That Paul is but quoting the language of the Judaizers in I Corinthians 14:34-35 is in harmony with previous parts of the epistle. Again and again from chapter 5 on to end of chapter 14, it can be seen that he is replying to a letter of questions sent to him by the Corinthian Church. As can be clearly seen in the Conybeare-Howson translation, in instance after instance it can be detected that the reference to the questions is repeated whenever a new point is taken up. We need to remember that in the Greek manuscripts there were no capital letters to words, no quotation marks, and no punctuation such as we have in our English versions of the Bible. Professor Sir William Ramsey, the most widely accepted authority on St. Paul in the early 1900’s says “we should be ready to suspect Paul is making a quotation from the letter addressed to him by the Corinthians whenever he alludes to their knowledge, or when any statement stands in marked contrast either with the immediate context or with Paul’s known views.” Considering Paul’s views on the ministries of Priscilla, Phoebe and others referred to earlier, it is clear that Paul believed in equality of women in ministry.
Moreover, I Cor. 14:34,35, if taken totally literally, cannot refer to the Old Testament Scriptures when speaking of the Law for there is not one trace from Genesis to Malachi of any such prohibition of women to literally keep silent in the church nor is there a single word in the whole “law of Moses” dealing with the subject. Therefore the words, “it is not permitted” and “as also saith the Law” roust refer to some “rule outside of Scripture. There was no other but the Oral Law of the Jews appealed to by the Judaizers in the church in their efforts at that time to bring Christianity back within the confines of Judaism. The Jewish Oral Law did teach the silencing of women. The Talmud also taught that it was “a shame for a woman to let her voice be heard among men”. However, the Oral Law of the Jews is not Scripture. Again, the reference to the “law” is, of itself, sufficient to show that the Apostle who labored so earnestly to free the Christian Church from the very shadow of Judaism was not expressing his own conviction in the language attributed to him. Paul never appealed to the “law” for the guidance of the Church of Christ, but, on the contrary, declared that believers were dead to the law by the body of Christ” (Romans 7:4) that they might serve in newness of spirit and not the oldness of the letter (v.6).