volume 1).

1 CORINTHIANS