Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
1 Corinthians 14:26-40, Order when the church meets
Paul regulates a meeting where everyone brings a hymn, a teaching, a revelation or a tongue: speakers take turns, prophets weigh one another's words, women are to be silent and ask at home, and everything is to be done decently and in order.
1 Corinthians 14:26-40, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul brings order to a gathering where many members contribute a song, teaching, revelation or tongue, insisting that everything must build the church up. Tongues speakers take turns and need an interpreter, prophets speak two or three at a time while others weigh their words, and a speaker gives way when someone else receives a revelation, because God is a God of peace. He tells women to keep silent and ask their husbands at home, a command whose scope is much debated, and ends by calling for decency and good order in all of it.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/house-churches\/","n":"House churches","s":"For their first three centuries Christians met in homes, the way some Jewish groups and private clubs did. A host with a large house gave the church its room, its table and often its protection.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/synagogue\/","n":"The synagogue","s":"The local gathering place where Jews met on the Sabbath to pray and study Scripture. It was also a community center, run by people of standing.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/spirit-of-prophecy\/","n":"The Spirit of prophecy","s":"Jews of Jesus' day linked God's Spirit above all with prophecy. Many believed the prophets had fallen silent long ago, and they looked for the day God would pour out his Spirit again.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/women-in-public\/","n":"Women in public","s":"Custom kept unrelated men and women apart in public. Teachers warned men against talking much with women, a stranger was not to speak with a woman alone, and a woman's word counted for little in court. Most women were also taught far less than men, so a call for women to learn stood out.","r":""}
The house churches probably held at most about fifty people (Keener and his notes). Order mattered in lectures and assemblies; among the Essenes one needed permission to speak (Keener and his notes). Many Greeks linked inspiration with the frenzy of possession and thought it could not be controlled, while Paul treats it as something a prophet can govern (the cultural backgrounds article Prophecy in Antiquity; Keener). Verses 34-35 are read in several ways. Keener notes that "Informed listeners customarily asked questions during lectures", that unlearned questions were thought rude, and that women had far less training, so he reads Paul as stopping disruptive questions while giving wives private instruction. Bailey reads the verb as chatting: women with little Greek talking among themselves during worship. Keener also reports the view that Paul quotes a Corinthian position and answers it in verse 36; the cultural backgrounds notes say the verses may be a digression on another matter of order. Fee argues that the verses were added later; Carson, Moo and Morris reply that some manuscripts move them after verse 40 but "not one omits it".
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on 1 Corinthians 14:26, 14:27 and 14:32, introduction to 14:34-35, and on 14:34 and 14:35
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Corinthians 14:26-40, 14:34-35 and 14:35, and article Prophecy in Antiquity
- Kenneth E. Bailey, Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes, section 4.7
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 9, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Text
