<p>21:9 <i>Now this man had f<em>our virgin daughters who prophesied- </em></i>This is surely intended to recall the prophecy of Joel, that this kind of thing would happen in the last days. The prophecy has already been quoted in Acts 2. Yet it speaks clearly of the last days. Again we see that from God's side, He had enabled the last days and establishment of the Kingdom on earth in the first century. But it was a lack of response by natural and spiritual Israel which led to the major delay until our last days.</p><p>Understanding Corinth ecclesia as a series of house churches explains Paul&rsquo;s comment to the Corinthians that he ordained his guidelines to be practiced in all the ecclesias (1 Cor. 7:17)- i.e. the house churches that comprised the body of Christ in Corinth. He gives some guidelines for behaviour that appear to contradict each other until we perceive the difference between the commands to house groups, and commands about the &lsquo;gathering together&rsquo; for special breaking of bread services. The role of women is a classic example. 1 Cor. 14:34 says that women should keep silent &lsquo;in ecclesia&rsquo; AV &ldquo;churches&rdquo; is a mistranslation- i.e. a sister shouldn&rsquo;t teach at those special breaking of bread meetings when the house churches &lsquo;came together&rsquo; (1 Cor. 11:17,18,20). And yet within the house groups, it&rsquo;s apparent from other New Testament accounts and from what Paul himself writes, that sisters did teach there (1 Cor. 11:5). Thus in the house church of Philip, there were four women who &lsquo;prophesied&rsquo;, i.e. spoke forth the word of God to others (Acts 21:8,9). This to me is the only way to make sense of Corinthians- otherwise Paul appears to be contradicting himself.</p>